Category

Category

Year Of Production

 1963

Length

 90 min

Production Company

 Korea Art Film Company

Producer

 Kim Ki-young

Director

 Kim Ki-young

Screenplay

 Kim Ki-young

Adaptation

Director Of Photography

 Gim Deog-jin

Production Design

 Bak Seog-in

Lighting

 Seo Byeong-su

Music

 Han Sang-gi

Editor

 Kim Ki-young

Sound

 Han Yang

Color/B&W

 B&W

Main Cast

 Gim Jin-gyu, Ju Jeung-nyeo, I Ye-chun, Seon  U, Yong Nyeo

      At a contemporary forum on birth control, an expert mentions the 'Koryojang' custom of abandoning one¡¯s parents in the mountains when they get too old to work.  Back in ancient times, Guryong's mother moves to a mountain village with her son to marry a man who already has ten sons.  The shaman predicts Guryong will kill the ten brothers.  They overhear and try to kill Guryong by contriving a snakebite accident.  He survives, but becomes lame.  Twenty years later, Guryong proposes to Gannan, but she rejects him because of his disability.  Guryong marries another woman, and only discovers she is mute after the wedding.  One of the brothers rapes her, so she kills him. The brothers encourage the villagers to punish Guryong's family for the murder.  Guryong's mother orders him to kill his wife to appease them, and he does.  Fifteen years later, the village is devastated by drought and famine, enabling Guryong to buy a lot of land for a few potatoes.  Gannan¡¯s husband makes her beg Guryong for

food.  Guryong's mother wants one of Gannan¡¯s young daughters as a future wife for Guryong, and she sends Yuni, whose face is pockmarked.  But Guryong kicks her out when she steals potatoes for her family.  When the shaman announces she needs a child-sacrifice to end the drought, Yuni volunteers.  As she dies she speaks in the voice of the spirit, saying that if Guryong takes his mother into the mountains to die, there will be rain.  Guryong¡¯s mother urges him to go ahead and to take Gannan as a wife, but he refuses.  Gannan's husband abandons his family to Guryong, so the ten brothers kill the husband and slur Guryong as an adulterer and murderer. When the shaman is about to execute Guryong and Gannan, Guryong's mother begs her to let them go if she goes to the mountain.  The shaman agrees.  After the Koryojang, an eagle devours Guryong¡¯s mother and it rains.  Fearful of Guryong's revenge, the brothers kill Gannan and prepare to fight him, but the shaman spurs him on to kill them.  In the

 middle of the massacre, one of them shouts at him that all the trouble has been caused by the shaman.  Guryong breaks off the attack, returns to the shaman, kills her, and cuts down her magic tree.  Then he leads Gannan¡¯s children out of the village, saying, ¡°Let¡¯s go sow the seeds.¡±

(Written by Kim Sung-Eun on the basis of viewing the film.)