Burning Mountain (1967)

Compelling story about a village of widows and single women in war ravaged 1950s Korea

Compelling story about a village of widows and single women scratching out an existence in war ravaged 1950s Korea when one of the widows stumbles across a deserter in a nearby bamboo forest. The movie avoids taking sides in the war--there is barely any mention of North or South. Instead it focuses on the desperate plight of those left behind after their husbands and sons have gone off to war and the anxiousness of not knowing--and possibly never knowing--whether they are alive or dead. In one interesting sequence, the deserter daydreams in color about the school teacher's life he lived before the war. This was one of 10 movies that Kim Soo-yong cranked out in 1967 and despite the obviously low dollar production value, it is worth a watch.

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