Jagko - Mismatched Nose (1980)

The Story

Two Korean War warriors cross paths once again, 25 years on. But the ex-guerrilla commandant is vagrant and guilt-stricken, the ex-security cop’s a punch-drunk leftover from the War’s dirty home front, and both are locked together in the same psychiatric ward. Made under the Park regime’s 1970s ‘quality’ cinema rules, it seems at first like a familiar entry into South Korean cinema’s staple, anti-communist, North v. South spy thriller genre. But as old ideological manias won’t let go, we grasp that director Im Kwon-take is probing a deep, collective national tunnel-wound of historical memory.

Presented with the support of the Australia-Korea Foundation. Co-presented with the Korean Film Archive (KOFA).

“Jagko’s heroes are symbols of the enduring damage wrought by ideological strife… Today it stands as a humane and nuanced portrait of a man who committed what the military dictatorship considered the most serious crime possible: that of fighting for the other side. Having lived through the Korean War himself… Im Kwon-taek’s entreaty for peace comes across as unusually heartfelt.” - (Darcy Paquet, Far East Film Festival).

Jagko - Mismatched Nose (aka Pursuit of Death) is preserved and digitally restored in 4K by the Korean Film Archive KOFA.

Rating

Unclassified 18+

Duration

112 min

Language

Korean (English subtitles)

Cast

Choi Yoon-seok, Baek Gong-san, Bang Hie, Kim Jeong-ran

Director

Im Kwon-Taek