Synopsis
Do-seong (Yoo Min) is a child monk who lives at a small mountain temple with the head monk (Byeon Ki-jong), learning the teachings of Buddha. He becomes attached to a young widow (Choi Eun-hee) who comes to pray at the temple, and the childless widow entreats the head monk to let her raise Do-seong as her own son. Conflict ensues when Do-seong__APOS__s real mother (Kim Seon-young) appears, but she leaves the temple for the sake of her son__APOS__s future. On the day the widow is to take the child down from the mountain, the head monk discovers that Do-seong has killed a bird by ensnaringit in a trap and decides not to let the boy go into the secular world. When Do-seong finds out that his real mother has been to the temple, he sets out to find her.
Notes
__QUOTE__A film that has garnered recognition for its cinematography and direction by eliminating sentimentality and unaffectedly capturing the quiet life of a mountain temple. A Hometown in Heart demonstrates the camera technique and directorial skill of movies that appeared after the liberation of Korea.__QUOTE__
A Hometown in Heart, adapted from playwright Ham Se-deok__APOS__s A Little Monk (Dong-seung), was hailed upon its release as __QUOTE__a masterpiece that marked a new pinnacle in Korean moviemaking after the liberation.__QUOTE__ Eschewing new-school sentimentality to quietly express a boy__APOS__s longing for maternal love, the film unfolds the everyday lives of three generationsthe head monk, a young monk, and a little child monkagainst the backdrop of a quiet temple in the mountains. The long shots utilized by director of cinematography Han Hyung-mo to capture the beautiful scenery of the mountain temple from a distance received great critical acclaim at the time. Also, each of the film__APOS__s characters is convincingly portrayed through the skillful direction of Yoon Yong-kyu. In particular, the scene which expresses Do-seong__APOS__s desperate yearning for a mother__APOS__s love and his birth mother__APOS__s past visit to the temple by combining them into a dream sequence reveals deep consideration for articulating story and emotion via a compressed visual grammar without tending toward sentimentalism. The movie__APOS__s final scene, in which Do-seong awakens from his dream and sets off down the path in search of his mother, is both touching and beautiful. The film also features Choi Eun-hee, in the part of the young widow who warmly embraces Do-seong with her love, in one of her first roles.
Afterword:
- Lee Kang-su, writing under the pseudonym of Kwak Il-byeong, first adapted playwright Ham Se-deok__APOS__s A Little Monk (Dong-seung) into a screenplay, which was then shot for the silver screen with additional embellishments by the director.
