A Coachman

Film

마부

From the moment of its release in 1961, A Coachman became a milestone in Korean cinema, the first film from the country to win a major award at an international film festival – Berlin’s Silver Bear Extraordinary Jury Prize. Even without these accolades the film would be a landmark, an apparently simple story of endless nuance and panoramic breadth.

The coachman of the title is an elderly patriarch lodged with his adult children while eking out the remains of a living at the reins of a horse-drawn cart. Amid the frantic modernisation of postwar Korea, the buzz of cars surrounds him and makes clear his future – but his real heartache is the fate of his family, trapped by their working-class origins in a society built on status and nepotism (his youngest daughter resorts to imposture as a member of the upper orders.) Centred on a glorious performance from Kim Seung-ho, A Coachman is a masterwork of class dynamics and family life, unsentimental but brimming with warmth. (DL)

Director: Kang Dae-Jin

Writer: Lim Hee-Jae

Producer: Lee Hwa-Ryong

Cast: Kim Seung-Ho, Shin Young-Kyun, Hwang Jung-Seun, Jo Mi-Ryeong

Production Company: Hwa Seong Films CO., LTD

Rights Holder: Korean Film Archive

Drama / 1961 / 97 min / CERT. 18 / B&W / DCP / Original Format: 35mm

Selected Filmography

Road to Peace (1984)

Madam Freedom (1969)

Love (1968)

The Stepmother (1963)