Piagol
피아골
A band of ‘red’ partisans runs up a mountain gorge under fire. We the spectators enter with them into Piagol – Pia Valley – at full speed, deep into the Jiri mountains. Their numbers will soon be reduced to a handful: captain Agari (‘big mouth’), his second-in-command Cheol-su, a few male adults, two women and a boy. This micro-society of revolution will gradually consume itself.
Piagol was one of only 15 films released in 1955. Hindsight suggests this year as the beginning of a Golden Age, at least a remarkable decade and a half, for film in South Korea. While the best-known products of the post-Korean War cinema would be predominantly melodramas and/or period films, Piagol attempted something more challenging: a historically informed, though still anti-communist, representation of leftist partisan fighters left stranded in the South after the main phase of the war ended in stalemate and the Armistice of July 1953 confirmed the bloody status quo. (MM)
Director: Lee Kang-Cheon
Writer: Kim Jong-Hwan
Producer: Kim Byeong-Gi
Cast: Noh Gyeong-Hui, Lee Yea-Chun, Kim Jin-Kyu, Heo Chang-Kang
Production Company: Baek Ho Production
Rights Holder: Korean Film Archive
Drama, War / 1955 / 110 min / CERT. U / B&W / DCP / Original Format: 35mm
Selected Filmography
The Son of the General (1968)
The Long Nakdong River (1963)
The Country Left Behind (1962)
Heartlessness (1962)
A Love History (1960)
Life (1958)
Beat back (1956)
An Idiot Adada (1956)
Arirang (1954)
