A nice portrait of a simple man who is driven by fate to go from North Korea to the South, against his will and his struggle to rejoin his family. The movie concentrates on his agony to return to North Korea. His eagerness to reject every temptation of South Korea is his manner to protect himself from both the unknown pleasures of capitalism and also from the inquiries of his communist government, once he shall return. It's evident throughout the movie that it's mostly his family that he misses and not so much his beloved country. Even though the main character is doing his best to show to everyone -and mostly to the propaganda of his country- that he is a loyal citizen of the regime, it's quite clear that he wouldn't mind giving it up if someone could help him re-unite with his wife and daughter. However, since he realizes that this is impossible to happen outside North Korea, he is determined to do everything he can to go back. In that angle, the movie is more about personal feelings and family love, crushed in between two completely opposite cultures and lifestyles and in the end, I think that it succeeds to pass the message that emotions for the people you love are more important than ideology. Besides some easily foreseen behaviors of the main character and some rather quick passages of interesting moments that could make the movie better, the acting of the main character is superb and overall makes of the movie a very interesting picture of the situation in the Korean peninsula
The Net
(2016)
Beautiful portrayal of a man captured in-between two worlds
10 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers