Silmido (film)

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Silmido
Directed by Kang Woo-suk
Produced by Jonathan Kim
Written by Kim Hie-jae
Distributed by Cinema Service
Release date(s) December 24, 2003 (South Korea)
Running time 135 min.
Country South Korea
Language Korean
Budget $8,000,000 US (est.)
IMDb profile
Korean name
Hangul 실미도
Hanja 實尾島
Revised Romanization Silmido
McCune-Reischauer Silmido

Silmido is a 2003 South Korean film directed by Kang Woo-suk. It is loosely based on a military uprising from the island of Silmido in the 1970s. At the end of its run, the film was the most watched film ever in South Korea, and the first film to attract an audience of 10 million viewers in the country. The film Taegukgi later broke its record in 2004, and then The King and the Clown with additional 2 million in 2006.

Contents

[edit] Plot

On January 31, 1968, 31 commandos from North Korean Special Unit 124 infiltrated South Korea in a failed mission to assassinate President Park Chung-hee.

As a means of retaliation, the South Korean military assembled a team of 31 social outcasts and death/life criminals, training them on the island of Silmido, off the coast of Incheon, in order to execute Kim Il-sung. The mission, regarded a suicide mission, was seen as the only way for these new recruits to redeem themselves and show their loyalty to their country. If they succeeded, they would win their freedom and a new life. With this goal in mind, they endured gruelling, almost inhumane training, becoming finely honed killing machines.

In October 1968, at the end of their training, they were dispatched on their mission to the North, but were recalled not long after their departure due to mysterious orders from above. The project was called off, and they returned to Silmido discouraged and frustrated. This frustration led two squad members to go AWOL and rape a female doctor who lived relatively nearby; they were discovered, surrounded by military, and realizing their fate, attempted mutual suicide. One man was killed in this, the other injured. The latter was then returned to the camp on Silmido and strung up, alive, as an example while his fellow squad members were beaten by the troops for the two men's betrayal. One member snapped, charging to the front and killing the strung-up man. Meanwhile efforts continued to negotiate peaceful reunification between the two Koreas, rendering the squad all but useless.

To keep the top-secret, dirty project unknown to the outside world, the South Korean intelligence agency decided to "eliminate" the squad. The commander, outraged, is then told that if his troops fail to follow this order, they too will be killed. Torn between his duty to follow orders and his personal honor, the commander intentionally leaked this information. As one high-level officer is sent away from the island for his unwillingness to participate, the squad realizes that they are to be killed that same night, and lays a plan to fight back. They kill their trainers, and then after being told the truth of the mission - that they legally no longer exist, and thus would neither receive recognition for their mission if it succeeded, nor even be allowed to return to society - decide to escape from the island and make their story known. On August 23, 1971, the 20 remaining members of the squad captured a bus and commandeered it for Seoul. An official pronouncement is made through the media that 20 "armed communist agents" had infiltrated the country, and a state of emergency was declared. Eventually they are stopped by army roadblocks and fired on. Realizing their plight, the men proceed to engage in mutual suicide, all throwing their hand grenades into the middle of the bus. The aforementioned high-level officer learns of what is happening and tries to call back the army, but fails. Later, an investigation is carried out and the resulting report filed away, unread.

[edit] Historical inaccuracies and reception

The so-called Unit 684 was not composed of criminals and outcasts similar to the Hollywood movie The Dirty Dozen (1967). Instead, they were elite South Korean special forces troops. This dramatization enraged the soldiers' living family members in South Korea. (Whether they were elite South Korean troops is subject to some debate. Other ostensible participants have indicated that convicts and poor citizens were, in fact, recruited. The available evidence is not clear--certainly more verifiable data on this point is needed.)

Silmido can be seen in the bottom-left corner of this map.
Silmido can be seen in the bottom-left corner of this map.

Silmido (37.40 N, 126.39 E) is a small barren island west of Muuido (무의도, 舞衣島) off the west coast of Incheon. It is no more than 50 km (30 mi) from the North Korean border and only 5 km (3 mi) from the Incheon International Airport opened in 2001.

[edit] Cast

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Friend		 Top box office of Korea
2003-2004		 Succeeded by
Taegukgi