About the Film
To fully understand and appreciate the place of importance that Ha Gil-jong's “The March of Fools” holds in the history of Korean cinema, one needs to understand the tumultuous journey the film had. From the first draft of the script, written by celebrated and oft-adapted novelist Choi In-ho from his namesake novel, to the multiple revised resubmissions of the script, from notifications received while shooting to the submitted first trailer and even the final print, the film was hounded by the strict censorship at the time, which set to completely change the writing of Choi In-ho and the vision of Ha Gil-jong by removing anything that showed the Korea of the time in a bad light. So what was it about the film that had the censors so vexed?
Synopsis
The film begins with a group of underwear-clad youths being taken through various physical examinations for acceptance into compulsory military service. Amongst the group are best friends Byung-tae and Young-cheol, two spirited philosophy students full of life and dreams. While Byung-tae passes the examination with flying colours, Young-cheol, who develops a stammer when nervous, fails in almost every examination. Shortly after, one of their classmates announces the sale of tokens for an arranged blind date session with girls from the nearby women's university that he has arranged. The two boys get unlucky numbers 13 and 4 respectively and following a run-in with the law for their long hair, they arrive belatedly for their blind dates where Byung-tae meets Young-ja, a flirtatious girl who knows exactly what she wants in life and how to get it, and Young-cheol meets Soon-ja, who seems disinterested in him. The film then follows the two friends as they enter drinking contests, play soccer and hang out in pool parlours while they suffer from love and heartbreak, dream and hope, even as their dreams and hopes amount to nothing in a society oppressed by a strict military regime.