About the Film
Life by the seaside on a remote island community is richly explored through the women's perspective in director Kim Soo-yong's 1965 classic “The Seashore Village”. The film, based on a novel and noted by legendary director Bae Chang-ho as being among his most favourite Korean films of all time, was selected as the Best Film at the Grand Bell Awards upon release.
Synopsis
On a quiet island by the East Sea, there exists a small seashore village whose inhabitants have lived there for several generations. The men go out to sea to fish while the women stay back to tend to the village and do the chores around the island. One such fishing trip is ravaged by a storm, which leads to the beautiful newlywed Hae-soon losing her husband at sea. The new widow joins the group of other island widows as she goes about doing her chores and diving into the sea to catch shellfish and such, aware of but ignoring the fact that she has caught the eye of Sang-soo, a young coal miner who lives on the island presently. Goaded by the teasing and taunts of the other widows, Hae-soon gives into her desire and sleeps with Sang-soo, which becomes hot gossip among the villagers. When her brother-in-law and mother-in-law hear about this, they decide to send Hae-soon away with Sang-soo for her happiness. But fate, as it turns out, is not nearly done tampering with Hae-soon's life yet.