About This Film
Films about the “underground” fights of the spy agencies of North and South Korea have been one of the most significant trends of contemporary Korean cinema. It is interesting, however, to look at how a movie like that would be presented in 1954, just a year after the ending of the Korean War, when the animosity between the two Koreas reached one of its apogees. Han Hyeong-mo presents exactly that with “The Hand of Destiny”. Furthermore, the film presents the first onscreen kiss in a South Korean movie, an event which, reportedly, made the recipient housewives whose eyes were beholden to the screen to emit gasps during the infamous scene. (source: koreanfilm.org)
Synopsis
The story revolves around Margaret/Jeong-ae, a North Korean spy who poses as a cabaret girl in a Seoul parlor and Yeong-cheol, a poor student and day laborer, whom Margaret meets when the police accuse him of stealing her wallet. Instead, the woman decides to take him under her wing, buying him clothes and offering him money, in a rather obvious, but also quite dubious as to its purposes, seduction. Eventually, the two of them form a relationship that makes them both happy. The notion, however, does not last for long, since Margaret uncovers a very dangerous secret Yeong-cheol was hiding, which brings her two identities to a direct clash.
