The Washington Times Reviews “Crossing”

Avoiding the melodrama of many South Korean films, “Crossing” is relentless in its detailed, docudrama approach. A cross-border trader and his family are seized by secret police in a midnight raid. Ragged orphans beg in destitute markets. Camp guards kick a pregnant woman in China in the stomach.

Kim Tae-kyun, the film’s director, said he did not retain Mr. Yoo, a high-profile defector, as a consultant for fear of creating a political incident while filming in China. Last year, Mr. Yoo was imprisoned there for four months after assisting North Korean defectors. Half of the film’s proceeds will go to help North defectors, Mr. Kim said.

Read the rest here.  Hat tip to a reader.

I’ll be interested in the South Korean street’s reaction to this,  but for obvious reasons, my outlook is absolutely bleak.  South Koreans will not flock to this film regardless of its artistic merit.  South Korea doesn’t even seem to operate in the same  rational and moral universe as I do.  Nothing can jar South Korea from its impenetrable selfishness, its denial of  what is  indisputable, and its  blind acceptance of urban myth as scientific fact.  One day, they will say they did not know, but to the extent they care even then,  they will find a way to blame someone else.