The Journals of Musan

Feature film, Korea 2010, 127 min., Original with English subtitles

Seung-chul defected from Musan, North Korea and lives in Seoul in with his friend Kyung-chul. While his friend has quickly adopted to the capitalist logic in the South, Seung-chul struggles with his life; he posts flyers, gets beaten up by street gangs and works in a cheap karaoke bar. No matter how hard Seung-chul tries he keeps falling out of place. Meanwhile, his friend Kyung-chul sends money to North Korea through an uncle in China for North Korean defectors and makes big profits. Despite their different approaches to adapt Seung-chul and Kyung-chul both arrive at dead-end paths. What’s all the more disconcerting is that their friendship breaks apart as they must compete with each other for survival...