Souls Protest

Souls Protest
DVD cover
Chosŏn'gŭl	살아있는 령혼들[a]
Hancha	살아있는 靈魂들
Revised Romanization	Sarainneun ryeonghondul
McCune–Reischauer	Sarainnŭn ryŏnghondŭl
Directed by	Merited Artiste Kim Chun Song
Written by	Ko Won Kil Kim Yong Sik
Starring	Merited Actor Kim Chol Kim Ryon Hwa Merited Actor Ri Yong Ho
Cinematography	Merited Artiste Han So Yong
Edited by	Jong Yong Sim
Music by	People's Artiste So Jong Kon
Production company	Korean Film Studio
Distributed by	Mokran Video Korean Film Export & Import Corporation
Release date	2000 (2000)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	North Korea
Language	Korean

Souls Protest (Korean: 살아있는 령혼들; lit. Living Souls) is a 2000 North Korean film directed by Kim Chun-song.

The film is an epic dramatisation of a mysterious explosion sinking the Ukishima Maru, while it was on a trip to repatriate Koreans in the wake of World War II. The explosion ship sank 10 days after Japan surrendered to the United States on 15 August 1945. The film supports the Korean view that the explosion was deliberately set off by the ship's Japanese crew. It has been dubbed as "Korea's Titanic".^[1]

Souls Protest was imported to South Korea by Narai Film, a Seoul-based film trader, and was approved for release after five minutes of footage was cut which showed jubilant Koreans crediting Kim Il Sung with liberating Korea from Japanese colonial rule. The film was shown intact, however, for its Seoul premiere on 24 August 2001, the 56th anniversary of the incident. One survivor of the incident, Lee Chul-woo, said of the film: "I didn't like the propaganda stuff about Kim Il Sung... But the scene about the explosion was so real, and it is laudable for North Korea to make a movie about this incident."^[2]

Souls Protest was later screened at the 2003 Jeonju International Film Festival.^[3]

Notes

1. The South Korean spelling Korean: 살아있는 영혼들 is more common online. See dueum beopchik for details on this orthographical difference.

References

1. Parry, Richar Lloyd. "Asia Times: Korea rallys round Kim Jong II's 'Titanic' tale of slave ship sinking"^{[dead link‍]}. The Independent, 24 August 2001. Retrieved on 27 October 2008.
2. Choe, Sang-Hun. "Payment, film revive WWII ship tragedy" . The Seattle Times, 25 August 2001. Retrieved on 27 October 2008.
3. Kim Tae-jong. "North Korean Film on Tokto to Screen" Archived 22 November 2008 at the Wayback Machine. HanCinema, 12 April 2005; originally published by The Korea Times. Retrieved on 27 October 2008.

• "Korean Titanic Amazes Moscow And Hong Kong Audience; To Be Exported to West" Archived 10 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine. People's Korea, 25 July 2001. Retrieved on 27 October 2008.
• Rajpal, Minita. "North Korean Film Inspires Emotions, Questions" Archived 22 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine. CNN.com, 7 September 2001. Retrieved on 27 October 2008.
• Cho, Grace M.. "Voices from the teum: Synesthetic truma and the ghosts of the Korean diaspora". The Affective Turn, pp. 151–169. Duke University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-8223-3925-0.

External links

• Souls Protest at IMDb