I didn't know what to expect from the film's summary. The first half of the movie is how he gets out and delivers the woman who is meant to be the 'big love' of an important older man (who by the way seems very sympathetic at the beginning but he becomes less and less while the story progresses). If someone yearns for 'heated conversations' between the main characters, then it will be a huge disappointment because the male character in lead doesn't say a word throughout the whole movie. I think there would too much to say therefore he rather remains silent. Anyway, after the woman is delivered, it turns out that the older lover boy is not as gentle as he seemed and she would rather return to North Korea. Unfortunately it never happens. The way the main character deals with the opposing parties is brilliant though and very comical. It is a very sad and desperate story of people who are forced into overwhelming situations and they appear to be 'chess figures' on a board without having any influence on their own lives.

Some movies depend on very preposterous premise you cannot believe easily, and "Poongsan", one of the latest South Korean movies, is a good case. How can he cross the border between South Korea and North Korea so easily? How can he go freely in North Korea while not noticed by soldiers? If you cannot accept this outrageous ability of his, then you will not believe at all what this invincible guy does to his opponents later in the story.

Fortunately, the movie has enough conviction to make me accept the premise and be amused by his activities throughout the running time. Starting as an art house movie version of action thriller, it eventually turns out to be both melodrama and, unexpectedly, symbolic black comedy on a long, destructive relationship between South and North Korea for more than 60 years. All factors do not work in its flawed screenplay, but it manages to keep our attention until it is stalled in a predictable plot progression during the second half, and it has a compelling character who, like other supporting characters, deserves a little better plot.

Like many heroes of the films directed by Kim Ki-duk, who produced this film and wrote its screenplay, the hero of "Poongsan", played by Yoon Gye-sang, does not say anything. His name is never mentioned. We do not know anything about him – his past or how he comes to do his dangerous job. He lives alone in a shabby place somewhere in Seoul, and he seems to content with his solitary. Only one notable thing about him is that he likes North Korean cigarette named Poongsan, a North Korean canine breed.

There are many families separated by the division between South and North Korea. They desperately want to know where their loved ones are and send their messages to them. He is the guy they need. For delivering the messages, he secretly goes back and forth across the border heavily guarded and monitored by the soldiers on both sides. He carefully crosses the reed and the river with some preparations, including covering his body with mud to avoid being detected by the infrared cameras. And, at the last step, this is quite outrageous, he pole-jumps over the barbed iron fence. Don't even ask me about how the hell he finds the people to receive the messages in North Korea so quickly.

Sometimes, he also brings the people to South. It is riskier than usual, but he seems not to mind about that, and he is ready to handle the unexpected situation when the troubles occur during his operation. Thanks to his services, his clients are happy to correspond with their lost family members beyond the border, while saddened by the lost years between them. In one poignant scene, an old North Korean lady only looks at the video camera without saying anything; her dying husband in South Korea is heartbroken by her silent image.

One day, he gets the attention of people from South Korean National Intelligence Service. They contact him because they want to bring some woman from Pyongyang. While pressed by them to write the report based on his valuable information(we never know what it is),a North Korean defect executive(Kim Jong-soo) under their protection demands them to bring the girl he adored, As soon as they ask him to deliver the girl, he instantly starts to work. He finishes his job within 3 hours.

Wait a minute, how that can be possible? Maybe we can accept that he is very, very good at locating people and evading the soldiers on the border, but, can you believe that he can go to Pyongyang and then come back to South Korea only during 3 hours? He does not even use the airplane – he just rides the bicycle or runs or walks. Is that really possible? Maybe he is a Korean version of Captain America, I guess.

This is a engaging movie from beginning to end, it starts out serious but adds a bit of black comedy near the end. The movie is about a smuggler that smuggles items and even people for the communist North Korea to South Korea as long as they are willing to pay for it. But during one of the smuggle mission to smuggle a woman from North Korea, within that short time period they end up falling for each other. And it goes from there, but if your looking for a movie with sunshine and rainbow this isn't for you. This movie shows the narrow mindedness of what hatred for one another can lead to. I like Kim Gyu-Ri as an actress and she played the role of being the woman being caught in the middle between the South and the North really well and was completely believable. I also think she pulled off the North Korean accent although she was born and raised in the South in real life. Sure there are parts that don't make sense sometimes, especially near the end but those are just small gripes when it comes to the whole thing. This is a depressing movie that will keep you thinking when it's finished and it's worth a watch.

7.6/10