줄거리

임권택 Im, Kwon-taek│Korea│1980│110min│Color│35mm

한 행려 노인이 갱생원으로 보내진다. 그는 빨치산 부대를 토벌하는 전투경찰이었던 송기열이다. 갱생원 합숙소에서 그는 평생 동안 추적하던 백공산, 일명 짝코를 발견한다. 송기열은 악명 높은 빨치산 부대장 짝코를 압송하다 놓쳐 제복을 벗어야 했고, 가정도 유지하지 못했다. 송기열은 짝코에게, 갱생원을 탈출해 자기를 파면한 상사와 자살한 아내에게 무고를 해명해달라고 한다. 둘은 합숙소를 탈출하지만, 짝코가 더 이상 못 가겠다고 버티자 몸싸움을 벌인다. 지나던 경찰이 ‘망실공비’라는 말을 알아듣지 못하자, 송기열은 크나큰 허탈감에 빠진다. 우수반공영화상을 받는 등 1970년대에 양산된 반공영화 계보에 속하면서도 반공 이데올로기의 허망함을 역설적으로 나타내는 감독 특유의 ‘냉소적 아이러니’가, 힘 있는 미장센과 더불어 시대의 풍경을 직시하게 한다.

A homeless old man is sent to a rehabilitation center. He is Song Gi-yeol who was a combat policeman for liquidating Communist guerillas during the Korean War. At the rehabilitation center, he finds Baek Gong-san, nicknamed “Chakko,” whom he devoted his life to tracking down. In the past, Song Gi-yeol accidently lost Chakko, a notorious Communist guerilla, while transporting him. As a result, Song was kicked off by the police and his family suffered a breakdown. Song asks Chakko to escape from the rehabilitation center with him to clear his name for his boss who fired him and his wife who killed herself. The two escape from the center but when Chakko doesn’t want to go further they fight with each other on the street. When a policeman does not understand Song's explanation that Chakko is an escaped North Korean guerilla Song feels very despondent. Although this film won an award as an excellent anticommunist film, being classified as one of many anticommunist films produced in the 1970s, the director shows his unique, cynical irony by paradoxically revealing the emptiness of anticommunist ideology. Together with powerful mise-en-scne of the film, this cynical irony makes audience directly face the scenes of those days.