Mist

An atmospheric work by an immensely talented filmmaker, Mist has taken its place as one of the high points of 1960s South Korean cinema. Based on a famous 1964 modernist novel by Kim Seung-ok titled Journey to Mujin, Kim Soo-yong’s film tells the story of a middle-class office worker in Seoul who takes a trip to his rural hometown. As he revisits the place of his youth, familiar locations and people trigger flashbacks of his troubled past. At the same time, he meets a young schoolteacher who yearns to escape from the confines of her everyday life. Powered by magnetic performances from Shin Sung-il (the most prolific actor in Korean film history) and Yoon Jeong-hee (who years later would play the lead in Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry), Mist offers experimental blurring of past and present that captures the restlessness and disappointment of an entire generation of dreamers.