Anarchist from Colony

Anarchist from Colony

Released: June 28, 2017

     Anarchist from Colony, directed by Lee Joon-ik, is a film about Park Yeol. Park Yeol was an independence activist in Korea under Japanese rule. He created a group called, “Huekdohoe” (in the film is called, “Bulryeongsa”), which planned to kill Japan’s Prince, Hirohito. This group had 14 Koreans and 5 Japanese members. The film shows Park Yeol’s relationship to Fumiko Kaneko, who was Japanese, but could relate to Koreans under the Japanese rule. In the film, Fumiko is shown a brave woman, who will not back down from being separated from his husband Park Yeol.

     Since the film is based on the real story of Park Yeol, I think watching this film, will give the viewer what type of life Park Yeol had and what he had to deal with. It gives the perspective of what activist did during the Japanese rule in Korea and how they reacted.

     As someone who is more into action filled films that have a balance of music scenes and dialogue scenes, it seemed that Anarchist from Colony prioritize dialogue in every scene. The focus of the film was definitely on the dialogue, has it told the story of Park Yeol. Watching films that had been stacked with action and thriller, watching this film I felt a different feeling. Watching other type of activist films, that I can connect to, I tend to be more moved to do something. Watching this film, because the connection was less, it only felt like I was learning history. Which is a good thing, but for people who do not find that connection, may find the film uninteresting and leave them feeling ‘what did I just watch.’ – which was I had felt, ‘what type of film did I just watch?’