프로그램 노트

Program Note

On October 26, 1909, An Jung-geun, a lieutenant general of the Korean Righteous Army, assassinated Ito Hirobumi, the former Prime Minister of Japan, at Harbin Station. Ito had arrived for a meeting with Vladimir Kokovtsov, the Russian Minister of Finance. The film calmly follows An Jung-geun and his fellow independence fighters over the course of a week leading up to the assassination, following their journey after the Battle of Sinasan. The film—though based on historical fact—deliberately avoids genre-driven thrills, even though its premise of an assassination might lend itself to suspense or mystery. The Battle of Sinasan, for example, is not rendered through flashy action sequences but filled instead with the raw, excruciating pain of loss. Even the climactic assassination avoids cinematic techniques like slow motion or close-ups that would heighten tension. Instead, the film focuses on An Jung-geun’s inner turmoil—his regret and moral dilemma after experiencing painful failure—conveyed through the vast landscape and natural light.

In the opening scene, the cracked ice of the Duman River that An walks across visually echoes not only his emotional disarray but also the fractures within the ranks of the independence fighters, more powerfully than any line of dialogue could. The film, in this way, resembles an ink painting rendered in broad, dry brushstrokes, depicting the inner devastation of An Jung-geun and the independence fighters, worn down by an unwanted diaspora. (KI Hyungmin)