Pyeongyang NaengmyeonPyeongyang Naengmyeon

 A chief chef of Okryu-gwan, Cheol-joong, promised Mun-cheol, his only family, that he will make Pyongyang Naengmyeon for him during the 2007 family reunion. Eleven years later, Okryu-gwan’s Naengmyeon was selected as a main dish at the official dinner of the North-South Korean summit in 2018. When Cheol-joong hears his brother’s attendance at the banquet, he decides to keep the promise he made eleven years ago. The pain of separated families was slowly forgotten and objectified from the public as time passes. Everyone knows their pain, but the depth and magnitude of it are no longer measured because it became usual to people. The director deals with this pain from the perspective of a North Korean family. What would the pain of longing and loss be like for those who had to stay, not those who had to leave their hometown? The number of applicants for the 2018 Korean family reunion shown on the ending credit imprints the fact that this pain is real. Is that so? This kind cinematic form will be more persuasive. (LEE Dong-yun)