Passing through a jail and a construction site, a young laborer meets a middle-aged man returning to Sampo after ten years' absence. Together, they track down a young woman who ran away from the restaurant she was waitressing at, but instead of turning her in for a reward, the trio decide to go on an adventure together.
삼포가는 길, Road to Sampo, Sampoganeun kil, 삼포 가는 길, 去森浦的路, O Caminho para Sampo
South Korea18 South Korea 
Director Lee gives his Korean landscape a vastness and expansiveness rarely afforded to our small country. Hometowns shape one’s identity but here, one could choose their hometown for themselves. In a way, I’ve never seen a Korean film like it. Almost felt Americana in some parts. I went numb watching the lead actress trekking through the snow (and even a storm!) for days in a skirt and mary janes but the film is more concerned with showing how the three leads’ hearts thaw over time. Lee Man-hee died before he could finish the movie but I’m charmed by the unfinished feeling (especially loved the continuity error of a scene going from day to night with a single cut to a different angle).
UNDISCOVERED GEM, yo.
Two hobos and a bar girl, repping for all the Korean underclass, trek through endless snow toward an unclear destination; it's a comedy, but weirdly aestheticized, a bit like Jarmusch with more obvious literary leanings. Godot overtones and all. Act Three went all-out into romantic melodrama, which was a tonal shift I hadn't expected, but they managed to sell it, even with the endless succession of tear-jerk beats that were loaded into the script. Korean filmmakers weren't afraid of the big feels...
Three lonely figures wandering through a bleakly Beckettian landscape, the snow swirling so densely it’s practically apocalyptic; their overwhelming humanity as remarkable for the fact that it’s survived as it is sobering as a reminder of what their hardscrabble world seems to have forgotten. “Girls like us don’t count age with years,” barmaid Baek-hwa scoffs at her unlikely traveling companions. “You count age with drinks and men you’ve slept with, you fool!” Cheerfully episodic despite its trio’s battle scars, swapping life stories when they feel tender-hearted enough, always able to laugh even though it doesn’t feel like there’s much worth laughing about, smart enough to know how to grab a free meal and a drink when they can (most memorably…
Good Hill Passwith. The breath is long and parched. Thirsty on a Winter 12'o'clock. The ice can't melt for water. Sun out, 50 degrees, and wishing the train were here.
Te quiero mucho, canal de Youtube del Korean Film Archive y tu nutrido catalogo de películas coreanas clásicas en 4K y HD con muy buenos subtítulos.
The Road To Sampo (삼포가는 길) | Lee Man-hee | 1975 | 2024 Asian Cinema Season - Film 124
"My sad life is just like my underskirt. It's been washed many times, so the colour has faded. The thread is worn out and cut. How pathetic."
The Road to Sampo, Lee Man-hee's final film, is a moving exploration of human connection set against the harsh winter landscape of 1970s Korea. The film follows three outcasts—a young construction worker, an ex-convict, and a runaway barmaid—as they journey together in search of a place to call home.
The film opens with Young-dal (Baek Il-seob), a young labourer drifting from one construction site to another. His path crosses with Mr. Jeong (Kim Jin-kyu),…
As a final film, Lee Man-hee’s The Road to Sampo is perhaps inevitably overshadowed by his death during post-production, but also its reputation as a last creative burst after several difficult years of government censorship and diminishing audiences. Just as importantly, it’s a stylistic break as well, a shift away from his focus on individuals trapped under their surroundings for the looseness and episodic structure of a road movie.
Unfortunately, it’s also barely a finished film. Shots don't match up, dialogue is out of sync, and lighting is uneven between, and even within, scenes: there is a love scene here, shot in a moody romantic blue completely at odds with the rest of the movie’s look, and it’s distracting as…
Quite liked the dynamics between the three main characters, also its look into the country life and and the snowy rural landscapes are beautifully shot. Little meandering overall but has some decent things going for it..
back-hwa
what? (뭐 mwo?)
you said that i was a tramp since i was born? that weights heavy on my mind :/
where t-t-FF did SK find all these energy lightning ball female leads for their 60's/70's/80's flicks???? tough times called for moodlifts and they stepped the fuck up each time 😭 (go figure why they went and turned it into a wholesale industry!)
most of this film is set in heavy snow, mountainous area. they stomp truh it, stumble and slip, fool around in it, snowball fights! editing is ridiculous during the juxtaposed storytelling (then at the end when they just stood still for fake freezeframes??) crying is as loud as laughing & mostly indistinguishable. these 3 are so jolly they…
Has its flashes of brilliance, especially on certain scenes where the renowned sixties and seventies auteur shows his capabilities. It's a good adaptation of a work by Hwang Seok-Yeong, who's one of the most-read authors in South Korea, and has its heartfelt touch.
Unfortunately, it feels closer to an incomplete work than otherwise due to the off-set saga that troubled late Yi Man-Heui. Soundwork can be a hit or miss [I'm fine with it, but objectively not without fault], story feels uneven, though the premise and the details are interesting, and it does drag on a bit in pacing which is bizarre considering its short, 1h40 length.
Of course, a lot of this isn't so much the issue with the…
The English title of The Road to Sampo is reminiscent of those old Bob Hope and Bing Crosby films, but the film is a more enticing prospect than those tired old comedies. Bickering tramps Roh and Jeong pick up their Dorothy Lamour, bar girl Baek-hwa, and go on a road trip to Jeong's hometown of Sampo. The film is very funny, occasionally touching, and Mun Suk as Baek-hwa is fantastic.
As someone whose main exposure to Korean cinema has been a bunch of slickly made post 2000's horror movies and thrillers, this worked as an effective snapshot of a time and place I know next to nothing about.
I've found an informative review/essay concerning The Road to Sampo (1975) on Lily and Generoso's film blog, which also includes some insight into So. Korea in the 1970's, along with background on protean director Lee Man-hee:
Hope the link works.
