Winter Butterfly

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Movie: Winter Butterfly
Revised Romanization: Gyewool Nabi
Hangul: 겨울나비
Director: Kim Gyu-Min
Writer:
Producer:
Cinematographer:
Release Date: July 7, 2011
Runtime : 90 min.
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean

Plot Synopsis by AsianWiki Staff ©

Set in North Korea, 11-year-old Jin-Ho (Jeong Seung-Won) lives with his mom (Park So-Yeon). He supports his mom by cutting and selling wood. The one thing that Jin-Ho is afraid of is being left alone in the world.

One day, Jin-Ho has an argument with his mother over a problem caused by his friend Sung-Il. Jin-Ho goes into the mountains alone to cut trees. There he has an accident and becomes lost. His mother looks for him by going into the mountains and the police station, but she's unable to locate him. Jin-Ho wanders around in the mountain suffering from starvation and severe cold weather. Finally, he is able to come down safely out of the mountains, because his mother is at home waiting for him. What Jin-Ho doesn't know is that this is only beginning of his misfortunes ...

Notes

Movie director Kim Gyu-Min was born in North Korea. While attending Rigyesoon University, Kim Gyu-Min decided to defect to South Korea due to his discontent with the North Korean system.
"Winter Butterfly" is based on a true story and depicts the struggles of a mother and son in North Korea due to food shortages.
After giving lectures in South Korea, Kim Gyu-Min observed that most people in South Korea believed they knew all about North Korea through media coverage, but, in reality, knew little about North Korea. Kim Gyu-Min feels his movie "Winter Butterfly" will give people a better understanding of North Korea with its realistic depiction of daily life there.[1]

Cast



Park So-Yeon	Jung Seung-Won
mother	Jin-Ho

Additional Cast Members:

Ra Kyung-Duk - Sa Sung-Joo (North Korean army sergeant first class)
Heo Sun-Haeng - An Cheol-Jin (picture)

Trailer

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Comments

Gwen Lilyth Nov 23 2016 1:31 am it disturb me mentally. i watched it from the beginning with sadness but at the end, ah ... it was scary as hell. the most scary movie of all movies i watched. damn ... i hate his mother ... poor child, he should stay in the woods.

koreanfuture May 09 2014 6:02 am this to answer the comment of "eh". your words are quite offensive to all the ones who live under comunist regimen. In which dreamland are you still living? I myself was born under facism, so I know that there's isn't a good dictatorship. Comunism or facism they both survive thanks to violence and fear. I'm speachless with your superficiality.

Netinho Apr 13 2014 10:59 pm "eh Mar 13 2012 5:21 pm Sory this movie is just bad and scary. Pure propaganda picturing the life in North Korea for westernized South Koreans. Ask you self if there are good people in South how come only bad are pictured is North. Also communist systems are more oriented to help community members then kapitalist systems which are based on individuality ergo everyone is on their own. Shame, I had better opinion of the Korean cinematography..."

You don't know what you are talking about. First of all, Kim Gyu-Min, the director of this movie, was born in North Korea and escaped the country in his mid 20s. The first time he tried to scape, China caught him and sent him back, so North Korea sent to prison camp. He says that North Korea is actually much more worse than what South Korea and the west thinks it is. This movie is based on a true story. All of the stories that we know about North Korea is not propaganda, but they are from real defected North Koreans who are sharing with us how cruel, sad, and unfortunate the citizens of North Korea are treated. Many dies daily from starvation, and there really are reports of parents eating their own children. You should do some research.

Torchwood1979 Jul 06 2012 8:21 am Heartbreaking yet brilliant film. It's worth watching the first 2/3 to see daily life in NK. The harsh reality is that most NK citizens live on a knife edge, within a truly evil system that creates an uncaring dog-eat-dog society.

eh Mar 13 2012 5:21 pm Sory this movie is just bad and scary. Pure propaganda picturing the life in North Korea for westernized South Koreans. Ask you self if there are good people in South how come only bad are pictured is North. Also communist systems are more oriented to help community members then kapitalist systems which are based on individuality ergo everyone is on their own. Shame, I had better opinion of the Korean cinematography...

JBL Jan 07 2012 11:24 am at the end... this movie was scaring me... his mother looks her son like a dog, then...i can't tell you further.

is this called korean ?