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Product Detail |
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Audio Format: DD 5.1CH
Video Format: Widescreen 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Languages: Korean
Subtitles: English, Korean
Region Code: 3
Year Made: 2009
Running Time: 94 + 54
Release Date: 09/21/2009
Starring Old Boy’s Choi Min-sik, Himalaya, Where The Wind Dwells works best as a travelogue, setting a Korean businessman on the road to the distant Nepalese village of Sharkot. Kim Sung-tai’s images of a stark life and landscape could see this film find a place on the festival circuit, but narratively, Himalaya is as aimless as its protagonist and commercial prospects are as remote as his mountain destination.
Businessman Choi (Choi) is suffering some sort of personal crisis - he may have been fired at work. When he is informed that an illegal immigrant called Dorje who he has helped find work at his brother’s factory, has been killed in a traffic accident, Choi decides to visit the family in Nepal.
It’s a spur-of-the-moment decision. He is ill-prepared for the expedition and suffers from morning sickness. Almost 30 minutes go by before Choi has any proper dialogue and as the protagonists do not share a language, the spoken word is minimal throughout. On arrival in Sharkot, Choi stays with Dorje’s wife and sons; he gives them money but signals to them that Dorje is well.
Having set the scene, Himalaya ambles slowly to a conclusion, more enamoured of the images onscreen than any development of the scenario or fleshing out its protagonist. Local lead Tsering Gurung, as Dorje’s wife, gets much camera time, but she is treated, as with all the local characters, as though she’spart ofa documentary. Choi’s face is expressive and watchable, but even he cannot overcome the challenges of this piece.
Kim is on the way home after divorce procedure. He feels obsessive, watching TV news about suicide in the subway of an illegally staying labor of Nepal, Sham. He sleeps, returning home. As he dreams a small mountain village of the Himalayas, he wakes up. He goes to Sham's funeral home. He asks people of a human rights organization in charge of the funeral arrangements to take Sham's ashes to his family in Nepal.
As Kim arrives in Zomsom, mountain region in Nepal, asks around about Sham's home. He leaves for Jharkot with a map and a bag. Kim walks long, dry and winding roads. Climbing highlands, he suffers from nasal haemorrhage and headache because of mountain sickness. It's in two days that he arrives in Sham's hometown, which is located on the top of a mountain in the Himalayas with snow.
There are Sham's ill mother and his three sisters living in a ragged house. As Kim gives Sham's ashes to the first sister of Sham's, Sunita, she gulps down tears, but runs to a hill outside, and cries out loud in sorrow. Sunita asks Kim not to tell her families about Sham's death. While Kim stays a night in Sham's, he suffers from serious illness from fatigue and stomach-ache. He stays more under Sunita's careful nursing.
Kim accompanies Sunita, who sells wild honey (found in the crevices of rocks). As they travel around for selling wild honey, they starts having a good feeling for each other. Kim accustoms himself to the surroundings of the village. After a while, everyone in the village gets to know the relationship of Kim and Sunita. A council of elders of the village is held. As Kim is noticed to marry Sunita or leave, he feels conflict. And …
Special Features
- Making of
- Interview with Director
- Interview with Cast
- Interviews
- VIP Premiere
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