People in the Slum (1982), a directorial debut Bae Chang-ho at the age of 29, the representative Korean film director from the early 1980s to mid-1990s, is adapted from Lee Dongcheol's novel in the same title and had a huge success in both the selling and the review. Tough and hard life of the poor in the midst of modernization in Korea is realistically portraited, yet the unfortunate stories behind the heroine Myeongsuk and two men, Juseok and Taeseop, are not just described as a tragedy in this movie. Director Bae Chang-ho's delicate production skills and storytelling talent in his directorial debut are not-to-be-missed. 

People in the Slum starts with the narration of the writer Lee Dongcheol that it is about various stories of people settled in a city. Unfolding stories are of Myeongsuk (Kim Bo-yeon), also called "the black glove" because she always wears black gloves, her second husband Tae-sub (Kim Hee-ra) who is involved with a homicide case of which statute of limitations is yet to be expired, her ex-husband Ju-seok (Ahn Sung-ki) who came to look for his son Junil after the release from prison, and other people living a hard life in an impoverished neighborhood. Their morning starts by lining up to use a communal bathroom and do their washings at the common laundry site. They would have a quarrel over one husband's underwear found in a neighborhood's laundry but prepare together a 60-year old birthday party banquet for Mr. Ma, the widower, and enjoy cheerful dancing along with Mrs. Jjaekjjaegi (Kong Ok-jin)'s chang (Korean traditional narrative song). The director Bae Chang-ho wishes to show hope by beautifully portraiting "warm and healthy community whose people strive for their life despite the pitiable reality."    

Having worked as an assistant director for director Lee Jang-ho at A Fine, Windy Day (1980) and Children of Darkness Part 1, Young-ae the Songstress (1981), Bae Chang-ho decides to make his directorial debut based on a bestselling novel of Lee Dongcheol, the original author of Children of Darkness. However, double censorship mandating movie prints as well as scenario censored in advance made the film modified the original scenario over 60 parts as film censors did not want to expose the life of the urban poor in a movie. Only after several modifications and the condition of not using the title , Bae Chang-ho's scenario passed the censorship and debuted his work as "no revision" by satisfying film censors. Then, after ups and downs, the film was finally on screen in July 1982 and called out a sensation in the Korean film industry by sweeping various film festival awards such as Best Actress Award (Kim Bo-yeon) and Special Rookie Award (Bae Chang-ho) from the 21st Daejong Film Award, Best Director Award, Best Film Award, and Cinematography Award at the 13th Korean Association of Film Critics Awards, and Grand Prize in Film at the 19th Baeksang Arts Awards. 

This Blu-ray release is digitally revised and includes Korean, Japanese and English subtitles and the commentary track of director Bae Chang-ho and film critic Kim Sungwook. In addition to the commentary, to help understand Bae Chang-ho's film philosophy and the film, it comes with a booklet featuring an essay on the director by Jang Byung-won, programmer for Jeonju International Film Festival, an essay on the film by Lee Yong-cheol, and an essay by Chris Berry, a professor at King's College in London who has had a constant admiration toward Asian films. </people>