The Korean Film Archive has released on Blu-ray Whale Hunting (1984), a masterpiece of Korean cinema and the 22nd Blu-ray title planned by the archive and produced by Blue Kino. Whale Hunting ranked top at the box-office in 1984 with cinema admissions in Seoul of over 426,000 and it remains clear in the memories of the public of that time. Depicting the arduous but heartwarming journey of Byeong-tae (Kim Soo-chul) and Min-wu (Ahn Sung-ki) as they rescue a kidnapped woman named Chun-ja (Lee Mi-sook) in the red-light district and help her return to her hometown, Whale Hunting is a road movie which is a rare genre in Korea. Viewers experience the trio’s growing friendship and love, and particularly the protagonist Byeong-tae’s growth through this exhausting journey from Seoul to an island in the east sea. Whale Hunting also portrays images of Korea as it was in the 1980s, from city scenes in Seoul to rugged mountain terrain and a rural marketplace. This is not only in keeping with it being a road movie, but also because it reflects the director’s philosophy that a film should properly represent the life and circumstances of the time.

It is no exaggeration to say that Bae Chang-ho, who directed Whale Hunting, and Lee Jang-ho were the top Korean film directors of the early to mid1980s. Starting his career as an assistant director for Lee Jang-ho, Bae Chang-ho showed immediate promise as a director with his debut film, People in the Slum(1982), and went on to become the most commercially successful director in the Korean film industry of the time, with a string of subsequent hits: The Flower on the Equator(1983), Whale Hunting(1984), and Deep Blue Night(1985). He was also highly praised for his artistic achievements as he went to develop his own cinematic form through Hwang Jin-I(1986) and The Dream(1990) and raise questions about film and life with Love Story(1996), My Heart(1999) and his most recent film, The Trip(2009). In his prime, Bae Chang-ho acquired the nickname The Steven Spielberg of Korean Cinema, alluding to his remarkable commercial viability and the quality of his films. However, this comparison was not limited to that time alone; just as Spielberg continued to do, Bae also carried on refining his filmmaking achievements.

For extra interest, this Blu-ray includes a commentary by director Bae Chang-ho, actors, Ahn Sung-ki and Kim Soo-chul, and film critic, Ju Sung-chul. Through these diverse and fascinating anecdotes and stories related to the film and directing we might well achieve greater understand of the film.