Paju (film)

Paju Hangul RRPaju is a 2009 South Korean film. It tells the tale of a teenage schoolgirl Seo Woo and her complex relationship to her older sisters husband Lee Sunkyun. Set in the city where it takes its name from a longtime military area and now a developing city located close to the NorthSouth Korean border its elegant and wellconstructed narrative deals with guilt, mystery, love and redemption, as well as the psychological layers of its characters. The film also offers a vivid glimpse into Korean society and the struggles some residents of Paju face. The result is both uniquely Korean and universally resonant.

Twentysomething Eunmo listens to a taxi driver drone on as she rides down a foggy highway. The story then cycles back eight years earlier, when a lustful Joongshik accidentally causes a woman to neglect her baby with disastrous consequences. Suffering from guilt, Joongshik goes on the lam and holes up in the titular city of Paju, an underdeveloped and desolate city just north of Seoul and near the North Korean border. Teaching religious classes to the towns schoolgirls, Joongshik captures the heart of local house owner Eunsoo, despite the protestations of her pubescent younger sister and Joongshiks student Eunmo.Back in the present day, Joongshik is now the ringleader of a political protest group whose interests run from obstructing the citys plans of gentrification to strengthening relations with North Koreans. Squatting in Pajus derelict apartments, the group is under siege from an unidentified property developer who has engaged goons to bulldoze the buildings. With only the briefest of hints as to what has transpired, Eunsoo is nowhere to be seen and Joongshik and Eunmo are clearly at odds. While believing her brotherinlaw killed her sister for insurance money, Eunmo finds herself falling in love with him, the sole guardian and grownup in the lonely girls life. Narrative flashes back twice more to sparingly fill in the gaps on their shifting lives. ........

Source: Wikipedia