Ppong

PPONG is based on the 1925 novel by writer Na Do-hyang, which portrays the grim reality of the living conditions for the poor through a story of a woman who sleeps with almost all the men in her village in order to support herself. Her vagrant husband has already departed with little explanation, leaving her no other chance of survival. Versatile director Lee Doo-yong, who passed away earlier this year, uses this socially critical narrative to create a film that is essentially an idyllic, melodramatic sex-farce, starring Lee Mi-sook as the beautiful and resourceful An-hyeop. Or, one can argue, it is Lee’s assured directorial hand that turns the film into the exact opposite of this: an erotic rural drama that serves as a seductive indictment against poverty, colonial indifference, misogyny and hypocrisy. Amusingly, the Korean tough guy of the era, actor Lee Dae-geun, played the role of servant Sam-dol, the one man in the village that An-hyeop will not have sex with. He refused to return to the role for the inevitable sequel, since he claimed that had only chosen it because of the literary qualities of the story and was upset by the erotic elements. (Gerwin Tamsma) 

Lee Doo-yong: THE GENERAL IN RED ROBES (1973), THE KOREAN CONNECTION (1974), BRUCE LEE FIGHTS BACK FROM THE GRAVE (1976), POLICE STORY (1979), THE LAST WITNESS (1980), MULLEYA MULLEYA (1984), EUNUCH (1986)