Evergreen Tree
(Sangroksu)

After graduating, two students return to their home village determined to put what they had learnt at the service of the poor rural community. The young woman devotes herself to a school aiming above all to promote literacy among the rural people, while the young man becomes involved in a training centre. However, the functionaries appointed by the Japanese colonial administration take a negative view of these progressive initiatives. General Park Chung-hee, who that same year had just come to power after a military coup, admitted weeping when he saw the film. Presented at a special screening at Cannes in 2003, Evergreen Tree was described by Shin Sang-ok as one of his favourite films and the one that best epitomised what he was trying to achieve. JB