Update: November 2023
North Korean Movie: The Story of a Nurse
Depictions of women as self-sacrificing heroines are a common archetype in North Korean films.
This North Korean movie is an excellent example.
North Korean Movie
Story of a Nurse
YEAR: 1971
RUNNING TIME: 128 mins
5 Top North Korean Films
North Korean Movie Plot
The Story of a Nurse
The plot follows many of the main conventions of North Korean movies. It has a central figure whom the viewer may assume is unsuitable for the job they are asked to do…
In this case, it is a woman working in a dangerous and heavy job during the Korean War who is emboldened by an encounter with a character who teaches her some life lessons with his dying actions and words.
Thus emboldened, she is able to carry out her tasks with renewed vigour and determination from which she benefits by achieving the goal of Party membership.
A Dying Wish…
Just how much this means to the doomed heroine is revealed by her dying wish (after sacrificing herself selflessly to save an injured and thus helpless man).
This is for her membership card and fees to be sent to the Party Central Committee. This is a dying wish which is also replicated in the Korean Revolutionary Opera A True Daughter of the Party. It clearly shows the high value these characters place on loyalty and devotion to the Party and the cause to which they have just sacrificed their life in martyrdom.
Film Poster Artwork
The film poster artwork is wonderful.
There are snippets of the film told via foreground and background scenes set around the central character.
This is a poster designed for non-aligned French and English-speaking countries.
North Korean Film Posters
Kang Yon Ok is chosen for the stretcher-party to evacuate the wounded soldiers.
Seeing Tok Jun who dashes into the shower of bullets and Myong Ho who, though wounded, says he can’t leave the battle site, she ponders over what kind of person a party member is.
The division hospital gives Yon Ok a mission to escort serious patients to the rear. She braves dangers and difficulties, finding food for the patients and giving her blood to save them during the mission.
She accomplishes her mission successfully and finally returns to her unit. Then, she becomes a party member as she has wished so much. She does her best to carry out her mission as a soldier and a Party member.
During a fiendish bombing by the U.S. air pirates, she dies a heroic death to save a patient by covering him with her body.
From the book 'Korea Film', published in 2008 by Korea Film Export & Corporation.
