Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Silmido
| Silmido | |
|---|---|
| Korean Title | |
| Revised Romanization | Silmido |
| McCune-Reischauer | Silmit'o |
| Hangul | 실미도 |
| Hanja | 實尾島 |
Silmido is a 2003 film directed by Woo-Suk Kang (강우석, 康祐碩) loosely based on a military uprising during the endless Korean War in the 1970s.
| Contents |
Synopsis
- Note: The plot of this movie is not totally based on historical facts. This is an entertainment movie. Much of it is fictional.
On January 31, 1968, 31 North Korean Special Unit 124 commandos infiltrated South Korea in a failed mission to assassinate President Park Chung-hee.
As a means of retaliation, the South Korean military assembled a team of 31 social outcasts and death/life criminals and trained them on a remote island named "Sil-mi-do" ("do" means "island" in Korean) off the coast of Incheon in order to behead Kim Il-sung. To them, this deadly mission is the only way to show people their loyalty to the country. If the mission is successfully accomplished, they will win themselves a proud new life. With this patriotic goal in mind, they survived the toughest and inhumane training and turned out to be killing machines.
When they finished the training in October 1968, they were sent to the North but being recalled at the last minute. Their project was revoked. And they returned to Silmido with discouragement and stress. The merciless training moved on without a purpose. Out of frustration, two team members raped a female doctor and were executed in front of their fellows. As the North and South tried to make peace, the team suddently became useless.
To keep this dirty project in secret, the South Korean secret service decided to eliminate these past criminals. Torn between orders and loyalty (his word), the commander secretly let the criminals glimpse their would-be fate. In response, they killed their trainers and escaped from the island. On August 23, 1971, 20 remaining rebels seized a bus and drove it to Seoul as a protest. The government called them "armed communist agents" and declared national emergency. They were stopped by the army and blew themselves up with hand grenades. Four of them were captured and latter executed by a firing squad.
Background information
The so-called Unit 684 was not composed of criminals and outcasts similar to the Hollywood entertainment movie The Dirty Dozen (1967). They were elite South Korean special forces. The dramatization enraged the soldiers' living family members in South Korea.
Silmido (37.40 N, 126.39 E) is a small barren island west of Muuido (무의도, 舞衣島) off the west coast of Incheon. It is no more than 50 km (30 mi) from the North Korean border and only 5 km (3 mi) from the Incheon International Airport opened in 2001.
Due to the fact that it is possibly still too close to the Gimpo Airport not to be detected, it might not be the best place in the world to launch a top secret plan to kill Kim Il-sung.
Cast
- Seol Kyeong-gu (설경구, 薛景求)
- Ahn Seong-gi (안성기, 安聖基)
- Jeong Jae-yeong (정재영)
See also
External links
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