[Movie] Haemoo 해무 海雾

Haemoo is a 2014 South Korean film directed by Shim Sung-bo and it is based on the true story of what happened on Vessel Taechangho in 2001. 

The movie first started by showing the daily lives of this group of South Korean fishermen out at sea on a 69-ton fishing vessel called Junjin. The story then focused on how Captain Kang was faced with tremendous pressure when the owner of the boat wanted to sell off the vessel due to declining hauls. He was further disheartened when he realized that his wife cheated on him due to his long absence from home.

  

Driven by the desperation that his entire crew is in the fate of losing their livelihood, Captain Kang took up an offer to go into the illegal human trafficking trade which ends up in a horrible tragedy. He was rewarded with a huge amount of down-payment which he shared with his 5 other crews. 

Out of the immigrants, two of them are women. Captain Kang believe that it's bad luck for a woman to set foot on his boat and this belief was immediately proven right as the young lady (Hong Mae) missed her foot during the jump and fell into the rough sea. He was rescued by the youngest crew Dong-sik (K-pop star Park Yu-Chun).

The movie depicts the dark side of humanity. How far they are willing to go to for the things they love. Among the immigrants, the other older woman is willing to exchange her body just to spend a night in the warm engine room. The Captain who love the vessel so much is willing to part and sink together with the vessel. Dong-Sik is willing to face any consequences of keeping Hong Mae in the engine room. Towards the end, the crew members become more and more embroiled in their own internal disputes that only Dong-Sik and Hong Mae survived the tragic death.

RATING: 4.5/5 

I wanted to give a full rating for this movie but I do not quite like the ending. With the whole plot focusing on the sea, I felt the ending should ends at the sea too. 

Thank you Jessie for bringing me to this movie preview. It was an unexpectedly good movie and has even won the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. Worth watching.