She sold everything for dignity. He missed the train for love. Classic Korean melodrama hits different.
Lee Suk-hui (Choe Eun-hui) lost her husband to the Korean War eight years ago. She runs a dressmaking shop that has fallen into debt. When Kim Sang-gyu (Kim Jin-gyu), the executive director of a publishing company, helps her pay off debts, she falls in love with him. He, however, is engaged to the daughter of his boss, Ok-ju (Do Geum-bong). His sister (Ju Jeung-nyeo) pushes him to marry the boss's daughter, hoping that will bring him rapid success. Meanwhile, Suk-hui's grown-up daughter Gyeong-hui, wanting her mother to be happy, urges her mother to marry Sang-gyu, but Suk-hui vacillates between social mores and her own happiness. Even though she and Sang-gyu truly love each other, she decides to leave him and heads for her country home after selling her house in Seoul. Hearing the news, he who is ill in bed hurries to Seoul station, but it is too late. All he can do is just to stand on the platform and to watch her train pulling away.
Acting
Choi Eun-hee's trembling restraint says everything
Costume
Late-50s Seoul style evolution in every scene
Direction
Shin Sang-ok's final train shot = devastation
Director
Shin Sang-ok
Choi Eun-hee
Lee Sook-hee
Um Aing-ran
Oh Kyung-hee
Kim Jin-kyu
Kim Sang-gyu
Ju Jeung-nyeo
Mrs. Kim (Sister of Sang-gyu)
Kim Seok-hun
Han Ki-cheol (Sang-gyu's friend)
Kim Dong-won
Chairman (President of publishing company)
Han Eun-jin
Mrs. Park (Mother of Okju)
Do Kum-bong
Ok-joo Lee (Sang-gyu's fiancé)
Kim Seung-ho
Busan President Kim (Trader)
Lee Min
Shin Dong-il (President of a securities company)
Ju Seon-tae
Bokdeokbang owner
Seo Wol-yeong
Mrs. Lee
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Real-life couple Choi Eun-hee and director Shin Sang-ok divorced, then she was kidnapped to North Korea—wilder than any melodrama.
Dongsimcho (Lycoris radiata) symbolizes tragic separation in Korean folklore, blooming where lovers parted—hence the devastating title.
KR
