The sweet voice for an airline advertisement on the radio seduces the listener but has nothing to do with people in this boat. They are isolated and trapped on the ocean not knowing when they will be land on shore. They have to endure torturous labor and physical exploitation everyday. A motorless wooden shrimp barge, called dumb barge, which drops anchor in the boundless ocean is a modern day slave ship. The Sorrow, Like a Withdrawn Dagger, Left My Heart(the debut feature of Director Hong Ki-seon) takes the camera and shows the harsh reality we find difficult to accept. It shows the inhumane slave-like conditions that these abducted workers endure. Jae-ho is forced to work on a shrimp boat and attempts to escape from it. This film shows that even though you can be cut off from the outside world, you can still be forced to follow the cruel rules it imposes. The Sorrow, Like a Withdrawn Dagger, Left My Heart is about people’s sorrow in this brutal system and follows faint aspirations in the face of adversity. It takes a warm hearted look at the lives of people living at the bottom of society’s ladder using a furious, crude voice to get their message across.
