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A Dwarf Launches a Little Ball
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - South Korea - Korean Film Archive/Blue Kino Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (16th February 2025). |
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The Film
 "A Dwarf Launches a Little Ball" <난장이가 쏘아올린 작은 공> (1981) Taking place on a rural salt farm in South Korea, a family of five is experiencing sudden hardships. The father (played by Kim Bul-il) is a dwarf who lost his job following the disbanding of the circus he was part of. While the mother (played by Jeon Yang-ja) is positive that they will be able to make ends meet and would like her husband not to worry, it is causing issues for their children. The elder son, Yeong-su (played by Ahn Sung-ki) was looking to further himself through studies at university, but the financial strain has left him to work at the local factory. He, along with his younger brother Yeong-ho (played by Lee Hyo-jeong) and young sister Yeong-hee (played by Geum Bo-ra) have dealt not only with hardships with poverty since they were children, being bullied and made fun of by other kids due to their father’s dwarfism. In addition, the salt farming business for the locals is declining, and investors are looking to take over land for redevelopment. While the money would help the family in the short run, it is also pushing them out of their longtime home with no prospects of where to go next. Writer Cho Se-hui’s novel “The Dwarf” was published in 1978 and was a collection of short stories written between 1975 and 1978 about a poor family with a dwarf father in a shanty town and their struggles. The stories were critical about modernization and caring about the working class, and was a popular hit with readers both in the original magazine form and the collected novel. and was awarded the prized Dong-in Literary Award in 1979. For its feature film adaptation, the Hanjin Heungup Company was set to produce with noted filmmaker Lee Won-se directing the screenplay which was adapted by Hong Pa. Though getting the film into production was a major hurdle due to the strict policies of the government censorship board. While the character of Bul-i may be the title character, much of the screen time is given to the elder brother character of Young-su. Ahn Sung-ki was close to thirty at the time and he looked fairly old to be playing a university aged young man in his early twenties. Lee Hyo-jeong as younger brother Young-ho on the other hand was twenty at the time and was cast accordingly. Bu with Ahn’s crafted experience from child actor into adult leading actor, he does a wonderful job bringing the struggling young character to life. The sadness and frustration that clouds him as poverty has limited his intellectual growth. In addition, there is Myung-hee (played by Jeon Yeong-seon), the girl he longs for who is also in a similar situation economically. He cannot provide for her and he also cannot stop her from working at a bar entertaining male customers. His job at the iron factory is not the best place for his skills, yet he doesn’t express his bitterness or anger out on anyone. He understands the difficulties faced ever since he and his siblings were young, as shown in the opening flashback sequence of them as kids fighting against other kids who were making fun of them for their father’s dwarfism. Ahn brings an understated and heartfelt performance to his character and is certainly a highlight of the story. The younger brother Young-ho’s story is given less emphasis, though he is going in the opposite direction of Young-su, by using his physical skills to try to prove himself as a boxer. There are some good scenes involving boxing shown, yet it feels underwritten in the film as it is not given a balanced emphasis in comparison to Young-su’s side. As for younger sister Young-hee there is also not too much given to her character until much later when she tries to get the deed for the family home back from the real estate agent Park Woo-cheol (played by Kim Choo-ryeon). Her decision to leave is an actual opportunity to start fresh for her with the rich agent who fancies her, yet she does have strong feelings for her family and for them to stay together. The scene in the car when they drive away together shows Geom playing the role with complexity, though there seems to be some censorship applied regarding the sexual relationship between her character and the character of real estate agent, which is more physical in the original novel. A number of other changes were made due to censorship issues, with some being rewrites of the script before filming began and others in post production, with some dialogue having to be redubbed. One of the biggest changes came with the music score. Artist Kim Min-ki composed the score for the film, but it was outright rejected as he was at the time a banned artist by the government due to his leftist views and songs that became anthems for protest. The shanty town setting had to be changed, the implication of suicide was also changed to an ambiguous death, sexual content was removed, and anything critical about government relocation programs and urban development had to be removed as well. The script had to be rewritten a few times in order for it to be approved, but there were also changes that were not mandated. In the film it starts with the father losing his job with the circus and then him secretly working at a cabaret as an entertainer later. In the original novel it is after the family is presented with an ultimatum to move due to redevelopment that the father decides to join a circus to bring more money for the family. Lee Won-se was born on April 6, 1940 in northern Korea which was occupied by Japan at the time. His family fled to the south following WWII to flee the communist regime, settling on a salt farm. The salt farm being the replacement for the story’s family came from an autobiographical point from Lee’s life, incorporating the hard but unappreciated work by the salt farmers. Lee retired from filmmaking in 1985 after his film “Queen Bee”. Though he was consistently working as a director with a number of successful films, censorship and other hardships led him to his retirement, in which he emigrated to the United States that year. In 2021, he received a special award at the Chunsa International Film Festival, and during his acceptance speech announced that he was working on a script for development for the first time in more than thirty five years. Unfortunately, the project would not come to fruition, as Lee passed away in June 19, 2023 at the age of 83. As for the actor that played the father, there seems to be a bit of a mystery with the actor. In the credits, he is credited as Kim Bul-i, which is also the name of the character, both in the book and the film. It seems the small actor used the character name for his stage name and his real name not being disclosed. He doesn't have a page on IMDB or KMDB, and there is not much else to be found. At the time, South Korea was restructuring itself over the lengthy military dictatorship by President Park Chung-hee, who was assassinated in 1979. The Fifth Republic of South Korea was established that year, though it still bore the weight of government censorship, government control, and a divide between the people and those in power. Development of farmlands and slums into areas of business, wealth, and commerce was growing, especially towards the Asia Games of 1986 and the Summer Olympics in Seoul, which was selected in 1981. It was during the 1980s that saw rapid growth and modernization, but at the same time it left people like the ones seen the film in a difficult position. Lee's film is a great adaptation of the original novel, taking its core elements and making a differing version with heart and soul, but not making things into an uplifting tale, as it is a bleak situation throughout for the family. It may have been compromised by censorship issues, but it is still a wonderful film regardless. The film opened on October 17th, 1981 in South Korea theatrically. It was awarded Best Director at the 18th Baeksang Arts Awards in 1982. Note this is a region ALL Blu-ray
Video
The Korean Film Archive/Blue Kino presents the film in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p AVC MPEG-4. The film was restored in 4K resolution in 2023 by KOFA/Image Power Station from the original 35mm negative, acquired by KOFA in 1990. Both automated and manual techniques were utilized for the restoration process. The image is very stable, as warping and wobble have been corrected and stabilized. It is also very clean with damage marks such as scratches and debris being removed carefully while film grain has been kept intact without any sort of digital artifacts or heavy damage to be found. Colors have been restored and stabilized, though it seems to have the slightly troubling aspect of siding more towards blue hues than natural tones. Whites such as on shirts and bedsheets look slightly blue, and skin tones seem to be lacking bolder red hues for a cool looking image rather than warm throughout. Blacks and other dark hues also feel slightly on the lighter side, seemingly not utilizing the full black and white spectrum of colors. While the image quality is sharp and stable, the color palate doesn’t seem to have a natural look. This seems to be an issue with a number of 4K restorations, and while some have director approval, this one did not as Lee passed away while the restoration was being undertaken. It may have some issues, though there are a lot of positive points to note about the image quality here. The film’s runtime is 102:27, including restoration information text at the start.
Audio
Korean LPCM 1.0 The original Korean audio is in uncompressed mono, restored from the original 35mm sound negative. As with almost all South Korean films at this time, sound was completely dubbed in post production rather than recording on set. It was fairly normal to see mouth movements being slightly unsynchronized due to the analogue ADR. For the restoration, portions that were unsynchronized were re-edited digitally to match the mouthing as close as possible when necessary. In addition, there were some instances in which music and effects were unnaturally louder than the dialogue in the original audio. These were also corrected to balance the audio better for the restoration. As for damage such as hiss and pops, restoration tools were applied to clean the audio. The audio is well balanced with dialogue, music and effects throughout for an excellent listen, without any problematic issues to speak of. There are optional English, Japanese, Korean subtitles available for the main feature, each in a white font. The English subtitles are well timed, easy to read, and without errors.
Extras
Audio commentary by film critic & director Chung Sung-il A newly recorded commentary by Chung Sung-il is included here, though unfortunately like many of their Blu-ray releases, KOFA has not included English subtitles for the extra. in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 without subtitles "Lee Won-se on A Dwarf Launches a Little Ball" interview (18:30) Presented here is a 2017 interview with Lee on the adaptation of the story and the filming, conducted by KOFA, illustrated with clips of the film. While the picture is sharp, the audio recording is problematic. Even though Lee has a pin microphone, it seems like the audio was not properly recorded and sounds like it is put through a tin can filter. For Korean speakers, there are optional Korean subtitles available. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in Korean LPCM 2.0 with optional Korean subtitles "Digital Restoration: Before & After" featurette (2:58) Presented here is a side by side comparison of before and after restoration, with the left side of the frame having the original and the right having the restored. The footage is shown open matte and squeezed, so characters are horizontally stretched on both sides. In addition, color correction is not applied so even the “restored” side looks very pale. The featurette only focuses on the correction of damage with dust, speckles, and wobble. There are no instances of major damage to be found, and there is no audio so a comparison cannot be heard. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, with Korean & English text Image Gallery This manual gallery includes five black and white behind the scenes stills and five color lobby cards. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4 Trailer (5:10) The lengthy original Korean trailer is presented here in restored form. It looks very good, quite on par with the restored film though there are some minimal damage marks to be found at times. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 without subtitles Booklet A 48 page bilingual booklet is included, with the first half in Korean and the second half translated to English. First is a cast and crew listing (with the English title of the film being misspelled), followed by a synopsis and an awards list, and Lee Won-se's filmography list. Then there are extensive notes on the restoration of the film. Next is the essay "Lee Won-se: Perhaps the Most Experimental Director in Korean Cinema History" by Cho Junhyong, senior researcher at KOFA which looks at the director's career, style, and complexities. This is followed by "The Complex Encounter Between Government Censorship and Authorship", again by Cho which looks at the censorship issues the film adaptation faced. There are also stills included within the booklet.
Packaging
This is spine #35 in KOFA's Blu-ray series. The disc is packaged in a clear keep case which also holds three postcards with stills from the film. The keep case and booklet are housed in a slipcase. 
Overall
"A Dwarf Launches a Little Ball" is a bleak look at a poor family's struggles in an economically changing country and the consequences of the people that are left behind, and the film adaptation is a strong one. The Korean Film Archive's restoration looks very good, though there is the issue with the slightly blue hue to the restored image. Extras are fair though they are mostly limited to Korean speakers only. Still comes as recommended. Note the film is also available to watch for free on the Korean Film Archive YouTube Channel, though it is an unrestored version.
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