Synopsis
On summer day in 1941, a Jewish town in East Europe hears the news of Nazi coming. The Rabbi gathers the panic-stricken villagers and they discuss what to do. They decide to follow the opinion of Shlpmo, a young man who has been regarded as a fool. He says all the villagers should be disguised as Nazis and Jewish prisoners and then embark on a trip to Palestine via Russia. The villagers donate their money and purchase a train, make up ID cards and related documents. They start their journey full of foreseeable problems. They have to deal with the real German soldiers as well as resistance fighters who plant dynamite along the track, believing those on the train as real Germans and Jewish prisoners. Conflicts also arise between communists among the villagers and those who are leading this journey. The Holocaust, one of the most scandalous incidents in human history, is in itself is a drama with its tragic nature. Naturally, it served as a material for a good many movies. However, unlike most other films that deal with this incident, "Train of Life" is extraordinary in that it is full of humor instead of pains and sorrows. It can be called a comedy version of the "Shindler's List" for its portrayal of the exodus of the Jews. It can also be compared to "Fiddler on the Roof" for its rendering, though fragmentary, of the culture and lifestyles of the Jews. Humanism is another pillar that props this film. While scolding the "foolish" communists and saying that the naked breasts of women are more valuable than Marx, Angels and Lenin, this film exhibits generosity to embrace the troublemaker communists. This is a sort of road movie and train is a key word. If the train that frequently appears in the Holocaust documentary "¼î¾Æ" symbolizes the horror of approaching death, the train in this film has the image of salvation, saving the people from death and carrying them to life. However, "Train of Life" is not a one-sided story of hope. We can sense the irony of life from the last short showing that Shlomo who narrates about the journey after its success is actually a prisoner. (Hong Song-nam)