About the Film

Bae Chang-ho’s debut feature was not an easy one to make. Although the source material, Lee Dong-chul’s semi-autobiographical novel, was a best seller, Bae had to face government censors, which, at a time when Chun Doo Hwan’s regime was at a fool bloom after a violent suppression of civil unrest, were at the pick of their power and of their strictness. Even before the start of production, the script was rejected five times and the censors listed 60 elements that they wanted changed. The requested changes included the film’s title, the attitude of policemen towards the slum residents, and a husband pulling on his wife’s hair during a fight. Their objections were seemingly not so much ideological, as an effort to weaken the film’s potential impact. Bae went ahead and shot the film in his own way, and managed to avoid at least some of the requested modifications. (Source: Darcy Paquet, Far East Film Festival)

Synopsis

Myeong-sook is nicknamed “Black Glove” because of the glove she always wears on her right hand, and is a rather unlucky woman who is stuck with an alcoholic, gambling husband, Tae-seop, who seems to have no sympathy for her 6-year-old son from another father, Joon-il. She wakes up every morning at dawn to do the laundry and is about to open a convenience store in the slums she lives, but Tae-seop keeps stealing money from her to indulge his “passions”, while Joon-il is repeatedly caught stealing, probably as a reaction to the treatment he receives in their rundown house. One day, Joo-seok, a very handsome taxi driver appears on the neighborhood, and he is soon revealed as the true father of Joon-il, although Myeong-sook has kept his presence a secret from her son, lying to him that his father was dead. As the story of the two is revealed through flashbacks, inevitably, Joon-il’s wish to “claim” his family back brings him into a clash with Tae-seop, who seems to harbor secrets of his own, while the whole situation takes a rather significant toll on the kid.

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