Pyongyang Nalpharam () is a 2006 North Korean film directed by Phyo Kwang and Maeng Cheol-min. It is a martial arts film set during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea. One of only two North Korean films released in 2006, it received ticket sales of 6 million cinema-goers in North Korea. Critics describe the film as "routine" and "adequate."
Plot The film is set in the early 20th century, during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea. Jeong Taek is a master of Pyongyang Nalpharam, a form of the ancient taekkyon martial art perfected on Mount Taesong near Pyongyang. He returns home one day to find his father poisoned by Korean-born Japanese woman Mieko, who claims that the elder was responsible for the death of her own father. At first mistaking the woman for his childhood sweetheart, So Gyeon, Taek is forced into action when Japanese forces lay claim to the sacred texts containing the secrets of Pyongyang Nalpharam.
Cast
Release Pyongyang Nalpharam was released in August 2006,Elley, Derek. "Yanks not invited: North Korean fest bars H'wood pix". Variety, 25 September 2006. Retrieved on 27 October 2008. and received a reported 6 million admissions at the North Korean box office.Elley, Derek. Pyongyang Nalpharam Review. Variety, 27 September 2006. Retrieved on 27 October 2008. It was one of only two North Korean films released in 2006—the other being The Schoolgirl's Diary—and both films were screened at that year's Pyongyang International Film Festival.Elley, Derek. "Pyongyang pleases, teases and perplexes" . Variety, 29 September 2008. Retrieved on 27 October 2008. (Dead link)
Critical reception Derek Elley of Variety described Pyongyang Nalpharam as "a routine period actioner... with flashes of interest for Asiaphile auds", reminiscent of 1970s Hong Kong "chopsocky" films. He regarded the action choreography as "adequate", and considered only a single sequence during a "masked entertainment" to have any "real verve".
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