This one is represented as a Korean classic and is the work of their most famous director, the maker of THE HOUSEMAID.Truth to tell, it's a slog, particularly in the surviving version, with several long sections of the image missing, as the track plays over black.Filmed in black and white 'Scope, studio action is spaced by a few mountain wide shots. At it's best, it looks like the contemporary black and white Samurai adventures.Set in a remote village dominated by the Shaman, who goes into her act next to a hanging tree, the action follows a mother and son who join the family, where the father has already worn out three step mums with his awful ten son brood. Maimed by the step brothers, the boy grows up to suffer all manner of indignities. The plot uses the ritual of taking the old up the mountain to be abandoned and die, that we've seen in the Ballad of the Narayama adaptations.The piece is so grim it comes near to being comic. Some of the staging is feeble but moments do register and it is an intriguing piece of film history.