Partly based on the real story of a man who set up his own orphanage to look after street children, there's an air of social-realism about 'Angels on the Streets'. Having already been living under Japanese occupation before the Second World War, Korean film-making consequently shows characteristics that would come later in Italian neo-realism, but filmed while the country was at war and scripted by a Japanese writer, the heavier restrictions of censorship and propaganda placed on Korean filmmakers also makes its mark on Choi In-kyu's 1941 film.
Cruelly treated by one of the criminal gangs who exploit orphans and children living on the streets of Jong-ro in Seoul, Yong-gil (Lee Wook-ha) is separated from his sister Myung-ja (Kim Shin-jae) when he runs away. The young boy is taken in by Bang Seong-bin (Kim Il-hae), a kindly man who has helped many children in a similar predicament, much to the despair of his wife (Moon Yae-bong) who wonders where they are going to house them all. Seong-bin arranges with his brother-in-law Doctor Ahu (Jin Hoon) to rent a larger place in the country and, with apparently no consideration for social services or concern about child labour laws, sets up a noodle workshop so that they can pay for their expenses. Initially finding the country dull after living on the city streets, the kids soon come to appreciate this new life but for Yong-gil, it only reminds him of how difficult things must be for his sister. Problems arise however which reunite them, but also bring trouble to their door.
Well made and performed with conviction by the cast, Angels on the Streets is for the most part great drama in the style of Ozu's 'Record of a Tenement Gentleman', De Sica's 'Shoeshine' and the Chinese classic 'Street Angel'. Suddenly and quite bizarrely however the propaganda elements creep in towards the end of the film, the children all line-up and bow down before the Japanese flag, pledging allegiance to the great Japanese empire. This has the impact of making what appears to be a standard drama something different entirely, showing young Korean's working to rebuild a better world where even the most hardened cases can be transformed by solid Japanese values.
While ideologically there are evidently problems with such a viewpoint, it doesn't detract from the overall dramatic construction and entertainment value of 'Angels on the Streets', but rather places an intriguing slant on the historic context in which the film was made.
