Splendid Outing Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Splendid Outing Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 31, 2025

Some may recall the following redolent lines of dialogue from a "little" film that has become newly relevant with a couple of relatively recent blockbuster features:

Dorothy: "But it wasn't a dream—it was a place. And you, and you, and you—and you were there. But you couldn't have been, could you?"

Aunt Em: "Oh, we dream lots of silly things when we—"

Dorothy: "No, Aunt Em, this was a real, truly live place. And I remember that some of it wasn't very nice... but most of it was beautiful. But anyway, Toto, we're home. Home! And this is my room, and you're all here. And I'm not gonna leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all, and—oh, Aunt Em! There's no place like home!"

Splendid Outing may in fact mirror some of the content alluded to in the above exchange, though in this case focal female Gong Do-hee (Yoon Jeong-hee) is not a young girl on a rural Kansas farm but instead a high powered executive in Seoul. Do-hee evidently had a twin sister who died when she and Do-hee were being born, but Do-hee is still haunted by "memories" of her sibling in the form of recurrent dreams, and for reasons which the film really doesn't overly elaborate, Do-hee decides to drive to the seaside where these "memories" evidently take place. Instead of some catharsis dealing with her past, Do-hee is suddenly thrust into a nightmarish world when she's more or less kidnapped and delivered to a brutish fisherman named Yong Dai-ho (Lee Dae-keun), who takes her to an isolated island where he insists she's his runaway wife.

While manifestly different in both tone and approach, what ensues for Do-hee in her "new" life is indeed at least somewhat like what Dorothy experiences once she's transported to Oz, though few would probably describe the hardscrabble existence Do-hee has to weather as anything comparable to the often rather luxe environments of the Emerald City and its environs. Instead, Do-hee is repeatedly abused and humiliated, not just by her ostensible "husband", but his relatives and others on the island. When she's finally able to escape, she's seen as an unbalanced lunatic, or something similar, when she tries to describe what she's been through. She also finds her former life in Seoul has pretty much evaporated, leaving her without either her previous identity or the one she was forced to assume. It's all completely surreal and nightmarish, with an unavoidably oppressive air a lot of the time, until the film's final moments which do in fact arguably reflect the situation quoted above. That decision may somewhat undercut a film that is otherwise a rather incisive deconstruction of identity in general and gender roles in particular.

Splendid Outing Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Splendid Outing is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Radiance Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Radiance's insert booklet contains the following information on the transfer:

Splendid Outing was digitally scanned and colour graded in 4K by the Korean Film Archive in 2023, using a 35mm original negative acquired in 1984, and was supplied to Radiance Films as a high definition file. Restoration was performed by Radiance Films at Heavenly Movie Corporation.

A brief prefatory text card before the feature presentation offers just a bit more information:

The film, A Splendid Outing directed by Kim Soo-yong in 1977, was digitally scanned and color graded in 4K by the Korean Film Archive in 2023 using a 35mm original negative acquired in 1984.

The somewhat roiling history of this film is addressed in some of the supplements on this disc, but while considered "lost" or at least "suppressed" for many years, the negative was at least decently curated as evidenced by the results of this presentation. The palette is very healthy and well suffused for the most part, and detail levels are typically great throughout, especially in some of the extreme close-ups of faces. Fine detail on the island locations and sets and costumes is also generally excellent. There are several scratches that show up, almost all vertical, and some extending the entire height of the frame. Grain is tightly resolved for the most part, though what look like some optical zooms understandably offer a grittier appearance.

Splendid Outing Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Splendid Outing features LPCM Mono audio in the original Korean. As befits a story that takes place either in crowded urban environments (in the bookending sequences in particular) or an isolated island, there are ambient environmental effects galore scattered throughout the soundtrack, beginning with the roar of Do-hee's Mercedes in the opening scenes. Water sounds frequently dot the track in some of the island material. There's also a quite evocative score by Kang Seok-hui which combines vocalizations with instruments. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Splendid Outing Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Ariel Schudson


• Lee Chang-dong (HD; 15:24) is a new interview with the filmmaker, who discusses Yoon Jeong-hee. Subtitled in English.


• Chung Ji-young (HD; 20:56) is a new interview with the film's assistant director. Subtitled in English.


• Stranded But Not Afraid: The Island Women of Classic Korean Cinema (HD; 16:21) is a really interesting visual essay by Pierce Conran which focuses on what is probably a largely unknown subgenre in Korean cinema, "women island dramas".

This also offers Radiance's usual assortment of packaging extras, including a reversible sleeve, a booklet with several interesting essays, and an Obi strip.

Splendid Outing Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Splendid Outing might have resonated more profoundly had the ending not been so almost ridiculously manipulative. Up until that moment, though, the film has some incisive things to say about the roles and perceptions of roles for Korean women. Technical merits are generally solid, and the supplements are also informative and enjoyable. Recommended.