상록수(1961) / Evergreen Tree ( Sangnoksu )

★ Best Film, 9th Asian Film Festival (1962); Best Actress (Choi Eun-hee), 1st Grand Bell Awards (1962)

Two young graduates return to their home villages under Japanese occupation to build a community hall and a literacy school, convinced rural Korea can be lifted one classroom at a time. Arrest and colonial suppression close in before either can finish the work, and the ending withholds the reunion the pair spend the whole film working toward.

Why it's free: Free on the Korean Film Archive's own channel; the national archive holds and restores the prints it publishes.