You can be among the first foreign tourists to visit Yeonhee’s Supermarket in Mokpo, South Korea, where the Korean movie “1987: When the Day Comes” was filmed. Yeonhee’s Supermarket is right next to the entrance of Sihwa alley in Seosan-dong where you can see mural art and take numerous pictures without anyone getting in the way.
This area feels very much like Busan’s Gamcheon Culture Village and Jeonju’s Jaman Mural Village but then way more authentic.
1987: When the Day Comes
In the western part of Mokpo lies Seosan-dong, a neighborhood that still looks like back in the 1980s. This is also where the Korean movie 1987: When the Day Comes was shot. This 2017 Korean movie with actors Kang Dong-won, Yu Hae-jin and Kim Tae-ri was very popular in South Korea, receiving more than seven million viewers.
In January 1987, a 22-year-old college student dies during a police interrogation. Under the orders of Director Park (Kim Yoon-seok), the police request the body to be cremated in order to destroy evidence. Public Prosecutor Choi (Ha Jung-woo), who was on duty on the day of the incident, denies the request and calls for an autopsy.
You can still visit the film set used in the movie.
Yeonhee’s Supermarket (연희네슈퍼)
Most iconic is Yeonhee’s Supermarket: a small shop selling sugarplum, twisted breadstick and other snacks from thirty years ago. All these items were reproduced for the movie and still remain there for visitors to see.
When I visited, the store was closed but a friend of the owner opened it for us so we could take a look inside. He also explained a lot about the movie and the area, like that when the Japanese occupied the city they occupied the area around Yeonhee’s Supermarket but not the village up the stairs.
After living abroad he had recently returned to Mokpo and was building a coffee shop next to the supermarket and a snack shop opposite it. Both to be opened at the end of 2019, so pay him a visit if you’re in the area. He’ll gladly tell you all about the area and the movie.
Behind Yeonhee’s Supermarket there is an air-raid shelter that was built during the Japanese Occupation. The shelter was for Japanese use only. After all, they had to be safe while visiting the red-light district around the supermarket.
Sihwa alley (서산동시화골목)
When you climb the stairs, you enter Sihwa alley. The alleys in this area bring Busan’s Gamcheon Culture Village and Jeonju’s Jaman Mural Village to mind but are way more authentic. Enjoy the mural art and the poems that decorate the walls in the alley.
If you go left after the first stairs (I did so under the watchful (friendly) eyes of many locals) you can find two cafes with a good view. I visited 1987 Cafe and joined some locals enjoying tea with the owner while they were waiting for their kids to return from school. A small cafe without many facilities, but very “real”. The owner put a lot of thought into the decorations she put up. I hope you can get there before it gets too many tourists and loses its local charm.
Continuing up from the cafe you reach the end of this neighborhood (the “big” road). From there you have a nice view of the whole neighborhood with its green and blue rooftops.
How to get there
Address: 14-2 Haean-ro, 127beon-gil, Mokpo. In Korean: 전남 목포시 해안로127번길 14-2 (우)58758.
Yeonhee’s Supermarket is a 30 minutes walk from Mokpo Train Station. You can also take bus number 1 from Mokpo Station to Mokposuhyeob (목포수협) and get there in about ten minutes.
If you have a car, you can park for free in the area south of Yeonhee’s Supermarket, for example in Haean-ro, 163beon-gil.
One or two hours is plenty of time for visiting this neighborhood.
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