Saturday, April 28, 2012

Udine Far East Film Festival Day VIII Report


Ongoing reports on the 14th Udine International Film Festival which Modern Korean Cinema will be covering onsite.

Splendid Outing
(South Korea, 1978)


The second Kim Soo-young film of the retrospective (after Night Journey, 1977), Splendid Outing was a fantastic island drama that was almost a horror in its design.  It’s also seem to be a huge influence of one of the best Korean films of the last few years, Jang Chul-soo’s Bedevilled (2010).

The film’s central protagonist is a successful businesswoman, which is an anomaly in 1970s Korea.  She owns a high rise, has a big office and seems respected by all of her peers.  She has two children but doesn’t seem to have much time for them.  Early on in the film the pressure starts to get to her and she takes a trip down to the South in her car, at which point she is swallowed up by a mob in coastal town, abducted and brought to an isolated island where she is given to a man who believes that she is his wife.

Once again, notions of female identity in contemporaneous Korea dominate.  Is she being punished for not conforming to the standard role of a woman?  The abundant power she holds is instantly stripped from her and after neglecting her duties as a mother in the home she is forced to care for a new offspring and has no means of escape.

Of course the traditional position of woman in society also comes under the microscope as she is literally stripped of all her freedom and forced to debase herself.  She is beaten and people ridicule her when she tries to explain who she is.  Like a number of other Korean films, old and new, the main character is transplanted from a comfortable urban environment to a rural one.  The islands in Iodo (1977), Splendid Outing and Bedevilled, as well as the villages in Bestseller (2010) and Moss (2010) are presented as spaces of horror, where dogmatic traditionalism or religion lead to horrific acts of abuse.

One of my favorite films of retrospective and the festival, Splendid Outing is a classic Korean film that could win over many spectators if given the chance.


A Woman Chasing a Killer Butterfly
(South Korea, 1978)


This bizarre effort from Kim Ki-young was loved by some and derided by others but it is certainly one of the week’s films that elicited the strongest response.  A Woman Chasing a Killer Butterfly (aka Killer Butterfly) seems like a cultish B-movie but it also has many philosophical overtones as it references Nietzsche and other works, including Leni Riefenstahl’s infamous Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will (1934).

I won’t bother providing a synopsis because to be honest I wasn’t really sure what was going on most of the time.  The film seemed relatively clear at first as it went through two pseudo-chapters but its third section, which swallowed most of the narrative, lost me completely.  I was frustrated not to understand what as going on but I was never bored.  Killer Butterfly is furiously inventive and often hilarious though this is not always intentional and poor subtitles from an old copy didn’t help matters.

Compared to Kim’s other films I was surprised at the lack of a polished mise-en-scene, which leads me to imagine that this was made in a rush.  This would also explain the choppy plotting and uneven pacing.  That said, I will definitely give this another chance some day, if I’m presented with the opportunity, as I think there was much that I didn’t catch during this viewing.


Afro Tanaka
(Japan, 2012)


I’ve been lucky to see some wonderful Japanese comedies this week, including Sukiyaki (2011) and The Woodsman and the Rain (2011), but it’s true that sometimes, Japanese humour can be a little dry.  The films of Miki Satoshi (In the Pool, 2005; Adrift in Tokyo, 2007), which I had a chance to see earlier this year at the East Winds Festival, walk a dangerously fine line but just about get away with it.  Afro Tanaka has a lot of charm and is frequently inventive but it pushes this style of comedy to an extreme and at times it was too much for me handle.  However, the audience in the theater certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves and true enough the film has many laugh out loud moments so perhaps this just wasn’t one for me.

Tanaka is a young man with an enormous afro who has yet to have a girlfriend.  He is invited to the wedding of a childhood friend and must now find a companion so as not to lose face.

I couldn’t quite make sense of the ridiculous afro, it was funny for a moment but over the course of the film, which stretched to nearly two hours, it starts to become a bit of an eyesore.  The script contents itself with situational comedy for the most part which is a shame as I think some more focus on the characters and a stronger plot may have yielded a much stronger film.


The Bounty
(Hong Kong, 2012)


This HK movie world premiere was attended by director Fung Chih-chiang as well as the producer, costume designer, production designer as well as a co-star.  An action-comedy about a bounty hunter tracking down a fugitive on a little island in Hong Kong, The Bounty had its moments but was not a satisfying effort.  Chapman To, the star, was hilarious but this pales in comparison to his performance in Vulgaria (2012).  There wasn’t much to the plot which in and of itself isn’t really a problem for this kind of a narrative but it dragged on for far too long.  There was a clear ending point which seemed to work quit well but then the film trundled along for another half an hour which really spoiled it.

Maybe the film would have played better if it had remained a straight comedy but as it stands its slide into melodrama was poorly conceived and killed any momentum that the film had built early on.  There were elements of the film I liked, the comedy mostly worked in the early stages and as already mentioned Chapman To was good, he’s a very reliable performer in this type of role, but overall this is not a film I could recommend to anybody besides diehard HK film fans.


Blind
(South Korea, 2011)


Previous MKC Review




Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, April 27, 2012

Udine Far East Film Festival Day VII Report


Ongoing reports on the 14th Udine International Film Festival which Modern Korean Cinema will be covering onsite.


Wang Sib Ri, My Hometown
(South Korea, 1976)


I wish I had been able to see this film earlier so that I could have included it in last December’s ‘Jopok’ (or gangster) week on MKC.  Im Kwon-taek’s Wang Sib Ri, unlike his latter The General’s Son trilogy, is a gangster film with almost no violence but that uses the mob element to convey some sort of misguided escapism.  Joon-tae is a gangster who returns to Wang Sib Ri, his hometown, after 14 years spent in Japan.  Aside from a need to reconnect with his old girlfriend he seems a little hazy on his visit’s purpose.  He meets old friends, who fill him in on everybody’s news, and starts a casual affair with a naïve but sweet prostitute.  He says he will return to Japan but we can’t be sure that he means to, perhaps he is trying to escape from the place he escaped to, to the place where he escaped from. 

Im’s film is ostensibly about Joon-tae but really he is a surrogate for us to discover a provincial town in Korea and its downtrodden characters.  Like other films in the ‘Darkest Decade’ retrospective, it is quite bleak.  Wang Sib Ri is a drab town but rather than one that has fallen into disrepair.  Like many other films that feature a character returning to his place of origin, the town is shown to have taken side during the protagonist’s absence.  The flashbacks are certainly more colorful but I’m sure how that they are meant to represent a happier time.  Keep in mind that that when Joon-tae would have left, the country was already in the midst of Park Chung-hee’s authoritarian rule.

I don’t want to spoil the end except to say that it features the strongest sequence in the film and that its conclusions are far removed from Im’s body of work in his later career.


Yeongja’s Heyday
(South Korea, 1975)


Kim Ho-sun’s film, which was the fourth most successful local film of the decade, launched the ‘hostess film’ trend and is said to be the best example of the genre.  Like most of the retrospective’s films, women, and their restrictive positions in society, are given pride of place.  Here we follow Yeong-ja, a woman who intitally moves from the country to Seoul to work as a maid but soon begins to descend into prostitution.

What is interesting and at the same time most unfortunate about Yeong-ja is that she doesn’t seem to have a hand in her destiny.  The son of the wealthy family she serves rapes her and this gets her thrown out.  One day she rides the bus, but is pushed out by the other passengers, an episode which costs her an arm.  Maggie Lee, a reporter for Variety also in attendance, made a good point that this represents the loss of her virginity and innocence.  It is violent, cacophonous moment which is incontrovertible.

The one problem for me with the film was that its conclusions were inevitable, as is mostly the case with these fallen women films.  I imagine the director was familiar with a number of Japanese examples of the genre, which range from Mizoguchi’s The Life of Oharu (1952) and Streets of Shame (1956) and Seijun Suzuki’s Story of a Prostitute (1965), though my favorite is Naruse’s When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1959).  Kim’s film was much less subdued and while it was often effective, it came off as aggressive at times.  Nonetheless, Yeongja’s Heyday was a fascinating film and its success makes me even more curious about the role of women in society during that time.


Vulgaria
(Hong Kong, 2012)


This Pang Ho-cheung film, my first, is actually playing at midnight tonight but I caught it in the library yesterday as I knew I wouldn’t manage to make to its official screening.  I had to make time for it after so many people I met implored me to watch it.

It is another film about filmmaking, which always whets my whistle, but this is goes down a different path and employs an approach that, as the title implies, is quite vulgar.  It’s very clever though as there is no violence or nudity, rather the film is replete with obscene language and some rather shocking suggestion.

A producer of Category III films is giving a talk to film students about the film trade and launches into a description of the making of his most recent film, an erotic sequel to a 70s hit, starring an ageing porn star and being bankrolled by a depraved mob boss.

Vulgaria is hilarious and probably the most fun I’ve had all week, I was in stitches in the press room.  Pang gets the film going very quickly and the pace never drops, everthing is played for laughs and nothing is off limits.  I daresay this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but if you’ve ever enjoyed a midnight screening, this comes highly recommended.


Love in a Puff
(Hong Kong, 2010)


My second Pang Ho-cheung film of the day was a complete 180 from Vulgaria.  Love in a Puff is a very modern story of a burgeoning romance set in Hong Kong.  It’s cute without being cloying and cool without seeming conceited. 

The title refers to smoking, which has just been outlawed in pubic places in 2009.  It is during smoking breaks, where workers in a neighbourhood have begun to fraternize in back alleys that Jimmy Cheung and Cherie Yue meet and slowly begin a relationship.

Love in a Puff chronicles the initial stages of their rapprochement and is full of texting, miscommunication and anxiety:  it’s fresh and it never seems forced.  Since its release in 2010, Pang’s film has received plenty of positive critical attention and it’s easy to see why but it just may be that I wasn’t as taken with it as others.  I can’t really fault the film or its style, I understand and appreciate what it set out to do and rather than say it failed to meet those aims, I’ll say that it didn’t quite suit my tastes.  I still enjoyed the film and would have liked to see its follow up, Love in the Buff (2012), screening later in the day but I wasn’t excited enough to queue for a long time to get a decent seat for the gala presentation with Pang in attendance.


Silenced
(South Korea, 2011)


Every so often, a film will set off a chain of events that has far greater ramifications than the production itself.  Silenced, which was 2011’s third highest grossing Korean film, is one of these.  It was a midlevel movie that became an unexpected hit and resulted in a national uproar and rapid legislative change.  The film, the story it was based on and the response it inspired were the focus of much domestic and international attention, garnering coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and more.

The film’s power derives from its graphic depiction of extreme events where people in positions of authority take advantage of the weak.  But it is the details and the extent to which the film’s disabled protagonists are oppressed that make it the landmark picture it is.  While it highlights depraved and heinous crimes, Silenced is fuelled by systemic abuse that applies to most Korean citizens without wealth and powerful allies.

While a fine thriller that has the power to move and shock all but the most cynical viewers, Silenced will likely be remembered more for its enormous impact on Korean society rather than for its own merits as a narrative potboiler.  It may not be the most technically proficient production of 2011 it could very well be the one that most successfully accomplished its goals.




Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Weekly Review Round-up (04/21-04/27, 2012)

A number reviews for My Way as it plays in limited release across the US and some reviews from the recent Terracotta Far East Film Festival and the current Udine Far East Film Festival.


RECENT RELEASES


(A Girl's Journey to the East, April 27, 2012)

(Cine Vue, April 22, 2012)

(Hangul Celluloid, April 24, 2012)

(London Korean Links, April 22, 2012)

(Seen in Jeonju, April 22, 2012)

Dancing Queen

(CUEAFS, April 22, 2012)

My Way

(The One One Four, April 22, 2012)

(Modern Korean Cinema, April 26, 2012)

(Twitch, April 25, 2012)

(Modern Korean Cinema, April 25, 2012)

Silenced

(CUEAFS, April 25, 2012)

(Drama Beans, April 22, 2012)

(Salon, April 21, 2012)

(Rockets & Robots Are Go, April 21, 2012)

(Columbia Daily Tribune, April 26, 2012)

(myreviewer.com, April 27, 2012)


PAST FILMS


(Japan Cinema, April 27, 2012)

(Otherwhere, April 23, 2012)

(Init_Scenes, April 24, 2012)

Iodo, 1977
(Modern Korean Cinema, April 24, 2012)

Mr. Wacky, 2006
(VCinema Show, April 24, 2012)

(Modern Korean Cinema, April 25, 2012)

Pollen, 1972
(Modern Korean Cinema, April 24, 2012)

Rainy Days, 1979
(Modern Korean Cinema, April 25, 2012)

(mihansa.net, April 19, 2012)

(Korean Grindhouse, April 21, 2012)

(Aidy Revies, April 26, 2012)

(Modern Korean Cinema, April 27, 2012)

(Modern Korean Cinema, April 27, 2012)


The Weekly Review Round-up is a weekly feature which brings together all available reviews of Korean films in the English language (and sometimes French) that have recently appeared on the internet. It is by no means a comprehensive feature and additions are welcome (email pierceconran [at] gmail [dot] com). It appears every Friday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at Korean Cinema News, and the Korean Box Office Update. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Blind (블라인드, Beulraindeu) 2011

The none-too-subtle opening sequence

First impressions are important and as film viewers we are particularly prone to making rash decisions based upon the opening moments of anything we watch.  This is perhaps even more important in this day and age as multimedia is so readily accessible.  Our already short attention spans are dwindling ever further as we can easily switch between TV channels, on demand, stored digital, and portable media.  Those first few minutes of a film can dispense a large volume of information but even so, they cannot always prepare you for what you are going to see.  Opening scenes are important but not every kind of film can benefit from a flashy beginning.

One of this year’s most successful Korean films, Blind does not get off to the greatest start and blunders on through the first act with heavy feet, trampling through the early stages of the plot.  Subtlety is not the film’s strong suit and the quicker this is accepted, the better.  Once I got used to the heavy-handedness of the proceedings I was able to enjoy myself but the film walks a dangerous line from the start.  It doesn’t really announce itself properly and seems like a relatively sober affair at first, it is only as it continues in unsubtle fashion and when things become even more ridiculous that you begin to understand the intent of the film, which is to be a trashy and entertaining potboiler.  It does succeed on that last count, but it takes a while to get there and is not without its fair share of problems.

Min Soo-ah (Kim Ha-enul) is a young trainee at the police academy and she barges in on an informal dance show and corners her brother, whom she chastises and more or less drags out by the ear.  He is cuffed to the door of the passenger seat of a police van as they bicker, presumably on the way to bring him home.  To cut a long story short: they crash, he dies because he is handcuffed, and she loses her sight.  Flashforward a few years later and she is still adjusting to the life of the visually-impaired and carrying a lot of guilt over her brother’s death. One night she gets in a taxi, or at least she thinks she does, and the driver hits someone and assuming she can’t tell the difference, tries to cover it up then swiftly disappears.  Equipped with her heightened hearing as well as her intuition and cleverness she tries to help scruffy Detective Jo (Jo Hee-bong) at the local police station track him down.  A youth called Gi-seob (Yoo Seung-ho) comes forward with some information but is dismissed as an opportunist out for some reward money.  They soon realize he was telling the truth and he becomes a part of the investigation.  Little do they know that are in fact tracking a serial killer.

Gi-seob (Yoo Eung-ho), the brother stand-in

Although it starts with a big dollop of melodrama, Blind mainly indulge in dribs and drabs.  In fact most of the melodrama that appears in the film relates to that opening scene.  Gi-seob serves as a stand-in for Min’s deceased brother and his relationship with her mainly serves as an instrument for her to forgive herself for her sibling’s untimely passing.  There are a lot of none-too-subtle parallelisms linking Gi-seob and her brother and as a result things play out exactly as you would expect them to.  More glaring is the manipulative sentimentality on display courtesy of Min’s guide dog Wisdom who provides a connection to the world for her.  Besides being cute and protective he will serve one unavoidable purpose which for me amounts to no more than a cheap trick.

Blind features a number of remarkable similarities to the much superior The Chaser (2008):  the principal protagonists both used to be in law enforcement; nighttime chase sequences through decrepit but stylistically lit alleys abound; the villain in both is an amoral serial killer of young women; and the leads don’t realize that they are chasing a serial killer until about the halfway mark.  The tone is admittedly quite different but there is a surprising amount of common ground all the same and it hardly seems coincidental.  Of course it is only natural to ‘borrow’ from something that is proven to work (The Chaser sold over 5 million tickets domestically).

While I certainly enjoyed Blind, the fact that it won both best actress for Kim Ha-neul and best script for Choi Min-suk at the recent ‘Daejong Film Awards’ is ludicrous.  Kim’s performance, while adequate, certainly did not feature the kind of measured, nuanced acting that typically receives such accolades.  In fact, her performance as a blind woman was about as subtle as a brick through a window.  Similarly, Choi’s script managed to holds its elements in place but it lacks any real intrigue or originality, besides the gimmickry, which I admit that I enjoyed. Once again his slightness of touch reminded of a guerilla in a china shop.  I don’t mind campy films, though I find it odd to see them recompensed at industry awards.  What I do need is for the filmmakers to tell me that I am watching one, not to have me suss it out at the tail end of the second act.  

Besides a strong supporting turn from Jo Hee-bong, a fantastic subway chase sequence that could double as a 10-minute ad for the iPhone, and a few clever investigatory tricks, Blind often fails to impress.  However its gusto is admirable and if you catch it in the right frame of mind you may end up really enjoying yourself.

★★★☆☆

Sentiment is cheap


Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Udine Far East Film Festival Day VI Report


Ongoing reports on the 14th Udine International Film Festival which Modern Korean Cinema will be covering onsite.



One Mile Above
(China, 2011)


A road movie chronicling a young man’s cycling trek in Tibet in the memory of his recently deceased brother, One Mile Above succeeds both in being a heartfelt voyage of discovery and a tribute to perseverance.  Du Jiayi’s  film is a beautiful work that takes tremendous advantage of the Himalayan landscape it takes place in.

Shuhao, the young protagonist, is someone who doesn’t have any direction of his own so when his brother dies he takes it upon himself to complete the trip that he had been working towards.  It is in honour of his sibling but it could also be read as an usurpation of a fixed goal as he lacks any of his own.  Throughout his journey he meets different characters who progressively become further removed from the people he knows form Taiwan.  These encounters, as well as the often difficult circumstances he finds himself confronted with, being to shape him as a character.

His growing endurance and tenacity are borne out of his developing sense of purpose and this, combined with the exceptional photography, lead to a moment of blissful catharsis that honestly gave me chills.  For that feeling and the majestic vistas alone, One Mile Above is worth the price of admission.  Catch it on a big screen if you can!


The Woodsman and the Rain
(Japan, 2011)


I have seen many films about filmmaking this year and a number of them have been standouts, including Cut (Japan, 2011) and This Is Not a Film (Iran, 2011).  Now I have another film to add to that list: The Woodsman and the Rain, from director Okita Shuichi, which is a testament to the thrill of creation.  As some people noted following last night’s screening, it is very ‘Japanese’.  This is mainly in reference to its dry sense of humour, which is full of mordant wit but it is also charming and welcoming, leading to an irresistible mix.

A taciturn woodsman in rural Japan has been a widow for nearly two years and lives with his recalcitrant son.  His fixed routine is shaken with the arrival of a film crew to his town.  The production underway is a zombie film, directed by a hoodie-wearing and diffident 25-year-old who seems to be in over his head.  The film chronicles how these very different characters begin to bond and slowly reawaken dormant pleasures, passions and creativity within them.

The pacing of the film is deliberate and by some accounts a little slow but I felt it suited the temperament well and accented the comedy.  Whereas Cut was a dark love letter to the medium which is framed in the context of the cinema’s greatest works of art, The Woodsman and the Rain is less concerned with artistic mastery than the sheer pleasure of filmmaking and swell of passion that enables it.  Shuichi’s characters do not visit the graves of Kurosawa, Mizoguchi and Ozu, instead, they are making a zombie B-movie and they seem all the better for it.


My Secret Partner
(South Korea, 2011)


I had a chance to see this before the festival and I must say that I was surprised to see it programmed.  One of the main qualifying factors for a film’s presentation at the FEFF is it popularity in its domestic market as the festival is a showcase for ‘Popular Asian Cinema’.  My Secret Partner (aka Perfect Partner) does not warrant that distinction.  In fact it was a flop, attracting less than 100,000 viewers at the time of its release.  So one would be forgiven for thinking that, since it was not a commercial hit, it must have been a critical one.  Once again this is not the case as the feature was mostly derided when it hit screens and then promptly forgotten.

I’m sure you can see what I’m hinting at: yes, it’s a bad film.  I had low expectations but was hoping for a surprise and though it gets off to a decent start, it begins to fade rather quickly.  The main problem is that it is a thin premise, furthermore it isn’t mined very well.  Compounding this is the film’s 125 minute running time, which, in the back stretch, feels like an eternity.

My Secret Partner aspires to be a relevant erotic romance but it’s lacks any real weight and its punchline, is never a mystery and it elicits little more than a shoulder shrug when it finally arrives.  And what does it say?  Not a blessed thing, which, in itself, is telling of the film.  Park Heon-soo’s film seems like it might have a purpose early on but any such hope evaporates by the halfway point.  By that time, it just becomes a chore.




Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Udine Far East Film Festival Day V Report


Ongoing reports on the 14th Udine International Film Festival which Modern Korean Cinema will be covering onsite.

Yesterday was very much a Korea-centric day.  It began with a 5:30am wakeup so that I could log onto Skype for an interview at 6:00am with someone in Korea, but this had nothing to do with Udine.  After writing my Day IV Report I went to the festival centre to take in the second double bill of the 1970s Korean film retrospective.  Following that I had the chance to see one of last year’s biggest Korean hits, one I’d been aching to see.

The evening’s panel was on the ‘Darkest Decade’ retrospective and featured curator Darcy Paquet and noted Korean film director and scholar (currently professor at K’Arts) Kim Hong-joon.  The talk began with a short video by Kim where he discusses March of Fools, a 1975 Kil Ha-chong (director of the previous day’s Pollen) film that was unfortunately not available for the FEFF.  The talk was fascinating and both panelists drew on their extensive knowledge of Korean cinema and shared some choice anecdotes. I only wish it could have gone on longer!

I didn’t catch the next Korean film screening as I had already seen (and reviewed) it so I took my leave to go back to the hotel early since the last three nights had yielded less than 15 hours of sleep.

No retrospective films today but I’m hoping to catch Dangerously Excited (South Korea, 2012), which screened before I arrived, in the press library.  I'm also looking forward to the The Woodsman and the Rain (Japan, 2011).


Rainy Days
(South Korea, 1979)


First up was Rainy Days (aka Rainy Season) which is one of the last films that Yoo Hyun-mok ever made.  Yoo is rightly famous for directing Obaltan (aka Aimless Bullet, 1961), which, along with The Housemaid (1960), is considered one of the defining works of Korean cinema.  Rainy Days may not have the visceral impact of his previous classic, but then again Obaltan was made during a brief transition period in the early 60s during which censorship was very lax.  This film is borne out of different circumstances and a careful examination of it reveals how a clever director like Yoo is able to bend the limitations of studio filmmaking, in a heavily censored era, to his advantage.

The film is set in a small rural community during the Korean war and while ostensibly an anti-communist film I couldn’t help but think that he was also making a statement about the society and political atmosphere in contemporaneous Korea.  Fear of recrimination is a large part of the film but perhaps even more so is hypocrisy, which has actually been an overarching theme in all the films that have so far been screened in the retrospective. 

The film if beautifully made and these works continue to surprise me with the high degree of sophistication with regards to their film technique.  Another great film from Yoo Hyun-mok and I hope to see it again soon, as I must admit that I was a little (very) tired during the screening after my late night finish and early morning start!


Night Journey
(South Korea, 1977)


The first thing that struck me about Kim Soo-young’s Night Journey was its star Yun Jeong-hie, who picked up numerous international accolades for her exceptional performance in Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry (2010).  She made an enormous amount of films in the late 60s and 70s but of course precious few are available now.  I may even have been slightly uncomfortable seeing the woman who played the sweet grandmother in Poetry in such a lascivious role.

Kim’s film is a brief and focussed affair which examines the role of the independent, city-dwelling woman in Korean society circa the 1970s.  She plays a bank clerk having an affair with her supervisor but she is left sexually unsatisfied and even the hope of getting a husband out of the ongoing encounters is dashed as he finds the institution of marriage ‘lame’.

Hypocrisy rears its ugly head again as women are given the short shrift in Kim’s film as their changing role in society is ill-accepted by its patriarchs.  She may work in a bank but there is never a question that she could ever rise up to management.  She is referred to as an 'old maid' at work and thus is under pressure to get married because at this point in time, Korea offers no other recourse for a woman approaching middle age.

I loved how Kim’s film was short and to the point, it managed to say a lot in 76 minutes and I’m still going over it in my mind.


Punch
(South Korea, 2011)


Punch was Korea’s third most successful film last year which was a bit of a surprise but after seeing it, it quickly becomes clear why this film raked in so much cash: it’s a winner.  An exceptionally well-crafted studio fell-good hit, Punch has a lot going in its favor but its anchor is Kim Yun-seok, the formidable star of Tazza: The High Rollers (2006), The Chaser (2008), Running Turtle (2009), TheYellow Sea (2010) and this summer’s hotly anticipated The Thieves (2012).  Kim is a joy to watch on screen, he’s known for very intense roles but for me the common element that binds all his roles together is just how funny he is.  He’s extremely droll and his droopy eyes are able to convey such a range of emotion and I honestly don’t know how he does it.

Everyone had a great time with this and the whole theater was in stitches throughout most of the film.  Kim certainly plays his part but the supporting cast is also superb.  Anyone who had a chance to see Moby Dick (2011) earlier this week will have recognized Kim Sang-ho, the stout little actor with the bald head and frizzy hair who brightens up even the worst film, and he has been in some atrocious ones, such as last year’s woeful Champ.

Punch is a coming of age story about a resourceful but reserved young man who has grown up without a mother and in a poor and unconventional setting.  His teacher (played by Kim) lives next door and constantly harangues him, though it is obvious that he is affectionate towards him.  Themes of multi-culturalism, religion and acceptance abound in the narrative and while the going is often light and frothy, the subtext is clear and very well integrated.  This kind of a film, which inevitably takes detours into sentimentalism, is of the sort which often gets into trouble with suffocating melodrama and disingenuousness but director Lee Han has a firm command of the material and his film has a lot heart and it does pack a but of a punch.  Highly recommended for all-comers.


Penny Pinchers
(South Korea, 2011)


Previous MKC Review




Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Korean Cinema News (04/19-04/25, 2012)

I was away at the 14th Udine Far East Film Festival when this update was meant to go out but I don't think I missed very much save the big Cannes lineup announcement which featured two hotly anticipated Korean films in the main competition.


KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Showbox, Huayi Brothers Join Forces for Mr. Go 3D
Korea’s Showbox/Mediaplex has entered into an investment and distribution partnership with Chinese studio Huayi Brothers for its upcoming sports action drama Mr. Go 3D.  Huayi Brothers has agreed to invest $5m into the film, which is guaranteed a 5,000-screen release across China in summer 2013 and wide releases in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. More than half of China’s 10,000 screens are 3D-equipped.  (Screen Daily, April 19, 2012)

Two Korean Movies Invited to Compete at Cannes
Hong Sang-soo's In Another Country and Im Sang-soo's The Taste of Money have been invited to the 65th Cannes Film Festival next month.  This marks the fourth time that two Korean films have been selected for the official competition of arguably the world's most prestigious film festival in the same year. (The Chosun Ilbo, April 20, 2012)

Jeonju Film Festival Puts Indie Films Before Global Blockbusters
Jeonju, a city best known for its bibimbap (mixed vegetables and rice), will be abuzz for a different reason starting Thursday, with indie film fans, directors and stars visiting for the 13th Jeonju International Film Festival.  Steadily growing in scale and recognition alongside bigger rivals including the Busan International Film Festival, online tickets for more than 70 screenings have already sold out, though some can still be purchased at the event.  (Joong Ang Daily, April 20, 2012)

King of Pigs Animation Invited to Cannes
Yeun Sang-ho's animated feature film The King of Pigs has been invited to Cannes next month to feature at a special screening of the festival's Directors' Fortnight.  Other Korean films previously presented in the section include Peppermint Candy (1999) by Lee Chang-dong, The President's Last Bang (2005) by Im Sang-soo and The Host (2006) by Bong Joon-ho.  (The Chosun Ilbo, April 25, 2012)

Korean Film Council Establishes Animation Export Fund
The Korean Film Council (KOFIC) devotes sizable time to sponsoring the filming and production of movies in South Korea, as well as the promotion of completed films once they hit the international festival circuit.  For the Korean animation business, however, it's a story of equal interest but far lesser success.  (Animation Insider, April 25, 2012)


INTERVIEW

Hyeong-Cheol Kang, Director of Sunny
On the second day of the 14th Udine Far East Film Festival in Italy, CUEAFS member Antoniya Petkova had the distinct pleasure of talking with renowned South Korean director Hyeong-Cheol Kang and producer Han-na Lee, both in town to promote the opening night screening film of their latest effort Sunny (2011). (Cine-Vue, April 24, 2012)

BOX OFFICE


Battleship Stays Afloat With Another First Place Finish
(Modern Korean Cinema, April 23, 2012)


Korean Cinema News is a weekly feature which provides wide-ranging news coverage on Korean cinema, including but not limited to: features; festival news; interviews; industry news; trailers; posters; and box office. It appears every Wednesday morning (GMT+1) on Modern Korean Cinema. For other weekly features, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update and the Weekly Review Round-up. Reviews and features on Korean film also appear regularly on the site. 

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

0 comments
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Udine Far East Film Festival Day IV Report


Ongoing reports on the 14th Udine International Film Festival which Modern Korean Cinema will be covering onsite.

As I made my way across the Swiss-Italian border early yesterday morning I was informed by the ticket inspector on my train of an unfortunate detail concerning the Italian rail system.  He spoke German and Italian but no French or English so he kept it simple: “STRIKE! NO CONNECTION!” he bellowed with emphatic hand gestures for further clarification.  As it turned out there were some trains running it but it was luck of the draw.  I would wait for a train only to learn a minute or two before it was meant to arrive that it was cancelled.  As a result I slowly made my way across the Italian peninsula, with lengthy stops in Milan, Venice and Trieste before finally arriving in Udine at 11pm, I had begun my day at 4:30am.

Nevertheless I was thrilled to arrive and terribly excited for my first pair of films, both from the 1970s “Darkest Decade of Korean Cinema” retrospective:


Pollen
(South Korea, 1972)


My very first Korean film from the 1970s was the debut of Ha Kil-jong, who would only produce a small body of work before his untimely death in 1979 at the tender age of 37.  Pollen certainly was a dark film and, though the production of the feature was not always of the highest standard, it was an infectious and sometimes delirious film all the same.  It’s also very difficult to categorize, it was a domestic melodrama to be sure but it was also a sort of psychedelic, horror erotica as well.  Regardless of its classification, it was a fascinating film from a filmmaker who was evidently a keen cinephile, as it draws on a vast array of world cinema influences, including the works of Pasolini, Antonioni and Bergman.

Min-ja is a young girl who lives with her sister whose her husband brings home his protégé one day.  Thus begins a tempestuous affair that, unsurprisingly, leads to disastrous consequences.

There is a great deal of repression and hypocrisy on display in the film and much of what unfolds is affected with a biting and mordant wit.  The house where most of action unfolds is someone called the Blue House, an obvious reference to the building that house Korea’s head of state.  In fact much of the film is informed by the contemporaneous political situation, as I imagine much of the retrospective will be.  The 1970s was very much dark decade for Korea, under the brutal and oppressive authoritarian regime of Park Chung-hee.

One of my favorite sequences was a party that takes place in the house.  There is an intense and yet downbeat energy that abounds as the well to do guests seem bent of their own gratification.  They are in a trance, stuck to each other but vacantly staring off in silence as they amble to a pulsating and psychedelic funereal march.  The editing is both languid and frantic as it, along with the piercing cinematography, highlight this macabre dance of the dead.


Iodo
(South Korea, 1977)


Kim Ki-young is one of the most well known names of classic Korean cinema, having directed the seminal ‘Golden Age’ melodrama The Housemaid (1960), which was later remade by Im Sang-soo in 2010.  While he was an important presence in the Korean film industry in the 1960s, he was not so well regarded in the 70s, though he was no less productive.  Iodo, from the second half of the decade, is an extraordinary film though admittedly a difficult one that would have had trouble finding an audience at the time of its release.

An intense island melodrama, the film incorporates numerous themes into a densely structured but well though out narrative.  Two films almost immediately came to mind as I watched it:  the classic Shinto Kanedo film Naked Island (1960) and one of Korea’s best efforts from 2010, Bedevilled.

Compared to the morning’s Pollen, Kim’s film is a much more polished affair where he puts his experience to good use.  The impressive mise-en-scene is at the same time austere and vigorous.  His film grips you with its impressive and rugged vistas and gets under your skin with its potent undercurrent of paranoia.

Another film that comes to mind is The Wicker Man (1973), here instead of paganism, we are privy to an almost cultish vein of shamanism.  Kim’s film’s uses the rural site as a place of horror.  A locale that cannot be escaped and draws people back.  The motif is a wellspring of thematic material as Iodo not only covers shamanism but rural society, childbirth and motherhood, gender roles and even environmental issues.  What’s amazing is that despite the wealth of topics explored, none feel rushed and, instead, all come together to form an invigorating and often horrifying cohesive whole.

I can’t wait to see Kim’s other retrospective film A Woman Chasing a Killer Butterfly (1978) not to mention his work The Insect Woman (1972) which has been languishing in my in pile for far too long.  This and Pollen were a terrific double punch and I’m dying to see what the rest of the week has to offer.


Sukiyaki
(Japan, 2011)


Tetsu Maeda’s Sukiyaki was a wonderful and whimsical work that was exceptionally successful in inspiring a reaction from our most important organ.  I speak of course, of our stomachs.  I think that I and the rest of the audience were salivating throughout the film’s entire running time, I know that Fabien Schneider (cinemeasie.com), who I saw it with, was afflicted with an intense craving for ramen afterwards.

The story is a cute one, if such a word is appropriate in the setting, that focusses on inmates sharing a cell who take their meals very seriously and are about to embark on their annual tradition of recounting their favorite meals in a bid to get some extra helpings during their upcoming New Year’s feast.  The only difference this year is that there is a new cellmate who, at first, refuses the join the proceedings, opting instead to wile away his time sulking in a corner.

The camaraderie of the prisoners is a real joy and in no small part due to the tremendously engaging cast.  They each got their shot at the spotlight when they recount their stories, which mostly tie in with the causes of their incarcerations.  Realism is squarely thrown out the door early and this is a wise decision as on the one hand it makes the film more fun but also makes it accepts that the film depicts a prison that you would want to go to.

Make no mistake though the star of this film is the food, the element that is often not given its proper dues in cinema.  The last Japanese film to make my stomach grumble was Koreeda’s wonderful Still Walking (2008) and many other Asian films have made my stomach ache, such as Taiwan’s Eat Man Drink Woman (1994) and Korea’s Le Grand Chef (2007).

The only worries for me were that at the end of the day it didn’t seem to say a great deal and the precisely structured narrative was almost too episodic.  Those petty grievances aside though, I highly recommend Sukiyaki though implore you not to watch it on an empty stomach!


I really enjoyed my first day at the FEFF where I got to see some great films and take part in a panel on music in film with Korea’s Kang Cheol-heyong (Sunny, 2011) and Koo Ja-hong (Dangerously Excited, 2012) and Taiwan’ Giddens (You Are the Apple of My Eyes, 2011).  I was also thrilled to meet many wonderful people, including Darcy Paquet (the curator of the 1970s retrospective), who is something of an idol for me.  Lastly, I was also interviewed by Antoniya Petkova for CUEAFS!

Greatly looking forward to what today has to offer.


Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema.  For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).

To keep up with the best in Korean film you can sign up to our RSS Feed, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

0 comments
Labels: , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)