Showing posts with label fatal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fatal. Show all posts

Sunday, September 15, 2013

New Korean Films: Hauting Memories, Revenants and Regrets (2013 Week 34)

Fatal
(가시꽃)


An unpopular high school student is lead by a band to break into a girl’s place and forced to rape her with them. Ten years later, he finds her by chance at the church. She did not recognize his face, and naturally he doesn’t dare to remind her of this painful memory and thus confess his identity. He seeks at all costs to redeem himself, but when he realizes that she is still overwhelmed by the trauma, he decides to take action by finding the other attackers and confront them.

Friday, February 8, 2013

Berlinale 2013: Fatal (가시꽃) 2012


One of the ten Korean films screening at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.

Fragile and ephemeral, life is a series of moments, of complicated and random connections that constitute the fabric of our character. Each decision we make affects our path irrevocably: our actions may not always be consequential but they are nonetheless inerasable. Like a thin sheet of glass, our lives can shatter in an instant. The briefest moment can reveal our brittle fragility.

Fatal, a New Currents section debut feature from Lee Donku, begins with a life-altering moment for five people. A young woman has been drugged and raped by a gang of high school students, though one of them is an unwilling participant bullied into performing an act that will torment him for the rest of his life. Ten years later, this now 28-year-old man works for a low-rent clothes manufacturer. An encounter with a Christian group of missionaries on the street prompts him to seek some kind of salvation through religion but when he joins the group he discovers that one of his new colleagues is the woman that he and his friends raped a decade prior.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Berlinale 2013: Ten Korean Films on Show


The Berlin International Film Festival, one of the world's most prestigious film events, is getting underway today for its 63rd edition. As has been the case for the past few years, Korean cinema is featured prominently in this year's lineup, with no less than ten titles screenings across the fest's various sections. While not in attendance, MKC will highlight some of the films screening over the coming days, many of which previously screened at Korean festivals such as Jeonju and Busan.

Hong Sangsoo takes center stage as his latest film Nobody's Daughter Haewon will compete in the prestigious international competition. Following Pieta's win at Venice and Jiseul's triumph at Sundance, might Hong bring home the Golden Bear?

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

KCN: Festivals Awards and Invitations Glut (12/22-12/28, 2012)

Festival awards for Korean cineastes dominate the news this week as well as the further high profile selections during what has been a banner year for every sector of the Korean film industry.


KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Fatal Invited to Berlin International Film Festival
Lee Don-ku’s Fatal has officially been invited to the Berlin International Film Festival. Fatal, which debuted in the ‘New Currents’ section of the 17th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), was invited to the ‘Panorama’ section of the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, which is going to take place in February 7th to 17th next year. (KoBiz, November 28, 2012)

Thursday, November 15, 2012

BIFF 2012 Interview: A Chat With Fatal's First-time Director Lee Donku

Part of MKC's coverage of the 17th Busan International Film Festival.

One of the most talked-about films this year at the Busan International Film Festival was the low-budget debute feature Fatal, which screened as part of the event's signature 'New Currents' competition. A section reserved for first or sophomore features from Asian filmmakers which has discovered such respected works as The Journals of Musan (2011) and Bleak Night (2011).

Fatal's Lee Donku took some time out of his busy festival schedule to sit down and talk with Modern Korean Cinema.

Friday, November 9, 2012

WKR: LKFF, More BIFF and In Another Country's US Bow (11/03-11/09, 2012)

Reviews are still trickling in from Busan along with a wealth content from the currently underway London Korean Film Festival. Also of note is the release of In Another Country in the US

UPCOMING FILMS


(Film Business Asia, November 7, 2012)

(Variety, November 5, 2012)

(Film Business Asia, November 8, 2012)

(Variety, November 3, 2012)

Friday, October 12, 2012

WKR: Busan Showcases New Korean Films, The Thieves Opens Stateside (10/06-10/12, 2012)

A raft of Busan reviews as the festival is in full swing! The Thieves also gets a few big broadsheet writeups in the US after opening there on limited release.

UPCOMING FILMS


Wednesday, October 10, 2012

BIFF 2012: Fatal (가시꽃) 2012


Part of MKC's coverage of the 17th Busan International Film Festival.

Fragile and ephemeral, life is a series of moments, of complicated and random connections that constitute the fabric of our character. Each decision we make affects our path irrevocably: our actions may not always be consequential but they are nonetheless inerasable. Like a thin sheet of glass, our lives can shatter in an instant. The briefest moment can reveal our brittle fragility.

Fatal, a New Currents section debut feature from Lee Donku, begins with a life-altering moment for five people. A young woman has been drugged and raped by a gang of high school students, though one of them is an unwilling participant bullied into performing an act that will torment him for the rest of his life. 10 years later, this now 28-year-old man works for a low-rent clothes manufacturer. An encounter with a Christian group of missionaries on the street prompts him to seek some kind of salvation through religion but when he joins the group he discovers that one of his new colleagues is the woman that he and his friends raped a decade prior.