Short Watch: DEER FLOWER Will Bloom in Your Nightmares

Deer Flower from KANGMIN KIM on Vimeo.

Short Watch is a weekly feature dedicated to highlighting important short films from emerging and established filmmakers. Check back each Tuesday to watch a free and subtitled Korean short on MKC.

By Pierce Conran

Screened and awarded around the world since it debuted at Sundance last year, Kim Kang-min's deranged and remarkably original short animation Deer Flower deserves all the attention it has and continues to receive.

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Short Watch: Neon Dreams of PLASTIC GIRLS

Plastic Girls from Nils Clauss on Vimeo.

Short Watch is a weekly feature dedicated to highlighting important short films from emerging and established filmmakers. Check back each Tuesday to watch a free and subtitled Korean short on MKC.

By Pierce Conran

Korea's problem with sex and sexuality has been explored by an enormous amount of artists in Korea, but never quite like in the dreamlike and powerful Plastic Girls. From Seoul-based German cinematographer and filmmaker Nils Clauss, this short takes a unique view of the objectification of the female form and explores a number of uniquely Korean spaces in the process.

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News: Golden Bear for Korean Short HOSANNA

By Pierce Conran

For the second time in five years, a Korean film has walked away with the Berlin International Film Festival's Golden Bear for Short Film. Na Young-kil trumphed with Hosanna four years after brothers Park Chan-wook and Park Chan-kyong took home the same award for Night Fishing.

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Preview: The Music of Jo Hyeja (조혜자의 음악) 2012

The New England weird fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft is a man whose reputation precedes his actual work. Known by many primarily for his xenophobic fear of "the mixing of races" and also his influence on Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, it is very rare to see anyone reading his work now. Yet, the man that critics oftentimes looked upon as a second-rate Poe was a huge influence on the development of horror and supernatural fiction in American literature. His Cthulu mythos alone has inspired writers as diverse as Stephen King and Neil Gaiman, musicians like Metallica, and also sword and fantasy games, e.g. The World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons. While in the realm of cinema his vast output has led to countless adaptations of his stories, many of which are of the low budget variety.

For Korean cinema-philes that are going to be in the Los Angeles area around September 28-29th, the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival will be screening The Music of Jo Hyeja, Korea's first foray into the dark atmospheric world of H.P. Lovecraft. The film, directed by Park Ji-hyun and written by Canadian expat Gord Sellar, is an adaptation of Lovecraft's The Music of Erich Zann, a short story about a poor university student who befriends one of the tenants in his building who night after night plays an eerie tune on his violin. The story being a pure product of Lovecraft's unique imagination the melody that the troubled violinist plays is a tune which keeps the demons and odd creatures from entering the world through the windows of the apartment.

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KOFFIA 2012: Metamorpheses (변신이야기, 2011) and the Impact of Film Schools on Korean Cinema

Part of MKC's coverage of the 3rd Korean Film Festival in Australia (previously published).

One of the aspects of Korean cinema which strikes people the most once they become acquainted with it, is the highly sophisticated level of the production values.  From a technical standpoint, Korean films are often on par or even above their Hollywood counterparts:  cinematography, sound, production design, editing, and even special effects are deftly handled with skill and care.  Wondering how this is the case for a national industry that had been until relatively recently a marginal one is a worthwhile question.  The answer therein lies in examining how a cultural and economic climate fostered this type of change.

During the intense state-driven globalization of a newly democratized Korea in the 1990s, which was known as seghewha, the cultural sector was heavily promoted.  With the creation of a few different motion picture laws that, among other things, provided tax breaks for investment in the film industry, the chaebol, which were large corporations such as Daewoo and Samsung, got involved in film production.  Just as you would modernize any other industry, the film industry’s production standards had to be quickly brought up to speed due in large part to the chaebol’s injection of significant amounts of capital.  However, it wasn’t just money that led to today’s technical proficiency.  I would argue that perhaps more than anything, it was the education of a skilled below-the-line workforce that contributed to the phenomenon.

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Wanna Help Make a Korean Film? Here's Your Chance!

There's a new and exciting Korean film on the way and you can help make it happen!  Lee Yoon-jung is looking to turn her excellent short Remember O Goddess into a feature this summer.  The 25-minute piece, a polished and intriguing affair, can be viewed below:



You may recognize the lead actor, the versatile character actor Kim Jung-tae whose lengthy career stretched all the way back to Park Kwang-su's Uprising (1999) and also includes such highlights as Kwak Kyung-taek's Friend (2001) and Lee Myung-se's Duelist (2005).  However, perhaps my favorite of his roles is in Banga? Banga! (2010) as the larger-then-life owner of a karaoke bar.

Lee's upcoming feature has a strong team of professionals assembled, including the editor of Bong Joon-ho's magnificent Mother (2009), and seems poised to be one of the most interesting Korean independent films on the horizon.

The production is looking for a little funding and has launched a Kickstarter project to raise the $30,000 by May 10 to complete this summer's shoot.  Please consider supporting this exciting project and remember that you can donate however much you feel comfortable with and if you've ever wanted to see your name in the credits of a Korean film, this is your chance!

I really enjoyed the short version of Remember O Goddess and I want to know what happens next so I'll be looking forward to seeing Lee's vision in its entirety.

Kickstarter Project

Remember O Goddess Website

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).

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