Yeonghwa: Korean Cinema Today 2012 - In Another Country (다른 나라에서, Dareun Naraeseo) 2012

Part of MKC's coverage of the 3rd Yeonghwa: Korean Cinema Today event at NY's Museum of Modern Art. (previously published).

Quick disclaimer before barreling on with my discussion of Hong Sang-soo’s latest: This is the first film I’ve seen in a theater since my move to Korea and I saw it without subtitles and it must be said that my knowledge of Korean is fairly limited.  That said, over two thirds of In Another Country is in English and I was able to more or less follow the rest as well.  Undoubtedly there were some things I didn’t pick up on, so in the interest of full disclosure I thought I’d mention it.

Clearly, the most remarkable thing about Hong’s 13^th feature is the presence of French screen legend Isabelle Huppert in the lead role.  This fact was picked up on by many global news outlets and gave the film some more recognition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, versus last year when Hong’s previous feature The Day He Arrives was screened.  It may also have been what landed it in the main competition.  However, while it was well received, it was left out during the closing night’s awards ceremony.

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U.F.O. (2011)

One of the recurring motifs in Korean cinema is the representation of repressed trauma. Whether as a lazy deus ex machina in a rote romcom or the underlying social agenda of an auteurist prestige pic, it never seems to be far from the surface. It’s prevalence in the country’s film industry is in itself an indication of just how important it is. Having been subjected to numerous colonizations and following decades of inequity at the hands of local autocratic governments, Korea is no stranger to psychological wounds and dark memories. However, as the country finally moved into the light, slowly but surely, following the end of Chung Doo-hwan’s administration in 1988, this trauma has been relegated to the basement. But then, why shouldn’t this be the case?

We all have memories we would rather forget but rather than a few isolated instances, Koreans have had whole generations that still haunt them. The need to forget is potent and has almost become a collective requirement of Korean society. Of course none of it can truly be forgotten and the past is constantly alluded to, if rarely overtly. Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder (2003), as a heavily cited example, was a breathtakingly complex work that encompassed the collective repression of a nation’s trauma, but it did so in the guise a serial killer genre piece. The fact that five million people saw it is also a testament to the need for these subtle acts of mnemonic cleansing.

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Architecture 101 (건축학개론, Geonchukhakgaeron) 2012

By Rex Baylon

Woe to all the young lovers around the world. In the arena of melodrama there seems to be no greater sin than to be young and in love. And within the confines of Korean film, a national cinema that relishes in using sickness, war, class conflicts and all manner of other obstacles great and small to keep its young lovers apart, the cinematic landscape is littered with countless failed and stillborn romances that have withered on the vine due to masculine pride or the natural process of time. The trauma brought on by these failed first time affairs of the heart reverberate all the way to adulthood with failed marriages, arrested development, and emotionally vacant characters being familiar tropes within the Korean romance genre.

After dabbling in the eerie atmosphere that is K-Horror with the supernatural thriller Possessed (Bulsinjiok, 2009), architect-turned-filmmaker Lee Yong-ju was back in the spotlight in 2012 with his new project Architecture 101. Revolving around the complicated relationship between an architect, Seung-min, played by Uhm Tae-woong, and his first love, Seo-yeon (Han Ga-in). Lee’s sophomore feature uses a split narrative focusing half the story in the not-so-distant past, where the two lovers of our story first meet and subsequently fall in love, and the present day where, for reasons not yet made aware to us, Seung-min and Seo-yeon have drifted apart and are no longer together. Commissioned by Seo-yeon to design a new home for her on Jeju island, Architecture 101 follows the same story beats that countless Hallyu love stories have followed since Hur Jin-ho’s masterpiece Christmas in August (1998).

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KCN: New Park Chan-wook Project, Pieta Oscar Bid, BIFF Sched. & Thieves Triumphs in HK (09/13-09/19, 2012)

Lots of news this week as Park Chan-wook takes on yet another new film, BIFF announces its schedule, Pieta gets its chance for Oscar glory and The Thieves begins its world conquest.

KOREAN CINEMA NEWS

Park Chan-wook Signs Onto Another New Project with Gangster Pic Corsica '72

Only a few weeks after signing on to the western The Brigands of Rattleborge, Park Chan-wook has taken on an additional Hollywood gig. This new project is one that has been knocking around for a while after appearing on Hollywood's Black List (a yearly industry poll of tinseltown's best unproduced screenplays) in 2009. Previously Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall, 2006) and Luca Guadanigno (I Am Love, 2009) had been attached to the script by the scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade who have been involved in all the recent Bond films.

Corsica '72, as the title would suggest, takes place on the small mediterranean island and follows two best friends who grow up to find themselves on opposite sides of the law and in love with the same woman.

It seems that this project will go ahead of Rattleborge as that one will require more time for casting due to its violent nature. It's great to see Park so busy these days but personally I was hoping he would head back home to helm another feature in Korea rather than do three on the trot stateside. But who am I to complain when I now have three films to look forward to from one of the world's best filmmakers? (Modern Korean Cinema, September 18/Twitch, September 18, 2012)

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The 3rd 'Yeonghwa: Korean Cinema Today' at MoMA - Preview

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is kicking off its 3rd edition of Yeonghwa: Korean Cinema Today tomorrow and the event, which features an eclectic array of arthouse and commerical films until its conclusion at the end of the month. Our US correspondent Peter Gutierrez offers up his views on a trio of featured works below (Helpless, Mirage, and A Fish) while I've chimed in with my own two cents on the new Lee Sang-woo film Fire in Hell.

More reviews will appear over the coming days and anyone in NY should do their best to check out this great event. The wonderful lineup, which includes In Another Country, Blind, Pink, Stateless Things, Jesus Hospital, Poongsan, From Seoul to Varanasi and some Shin Sang-ok films, can be viewed in full by following the below link:

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Masquerade (광해, 왕이 된 남자, Gwang-hae, Wang-i Doin Nam-ja) 2012

by Simon McEnteggart

Mark Twain's seminal novel 'The Prince and the Pauper' has long endured as a classic for the manner in which it exposed the gulf between the upper and lower classes. The trials and tribulations that Prince Edward and Tom Canty undertake allowed Twain to explore the vast lifestyle differences amongst the 'haves' and 'have nots', with each protagonist utilising their prior experiences to emphasise the hardships and the unfairness evident in both. As a result the story has resonated with audiences of all socio-economic backgrounds, and in today's financial climate, it is perhaps more relevant than ever before.

With Masquerade, screenwriter Hwang Jo-yoon has adapted Twain's novel to Joseon dynasty Korea, with the case of mistaken identity transferred to King Gwang-hae and a lowly comic actor. With its well-structured and highly entertaining script, confident direction from Choo Chang-min and an enthralling set of performances headed by Lee Byeong-heon, Masquerade is without a doubt one of the best films of the year and a testament to the quality of Korea's period dramas.

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KBO: Masquerade Is King, Pieta Enjoys Golden Lion Bump (09/14-09/16, 2012)

Masquerade Is King, Pieta Enjoys Golden Lion Bump 

	Title	Release Date	Market Share	Weekend	Total	Screens
1	Masquerade	9/13/12	53.30%	1,097,619	1,278,064	809
2	Resident Evil 5 (us)	9/13/12	14.30%	245,915	304,150	368
3	Pieta	9/6/12	7.20%	148,163	353,379	325
4	The Bourne Legacy (us)	9/6/12	6.50%	135,767	913,877	345
5	Traffickers	8/29/12	4.60%	92,289	1,534,579	305
6	Wolf Children (jp)	9/13/12	3.40%	77,796	85,933	225
7	The Expendables 2 (us)	9/6/12	2.50%	53,444	416,236	253
8	Neighbors	8/22/12	2.00%	40,285	2,416,188	222
9	The Thieves	7/25/12	1.50%	32,033	12,923,537	194
10	Insidious (us)	9/13/12	1.30%	27,488	35,030	178

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CinDi 2012: Egg and Stone (Jidan he Shitou, China) 2012

Part of MKC's Coverage of the 6th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival.

By Rex Baylon

The Chinese film Egg and Stone tackles an issue that has been circulating around the news lately: rape. To be more precise, the rape and exploitation of young teenage girls by couples with no way to conceive. The tragic irony is that China, a nation on the up-and-up as it takes over the world’s manufacturing burden is, outside of a few densely packed metropolises, still a very poor and impoverished country. Progress is paid for by the blood of the poor and the cogs of that machine need it on a daily basis to keep the gears moving.

For Honggui, the female protagonist of Egg and Stone, any illusions that her future could hold anything other then the drudgery of housework or the boredom of a village life has long eroded with the crippling realization of her second-class status mainly as a result of the sexual organs she was born with. Although China may need more and more bodies to fill its factories and skyscrapers, a woman’s value is still gauged by her ability to conceive and rear a healthy baby boy. Sadly, anything less than that and women are pushed farther down the totem pole. The fate of many infant girls involve either abandonment, adoption by overseas families, or being sent away to childless families in the countryside to be worked like cattle.

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WKR: Pieta and The Thieves on the Intl. Circuit (09/08-09/14, 2012)

Packed WKR this week with lots on Pieta, post-Golden Lion win, and a number of writeups on The Thieves following its HK release and TIFF screening.

CURRENT FILMS

Pieta

(Joong Ang Daily, September 14, 2012)

(My Dear Korea, September 14, 2012)

(Screen Daily, September 4, 2012)

(Seongyong's Private Place, September 7, 2012)

The Thieves

(HK Knows Hong Kong, September 6, 2012)

(InSing.com, September 12, 2012)

(keukey's world, September 11, 2012)

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CinDi 2012: Masquerade (가면놀이) 2010

Part of MKC's Coverage of the 6th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival.

Let me get this right out of the way first, this is NOT about the brand new Lee Byung-hun period pic of the same title which came out in Korean theaters today. My timing may not great, but so be it.

I knew Masquerade was a documentary and based on the one still that was attached to it in the CinDi program. I assumed it had something to do with pantomine or some sort of performance. To say that I was way off the mark would be something of a cataclysmic understatement. Nestled among a crowd of mostly young women, I grew somewhat uncomfortable when the narrative revealed itself to me for the first time. You see, Masquerade is a hard-hitting film about child abuse in Korea and how it is often ignored by society at large.

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CinDi 2012: Lilou's Adventure (Lilou No Boken, Japan) 2012

Part of MKC's Coverage of the 6th Cinema Digital Seoul Film Festival.

The world of cinema is one we often use to reflect upon ourselves, one where our deepest desires and our darkest impulses are laid bare. Filmmakers habitually use the medium to explore the different facets of our personality but also to ask questions. Good cinema is almost always inquisitive and the further we delve inwards the less concrete our footing becomes. The land of dreams and of the subconscious has been a domain of choice for artists since time immemorial. Through paintings, poetry, books, performance art and more, our unknowable mental projections have maddened and gladdened artistic minds.

Cinema, perhaps more than any other medium, is an ideal canvas for exploring the nebulous impressions we constitute around our internal and uncontrollable visions. From an aesthetic standpoint it is both visual and auditory and yet much is still arrived at through interpretation. However, dreams, which are non-linear by design, are oftentimes difficult to narrativize and their depiction on screen, when not handled carefully, can sound the death bell of a production. Sometimes, these representations of our inner thoughts are best appreciated as sensory experiences, gleaning meaning from them is often a fool’s errand. Yet in rare circumstances, a filmmaker has been able to apply dream logic to a workable plot structure. The most clear example of this, though a divisive one, is David Lynch’s Mullholland Drive (2001). It’s a classic Hollywood narrative that has been broken down and reassembled through dream logic, though it took at least four tries for me to come to that conclusion.

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KCN: Kim Ki-duk Wins Historic Golden Lion and Busan Unveils Lineup (09/06-09/12, 2012)

Big week for news as Kim Ki-duk scoops up the Golden Lion and BIFF unveils its programme! Much more besides including the promotional material for The Perfect Number, the Bang Eun-jin thriller based on the Keigo Higashino novel 'The Devotion of Suspect X.'

Venice

Kim Ki-duk's Pieta Takes the Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival
It has been extensively reported at this point but it's wonderful to hear that Kim Ki-duk's Pieta took the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival. This marks the first time a Korean film has scooped up top honors at one of the major three European fests (Berlin, Cannes, Venice)! It is also a major comeback for Kim Ki-duk and proof of his popularity overseas. Also encouraging is the film's strong performance in Korea, which was bolstered by the international accolade, jumping four spots in the rankings in a single day. (Modern Korean Cinema, September 12, 2012)

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