Korean Film Series 2008-2009

  

CKS Film Series Descriptions

Family Ties (Kim, Tae-young, 2007, 114 min)

A witty, warm-hearted crowd-pleasing movie, this film by Kim Tae-young chronicles the relationships in a new kind of family – one bound not only by blood but by happenstance and the vagaries of love. Using a clever flashback structure, it tells two stories: In one, a humble small town woman’s wayward brother brings his new, blowsy, chain-smoking bride home to live with them. In the other, a rebellious young woman has to come to terms with her mother’s terminal illness. How these two stories intertwine is the film’s most satisfying surprise.

Romantic Papa (Shin, Sang-ok, 1960, 131 min)

This engaging comedy features the talents of two of the leading lights of Korean cinema’s Golden Age: director Shin Sang-ok and actor Kim Seung-ho. One of the most popular performers of his era, Kim specialized in playing everyman father figures whose efforts to keep their families afloat during the lean postwar years intentionally reflected the daily lives of the audiences who flocked to see his films. Starting with an almost Brechtian opening sequence (in which the characters introduce themselves to the audience with comic monologues), its story of a father struggling to support his family after he is laid off from his job is directed with Shin’s typically innovative aplomb, and treats its subject with charming, gentle humor.

The Show Must Go On (Han, Jae-rin, 2006, 112min)

Han Jae-rin’s clever comedy can be seen as a contemporary update of films like Romantic Papa. But where those earlier films depicted the privations and uncertainty of the years following the Korean War, The Show Must Go On reflects the altogether different reality of contemporary Korea, in which well-off families live in soaring high-rises and send their kids to school in Canada. Song Kang-ho – who, with his unconventional looks and undeniable charisma, resembles a modern-day Kim Seung-ho – gives a tour-de-force performance as a gangster with bourgeois aspirations, whose only desire is to set up a nice life for his family in the suburbs. But his job, his rebellious daughter, and his increasingly disenchanted wife make reaching even this modest goal difficult.

The Wedding Day (Lee, Byung-il, 1956, 78 min)

The first Korean film to win an award at an international film festival, The Wedding Day is the first of three cinematic versions of O Yeong-in’s popular 1944 play A Happy Day of Jinsa Maeng. A delightful comedy of errors that pokes fun at Korea’s marital traditions, it stars Kim Seung-ho as a local official who is overjoyed when his daughter becomes engaged to a minister who he’s never laid eyes on. When he hears a rumor that the minister is crippled, however, he hatches a scheme to marry a servant girl off to him instead. At once a detailed portrayal of traditional wedding rites and an uproarious farce, Lee Byung-il’s film is a true gem of classic Korean cinema.

Ad Lib Night ( Lee, Yoon-ki,2006, 99 min)

Three men approach a young woman on the street with a strange request: impersonate the prodigal daughter of a man on his death bed whose only wish is to see her one more time so he can die in peace. She agrees, and spends a night in a house full of the dying man’s squabbling relatives, during which she becomes a target for their unresolved resentments, and realizes something about her relationship to her own parents. Lee Yoon-ki’s clever, moving feature probes the nature of family relationships, and asks whether deception is sometimes more effective than the truth.

The Wedding Campaign (Kim, Tae-Jong, 2005, 120min)

 

The Host (Bong, Joon-ho, 2006, 119 min)

One of the biggest blockbusters in Korean film history, The Host is, on the surface, an edge-of-your-seat monster movie in the tradition of Jaws. But beneath the suspense and thrilling action scenes lies a devilishly witty critique of US-Korea relations (the monster is the result of the US Army dumping chemicals in Seoul’s Han River, and the authorities of both nations collude to cruelly manipulate the populace’s fear of the beast). More than that, it is also a critique of Hollywood itself. In the end, heroes are not tough guys with muscles and guns, but a squabbling family who just happen to get caught up in the crisis.

Empress Chung (Nelson Shin, 2005, 94 min)

The first film to be released simultaneously in North and South Korea, The Simpsons animator Nelson Shin’s feature was also partly animated in North Korea, and features a soundtrack by the Pyongyang Film and Broadcasting Orchestra. In addition to breaking new ground in artistic relations between the two Koreas, Empress Chung is an enjoyable adaptation of a traditional Korean folktale of Simchong, a dutiful daughter who sacrifices herself to restore her father’s eyesight.