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| Classic Movie Night |
Beginning with Man With Three Coffins on January 20, and continuing with Last Witness (February 17) and Crossing (March 17), this season's classic films will examine how, even 60 years on, the effects of the War continue to haunt communities, divide families and fracture Koreans' sense of identity. Each film will be followed by a guest speaker who will discuss its artistic and cultural context. Classic Movie Night 2010 Facing the War: Six Decades of Film Since the Korean War Monthly Screenings The Korea Society 950 Third Avenue @ 57th Street, 8th Floor (Building entrance on SW corner of Third Avenue and 57th Street) Tickets to each screening are available for $5 (members) or $10 (nonmembers). For more information contact Yuni Cho or (212) 759-7525, ext. 323. 2009 When Japan ruled Korea: Movies Set in the Colonial Era 2008 Past Screenings, 2010 ♦ Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 6:30 PM  Last Witness 최후의 증인 Directed by Lee Doo-yong Starring Choi Bool-am, Han Hye-sook, Hah Myung-joong and Jeong yun-hui 1980, 158 minutes Detective Oh Byeong-ho investigates a murder at a local brewery and uncovers the secret history of violence, and tragedy, between the communist guerrillas and right-wing militias that fought in the area during the Korean War. The film’s exploration of communism made it controversial in South Korea during the 1980s. Government censors cut 40 minutes from the theatrical release. Warning: This film contains graphic scenes that may be disturbing to some viewers. Guest Speaker (via video interview): Cho Jun-hyoung, researcher, Korean Film Archive; Lee Sang-joon, adjunct professor of cinema studies, New York University ♦ Wednesday, January 20 at 6:30 PM  Man With Three Coffins 나그네는 길에서도 쉬지 않는다 Directed by Lee Jang-ho Starring Kim Myung-gon and Lee Bo-hee 1987, 128 minutes As a man travels to his deceased wife's hometown near the demilitarized zone to scatter her ashes, he finds himself enmeshed in the lives of several strangers, each of whom is on their own journey to overcome the borders, physical and psychological, that have been erected by the War. Based on the award-winning short story by Lee Je-ha titled “Travelers Do Not Rest on the Road,” The Man With Three Coffins is a deeply personal and imaginative exploration of the War’s divisions that earned plaudits from the Berlin and Tokyo International Film Festivals in 1988. Guest Speaker: Henry H. Em, associate professor of East Asian studies, New York University Classic Movie Night 2009: When Japan ruled Korea: Movies Set in the Colonial Era
A lifetime on the streets of Japanese-occupied Seoul has made Kim Doo-han (Park Sang-min) an aimless brawler. But when he learns he's the son of a legendary general, Kim rises to defend local merchants from yakuza boss Hayashi (Shin Hyeon-joon). Master filmmaker Im Kwon-taek directs this award-winning action classic. (1990. 108 min. Korean with English subtitles)
**NOTE: This screening is on the fourth Thursday of January, but future films will continue on the third Thursday of each month.  Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 6:30PM Mulberry 뽕 Director:Lee Doo-yong Lee Mi-sook won best actress at the 31st Asian Pacific Film Festival for her role as a neglected wife who seeks fulfillment from other women's husbands. Set in rural, Japanese-occupied Korea, this erotic, cautionary tale is based on a story by Na Do-hyang. Contains mature themes.(1986. 107 min. Korean with English subtitles)
 Thursday, March 19, 2009 at 6:30PM YMCA Baseball Team YMCA 야구단 Overcoming disapproval from their elders, class tensions and uncertain times, the unlikely heroes of the YMCA Baseball Team bring hope to a Korea on the cusp of subjugation by Japan. Director Hyeon-seok Kim (writer of JSA) directs audience-favorite Song Kang-ho in this funny and heartwarming paean to baseball and the nation. (2002. 104 min. Korean with English subtitles)
 Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 6:30 PM The General's Son II 장군의 아들II 1991, 103 minutes Director: Im Kwon-taek Cast: Lee Ill-jae, Park Sang-min, Shin Hyeon-joon and Song Chae-hwan After the remarkable success of The General's Son, director Im Kwon-taek returned a year later with this action–packed sequel. Park Sang-min reprises his role as Kim Doo-han, the son of a legendary general struggling to keep the yakuza out of a Seoul neighborhood. With his band of fighters still reeling from its last encounter with the Japanese thugs, Doo-han struggles to unite the city's fractious Korean gangs into a force capable of defeating his old enemy, yakuza boss Hayashi.  Thursday, June 18,2009 at 6:30 PMA Public Cemetery of Wol-ha (월하의 공동묘지) 1967, 88 minutes Director: Kwon Chul-hwi Cast: Kang Mi-ae, Park No-sik, Do Geum-bong Korean with English Subtitles Beautiful kisaeng Wol-ha returns from the dead to wreak a terrible vengeance on the stepmother and housemaid who opposed her marriage. A tremendous box-office success when released in 1967, A Public Cemetery of Wol-ha (also known as The Public Cemetery Under the Moon) inspired a generation of filmmakers who emulated this horror classic by director Kwon Chul-hwi. The film is a fascinating forerunner to Nakata Hideo's Sadako and the raven-haired female ghosts that haunt contemporary East Asian cinema.  Thursday, July 16, 2009 at 6:30 PM - Double Feature
Starring: Starring Jeon Chang-geun, Yoo Kye-sun Choi Han-joong escapes from a Japanese prison where he has been held for his pro-independence activities. He finds refuge in the home of an attractive young nurse—but where do her loyalties lie? Hurrah! For Freedom was released shortly after the August 15 liberation, but the surviving print represents only a part of director Choi In-kyu's original vision. Government censors substantially edited the re-release print in the 1970s, leaving a shorter film and hints of the artistic achievement he would achieve in later films like Homeless Angel. (1946. 51min., Korean with English subtitles) Starring: Cho Taek-won, Moon Yae-bong As Korean cinema's first "talkie," Sweet Dream nearly left audiences speechless with its scandalous melodrama about a wife who abandons her family to live with another man. (1936. 46 min., Korean with English subtitles)
Classic Movie Night 2008 If Hollywood floats above the political and economic struggles unfolding around it, providing a dreamy, celluloid escape from socialt urmoil, then Korean cinema is frequently the opposite: passionately engaged with reality. Through a century of Japanese colonization,devastating war, dictatorship, rapid-fire industrialization andpolitical upheaval, Korean filmmakers have chronicled the turbulent history of their nation in painstaking detail. These films represent the best of that tradition. More than simply portraying the tumultuous events that wracked Korea in the twentieth century, they parse the various, deeply personal, meanings that thecountry’s recent past have had for those who have lived through it andimagine the lingering, unpredictable consequences of such events on the ever-fleeting present.  Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:30PM Spring in My Hometown 아름다운 시절
1998, 121 minutes Director: Lee Kwang-mo Cast: Ahn Sung-ki, Yu Oh-sung and Song Eun-suk Lee Kwang-mo’s Spring in My Hometown takes a contemplative a contemplative examination of life in a remote village as its inhabitants deal with the tumult brought on by the Korea War.  Thursday, February 21, 2008 at 6:30PM To The Starry Island 그 섬에 가고싶다 1993, 101 minutes Director: Park Kwang-soo Cast: Ahn Sung-ki, Moon Seong-keun and Shim Hye-jin When Moon Chae-ku tries to bring his father’s body back to their native Kwisong Island for burial, a legacy of bitter politics and hard choices blocks his way home. A group of islanders, still furious at how his father informed on Communist sympathizers decades earlier, won’t let Moon’s boat dock. Waiting in limbo, Moon’s memories trace the tortuous path of his father’s turbulent life.  Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 6:30PM Green Fish 초록물고기 1997, 111 minutes Director: Lee Chang-dong Cast: Han Suk-kyu, Moon Sung-keun, Shim Hye-jin, Oh Ji-hye, Han Sun-kyu, Song Kang-ho, Jung Jin-young, Myung Kye-na Makdong (meaning "youngest sibling") returns home after two years of mandatory military service to find himself a stranger in a small town that has urbanized beyond recognition. Jobless, penniless, and unable to find work to support a family on the verge of falling apart,he heads for Seoul and a world of trouble. A beautiful woman he fortuitously saved on the train ride home leads him to a new life in organized crime. Green Fish, Lee Chang-dong's acclaimed début film, features an all-star cast: Han Suk-kyu, arguably the most popular actor of the late 1990s; Shim Hye-jin, as the femme fatale; Song Kang-ho (The Host, JSA, The Show Must Go On), then fairly new on to the silver screen; Moon Sung-keun; Jung Jin-young; Oh Ji-hye; Myung Kay-nam; and Han Suk-kyu's brother, Han Sun-kyu. The film also benefited from a prestigious crew, including producer Kang Woo-suk. Often called the most powerful man in Korean cinema, Kang topped Cine21 magazine's list of the “50 Most Powerful Men in Korean Cinema” for seven consecutive years (1998–2004). At once a stark, contemporary noir and a controlled melodrama, Green Fish immediately conquered the critics and won the Dragons & Tigers Award for new Asian directors at the 1997 Vancouver International Film Festival. Prior to his first film, Lee wrote the scripts for Park Kwang-soo's To The Starry Island and A Single Spark—both classics of the early 1990s. In addition to a brief tenure as South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun’s first Minister for Culture and Tourism, Lee moved on to become one of South Korea's most prominent filmmakers. Peppermint Candy (2000), Oasis (2002), and his most recent feature, Secret Sunshine (2007), have drawn widespread critical acclaim, with the latter winning a best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival.  Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 6:30PM Young-Ja's Heyday 영자의 전성 시대 1975, 107 minutes Director: Kim Ho-seon Cast: Yeom Bok-sun, Song Jae-ho and Choi Bul-am Also known as The Golden Age of Young-Ja and Young-Ja: On the Loose A colorful melodrama of lust and innocence lost, Young-Ja's Heyday was a box-office hit and serves as a flamboyant introduction to a key Korean genre: the hostess film. Told through the reminiscences of an old flame, this cautionary tale of a woman's tragic moral and physical downfall has drawn comparisons with Kenji Mizoguchi's elegiac films,which also focus on unhappy and exploited women.  Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 6:30PM The Ball Shot By A Midget 난장이가 쏘아올린 공 1981, 100 minutes Director: Lee Won-se Cast: Ahn Sung-ki, Jeon Yang-ja, Keum Bo-ra “Violence is not just bullets, nightsticks and fists,” says one character in Lee Won-se's screen adaptation of Jo Se-hee's best-selling novel. Living a hand-to-mouth existence in the ironically named neighborhood of Haengbok-dong(happy street), Kim Bul-yi's family struggles with social acceptance, poverty and lost dreams. The film's exploration of one family's struggle to earn their daily bread illustrates Leo Tolstoy's immortal observation that "happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."  Thursday, June 19, 2008 at 6:30PM Deep Blue Night 깊고 푸른 밤 1985, 93 minutes Director: Bae Chang-ho Cast: Ahn Sung-ki, Jang Mi-hee, JinYu-yeong Abandoning his pregnant fiancée in Korea, Baek Ho-bin (Ahn Sung-ki) starts a new life in America and marries Jane (Jang Mi-hee) for a green card. Plans go awry when, despite his brutality, she begins to fall for him. Adapted from a Choi In-ho novel, this dark vision of human depravity by director Bae Chang-ho (the “Steven Spielberg of Korea” in the 80s) seta box-office record by showing both the sinister and tragic dimensions of one man's American Dream. (Warning: This film contains scenes of sexual and physical abuse.)  Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 6:30PM Black Republic 그들도 우리처럼 1990, 100 minutes Director: Park Kwang-su Cast: Moon Sung-keun, Shim Hye-jin, Park Joong-hoon Set in the aftermath of the 1980 “Gwangju Uprising,” a pro-democracy protest brutally suppressed by the Chun Doo Hwan military regime, Park Kwang-su's Black Republic offers a hard-boiled portrait of an idealist on the run from the police. The protagonist, Han Tae-hoon, finds precarious shelter in a small coal-mining town, a bleak place left behind by Korea's rapid-fire industrialization. There, he gets a glimpse of a better life, as he falls for a waitress at the local teahouse. How long will it be until his past catches up with him?  Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 6:30PM La Vie En Rose 장미빛 인생 1994, 93 minutes Director: Kim Hong-joon Cast: Choi Myeong-gil, Choi Jae-seong, Cha Gwang-su Three fugitives from the law find an unlikely hideout at a 24/7 comic book (manhwa) rental shop run by a beautiful woman known only as “Madam” (ChoiMyeong-gil). One of them is the owner’s half-brother Jee-ho (Cha Gwang-su), a labor activist; the second is Dong-pal (Choi Jae-sung), a bottom-of-the-heap gangster; the third man is Yu-jin (Lee Ji-hyung), a penniless, mild-mannered poet. As days and nights go by, an intricate web of erratic relationships forms among the guests, against the background of a bleak, blue-collar district of Seoul in the 1980s. (Warning: This film contains scenes of violence and sex that may disturb some viewers.) About the Director Kim Hong-joon is a professor at the Korean National University of Arts and the director of the Chungmuro International Film Festival. After working as an assistant to veteran director Im Kwon-Taek, Kim Hong-joon moved on to establish himself as a leading figure in Korean film culture. In addition to his provocative film work (Jungle Story and La Vie En Rose), he has programmed film festivals: from 2001 to 2005, he directed the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. From 2000 to 2005, he was a consultant to KOFIC (Korean Film Council), served as head of the Korean Film Commission, and became a recognizable television personality, introducing classic Korean films as host (and co-writer)of the television series Korean Classical Cinema Special, which served as the basis for My Korean Cinema. He is also the author of I, a Filmmaker: Kim Hong-Joon’s Film Notes, and Two or Three Things You Want to Know About Movies.
Miss the directorial touch of Shin Sang-Ok? Can't find a video store that has A Road to Return? The Korea Society's Classic Movie Night is your answer. On January 18, February 15 and March 15 at 6:30 PM, The Korea Society will put on wide screen projections of films like A Seashore Village, A Flower in Hell and Sam-Ryong the Mute. Each film will be followed by a brief lecture on the film's history and context and an audience discussion period.
Movies will be screened at The Korea Society in midtown Manhattan (950 Third Avenue, 8th Floor.)
January 18, 6:30 PM One of the first Korean films to be made after the end of the war, director Han Hyeong-Mo explored the painful and gritty realities of a freshly divided Korea with his 1954 romantic drama The Hand of Destiny. Jung-Ae (played by Yoon In-Ja) is a North Korean spy who keeps her cover by working as a barmaid. Almost by accident she saves the life of Young-Chul, a simple South Korean laborer. Love blossoms, but the deeper it grows, the more complicated and painful Jung-Ae's espionage becomes. February 15, Madame Freedom (1956) 자유부인 (Madame Freedom) One of the Korean film industry's biggest hits of the 1950s, Madame Freedom was a commerical landmark that proved quiet, socially-relevant dramas could fill theaters. Madame Freedom was also one of the most controversial films of the period, raising hot-button issues about women's role in society and the changing nature of Korean culture. 지옥화 (Flower in Hell) The first Korean movie to show an on-screen kiss, Shin Sang-Ok's classic drama Flower in Hell might ruffle contemporary audiences for a different reason. Seoul in 1958-it's setting-is a world away from the gleaming, high-tech metropolis it is today. Opening documentary footage shows a desperately poor post-war Korea, one where the only way to survive to is to forge shady relationships with the U.S. soldiers. Young-Sik is trying to get ahead in this grim environment. Living in a red light district, he makes a living robbing American military warehouses. Things are looking up when he meets Sonya, a young woman who makes him think of marriage. But she might prove the undoing of the gang's biggest heist.
June 27, A Road to Return (1967) B&W, 90 min. 1967 |
Thursday, January 22, 2009 at 6:30PM 
