Yeonghwa, or “film” in Korean, is a good word for cinéastes to know, given the Korean film industry’s success at festivals and among critics and audiences worldwide. Korean film blends technical excellence, idiosyncratic individual expression, and an entrepreneurial spirit—filmmakers often write and direct their work, and both actors and filmmakers benefit from the country’s homegrown “star system”—while embracing a wide variety of styles and subjects. Korean cinema is generally made for a national audience, so its vision is rarely diminished by compromises in the name of global appeal. This second season of Yeonghwa includes eight feature films, opening with Rolling Home with a Bull, by Lee Soon-rye (whose 1996 Three Friends was the first film by a female Korean filmmaker to be shown in MoMA’s New Directors/New Films), and Jean Kyu-hwan’s remarkable Town Trilogy. Enriching the exhibition are short works by major Korean filmmakers from Jeonju International Film Festival’s Digital Film Project and a two-film retrospective of the late popular director Lee Man-hee (1931–1975), whose work has recently been rediscovered by a new generation of Korean film critics. All films are in Korean with English subtitles. Special thanks to Laurence Kardish, Senior Curator, The Museum of Modern Art.
Trailer credit: Hosik Kim
Thursday, September 22 through Sunday, October 2
Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019 (212) 708-9400 http://www.moma.org
Thursday, September 22 @ 4:30 PM Sunday, September 25 @ 4:30 PM
Written and Directed by Shin Su-won. With Park Hyun-young, Beack So-myung, Lee Mee-yoon. Ji-won, a mother with an impatient adolescent son and a patient husband, quits her day job to write a screenplay which she hopes to direct, although there is nothing much to suggest she could do it. She soon becomes stymied and self-involved, much to the consternation of the men in her life. Fortunately, she is also self-critical and her mental flights delight audiences while frustrating family and friends. How she saves herself from herself provides the happy ending. 91 min.
Thursday, September 22 @ 7:45 PM Friday, September 23 @ 4:30 PM
Directed by Yim Soon-rye. Written by Park Kyoung-hee. With Kim Young-pil, Kong Hyo-jin, Mek-bo. This gentle, wise comedy follows a hapless bachelor as he tries to sell, over his father’s objections, his parents’ bull. In order to get the best price, he finds himself traveling all over Korea with his bovine companion. His journey is suddenly interrupted by a call from a former girlfriend who asks him to attend her husband’s funeral. 108 min.
Friday, September 23 @ 7:45 PM Saturday, September 24 @ 1:30 PM
Written and Directed by Kim Young-tak. With Cha Tae-hyun, Kang Ye-won, Jang Young-nam, Chun Bo-keun, Lee Mun-soo, Ko Chang-suk. One of the more popular films to play in Korea last year—and already acquired for an American remake—Kim Young-tak’s fantasy comedy is a ribald and surprisingly moving tale of a failed suicide haunted by four unruly ghosts who demand constant attention. 111 min.
Saturday, September 24 @ 4:00 PM Wednesday, September 28 @ 4:30 PM
Since the first Jeonju Film Festival in 2000, three filmmakers from around the world have been asked each year by Jeonju to make a half-hour digital work. This program includes two films by major Korean filmmakers, Influenza (2004. South Korea. Written and directed by Bong Joon-ho. With Yoon Je-moon. 30 min.), followed by Lost in the Mountains (Cheopcheopsanjoong) (2009. South Korea. Written and directed by Hang Sang-soo. With Jung Yu-mi, Moon Sung-kuen, Lee Sun-kyun, Kim Jin-kyoung. 31 min.).
Saturday, September 24 @ 6:30 PM Monday, September 26 @ 4:30 PM
Directed by Kim Sang-man. Written by Kim Sang-man, Kim Hwi. With Su Ae, Yoo Ji-tae, Lee Joon-ha, Shin Da-eun. Much of Kim Sang-man’s tense thriller takes place virtually in real time during a radio broadcast, when a crazed fan, also a homicidal maniac (now a staple of Korean cinema), threatens to kill the DJ’s deaf daughter and her babysitter if she doesn’t adhere to his playlist. 106 min.
Sunday, September 25 @ 2:00 PM Monday, September 26 @ 7:45 PM
Written and directed by Im Kwon-taek. With Park Joong-hoon, Kang Soo-yeon, Ye Ji-won. Im’s 101st feature film, Hanji, about traditional paper-making by moonlight, is reminiscent of his masterwork, Sopyonje, in focusing on a traditional art of Korea. Although the story is fictional, the observations are informed by documentary. “A bunch of lunatics try to make paper that supposedly lasts a thousand years in the middle of the night,” says Im. “It’s madness. We Koreans export electronic goods and cars, but we are losing some important assets, which are cultural treasures like hanji.” 118 min
The independently made Town Trilogy, about urban anomie and displacement, includes the following three feature films, all written and directed by Jeon Kyu-hwan:
Thursday, September 29 @ 4:30 PM Saturday, October 1 @ 7:00 PM
With Oh Seong-tae, Joo Yoo-rang, Sonia Klinger, Blaise Gbato, Ange Gbato, Moon Hyung-joo, Park Seung-bae. The first film in the trilogy describes the lives of four characters, including a pianist from Slovakia and two African immigrants, who pass each other by on the streets of a soulless city. 90 min
Thursday, September 29 @ 7:45 PM Saturday, October 1 @ 4:00 PM
With Oh Seong-tae, Lee Jun-hyeok, Han Jae-sang. The second—and most violent film—in the trilogy weaves together the stories of a wild-boar sighting in the city, two men on the way to a meeting, a small business owner whose bicycle was stolen, and a taxi driver with an ankle bracelet to monitor his whereabouts. 97 min.
Friday, September 30 @ 4:15 PM Saturday, October 1 @ 1:30 PM
With Ra Mi-ran, Oh Seong-tae, Lee Jun-hyeok, Joo Yu-rang, Lee Yong-ju. The concluding film in the trilogy follows a couple from Pyongyang who try to defect to South Korea. Only the woman is successful. 95 min.
Wednesday, September 28 @ 7:45 PM Sunday, October 2 @ 1:00 PM
Directed by Lee Man-hee. Written by Han Wu-jeong and Lee Man-hee. With Moon Jeon-sook, Jang Dong-hui, Lee Dae-yeob, Kim Woon-ha, Chae Rang. Lee Man-hee made fifty-one feature films in the fourteen years he was active as a director (1961-1975). Black Hair, made early in his career, is one of his most celebrated. A fast-paced thriller or film noir, with action that virtually transcends genre, features a scarred woman, a gang boss, an opium junkie, and a taxi driver—and that’s only the beginning. Film restored by the Korean Film Archive. 115 min.
Friday, September 30 @ 6:30 PM Sunday, October 2 @ 3:15 PM
Directed by Lee Man-hee. Written by Baek Gyeol. With Shin Seong-il, Jeon Ji-youn, Kim Seong-ok, Kim Sun-cheol, An Eun-suk. A remarkable aspect of Korean cinema, and perhaps about Korean culture in general, is that so many narratives are about the fleeting nature of happiness and an inevitable dark fate. Lee Man-hee's portrait of young people in Seoul in the late-sixties is a classic and compelling example of this pervasive black attitude toward life. 76 min.
Friday, September 30 @ 8:15 PM Sunday, October 2 @ 5:30 PM
A film by Kim Ki-duk. A tour-de-force by Kim Ki-duk who was had a retrospective at MoMA in 2008. For its world premiere at Cannes in May Kim wrote: “I can’t make films now, so I am filming myself..I want to confess my life, myself as a director, and a human being. I’m making a film about me. This could be a documentary, a drama, or a fantasy. I can be the characters in the films I want to make or I can hold the camera and film myself…I need to film something to be happy, so I am filming myself.” 100 min.
Film program admittance is included with MoMA admission
Film Admission - General Public
Admission to film programs is free for Museum ticket holders, but a separate film ticket is required. Admission to film programs only; Adults $12; Seniors (65 and over with ID) $10; Students (full-time students with current I.D) $8; Children (16 and under) free.
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