February 26-27 at IFC Center
A special line-up of acclaimed South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho's box-office mega-hits will include showings of Barking Dogs Never Bite and Memories of Murder, and shorts Incoherence and Sink and Rise. Bong will attend the screening of his latest film, The Host, for a Q&A afterwards.
To listen to the post-screening Q&A interviewclick here. To read post-screening write-up, click here. * for more audio recordings of our programs click the "Podcast Available" icon.
The Films of Bong Joon-Ho
Monday & Tuesday, February 26 & 27!
Bong in person Tuesday, February 27 at 8:30pm with THE HOST!
Bong Joon-Ho took the 2006 Cannes Film Festival by storm with his smart, terrifying new monster movie THE HOST. In anticipation of the film's release, this a mini-fest of his maximal career presents a special line-up of Bong's signature cinema -- black comedies, gritty crime dramas and horror thrillers with a comic book feel -- and Bong himself in person for the closing screening of THE HOST.
All films at the IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave (Ave of the Americas), NY, NY 10014 map/directions Tickets can be purchased in-person at the box office or online.
Films:
Tuesday, February 27 at 8:30pm THE HOST (2006) Director Bong Joon-Ho in person!
"Terrific... a seriously scary freakout. The best film I've seen at this year's Cannes Film Festival." - Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
2006, 35mm, color, Showbox & Magnolia Pictures, 119 min.
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Cast: Song Kang- Ho, Park Hae-Il, Bae Du-Na, Byeon Hie-Bong, Ko Ah-Sung
Toxins from a U.S military base flow into Korea's Han River, causing the birth of a mutant creature which terrorizes Seoul. When it grabs a little girl, her dysfunctional family must band together to save her. The Host is like a mutant hybrid spawned from the improbable union of Little Miss Sunshine and Godzilla, for the film is a family comedy and political satire in which an unnaturally evolved tadpole just happens to loom (very) large. Bong expertly balances absurd humor against tense thrills, and domestic drama against mass mayhem, reasserting South Korea's place at the pinnacle of genre-busting cinema - and most of all he surprises at every turn in a film where, despite a realistic social milieu, almost anything seems possible.
Awards:
Best Director, 5th Korea Film Festival
Best Film, 5th Korea Film Festival
Best Sound, 5th Korea Film Festival
Best CG, 5th Korea Film Festival
Best Picture, 5th Korea Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
New York Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
DHL Audience Choice Award for Best Feature, Hawaii International Film Festival
Pusan International Film Festival
Best Special Effects and Orient Express Award for Best Asian Film, Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia (Spain) 2006
Monday, February 26 at 9:15pm MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003)
Two overwhelmed cops search for South Korea's first serial killer. "A police procedural like no other. Epic... an altogether remarkable piece of work." - Michael Atkinson, Village Voice
2003, 35mm, color, CJ Entertainment & Palm Pictures, 127 min.
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Kim Sang-Kyung, Park Hae-Il
South Korea was rocked to its foundations when struck by its first serial killer, who raped and murdered ten women in a small village in Kyonggi Province between 1986 and 1991. Director Bong Joon-Ho (Barking Dogs Never Bite) has taken the investigation and combined it with best-of-career performances from Song Kang-Ho (JSA, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) and Kim Sang-Kyung (Turning Gate), to make Korea's most highly-acclaimed film of 2003, a master work that is itself like a memory of a dream: heartbreaking, mysterious, stunningly beautiful, and unspeakably sad.
A comedy, of sorts, of procedural errors that would be hilarious were it not so tragic, the film is a haunting look at a nation finding itself inevitably slipping back to an earlier, uglier era when an authoritarian government could freely violate the rights of private citizens in the name of the law.
Awards:
Best Films, Grand Bell Awards
Best Actor (Song Kang-Ho), Grand Bell Awards
Best Director (Bong Joon-Ho), Grand Bell Awards
Silver Seashell, San Sebastian International Film Festival
FIPRESCI Prize, San Sebastian International Film Festival
Best New Director (Bong Joon-Ho), San Sebastian International Film Festival 2003
Asian Film Award, Tokyo International Film Festival
Grand Prix, Cognac Festival Du Film Policier
Premiere Award, Cognac Festival du Film Policier
Prix Mediatheques, Cognac Festival du Film Policier
Special Prize of the Police, Cognac Festival du Film Policier
Best Screenplay Award, Audience Award, Torino Film Festival (Italy)
Monday, February 26 at 7:00pm BARKING DOGS NEVER BITE (2000)
A professor tries to take revenge on the dog who's been disturbing his sleep. "An eloquent social comedy... Beautifully directed, unsentimental and darkly funny." - Time Out (London)
2000, 35mm, color, Mirovision, 106 min.
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Cast: Bae Du-Na, Lee Sung-Jae
American Beauty hopped up on laughing gas, Barking Dogs Never Bite's plot is choreographed as intricately as a triple-time minuet. Its director says it's about corruption and innocence (and it is), but the story plays as a wild comedy focusing on two of the greatest characters to appear onscreen in decades: Lee Sung-Jae, a part-time lecturer who learns he'll do anything to achieve a coveted position as a professor and Bae Doo-Na, a female member of an apartment building's custodial staff who yearns to do something brave. A shaggy-dog story about the mysteries of pregnancy, the length of toilet paper, lost dogs, and good stew, this movie is a bedtime story for urban sophisticates, scored to a be-bop soundtrack. The director's debut feature, and one of the few independent Korean films, it gleefully mixes razor-sharp acting, goofy physicality, black comedy, and genuine warmth. It's the kind of movie that audiences live for, and that gives marketing departments nightmares.
Awards:
Best Editing, Slamdance Film Festival 2001
International Film Critics Federation Award of Young Asian
FIPRESCI Award for young Asian filmmakers, 25th Hong Kong International Film Festival
Special award presented to composer Cho Sung-Woo for his soundtrack for Barking Dogs Never Bite, Buenos Aires International Film Festival (Argentina) 2001.
Best Newcomer Award to Producer Cho Min-hwan for Barking Dogs Never Bite, Munich Film Fest (Germany) 2001
Tuesday, February 27 at 6:00pm TWENTIDENTITY
featuring Bong's SINK AND RISE (2004), plus INCOHERENCE (1994)
Bong contributed Sink and Rise to this omnibus film made for the 20th anniversary of the Korean Academy of Film Arts; screening with the director's early short black comedy.
Sink And Rise (from Twentidentity )
2004, Digi-beta, color, 95 min.
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
Taken from Twentidentity, a 20-part omnibus film made by alumni of the Korean Academy of Film Arts on the occasion of the school's 20th anniversary, Bong's contribution is Sink and Rise, a whimsical work set alongside the Han River that can be seen as a warm up for the director's third feature The Host.
Incoherence (1994)
1994, Digi-Beta, color, 30 min.
Director: Bong Joon-Ho
A short black comedy that criticizes society with his Bong Joon-Ho's unique sense of humor, Incoherence was invited to international film festivals in San Diego and Hong Kong, giving Bong his first taste of artistic recognition.
February 26-27 at IFC Center
