The New York Korean film festival is back in business! That’s right. What Subway Cinema started in 2001 with When Korean Cinema Attacks! – New York Korean Film Festival, and what has known many incarnations and iterations since then, is back in the funky and freaky curatorial hands of the festival’s original creators, now joining forces with BAMCinematek and the Korea Society to bring you the freshest crop of the record-breaking blockbusters and the must-see recent works of the peninsula’s internationally celebrated auteurs and mavericks. The new New York Korean Film Festival wants to serve as your road map for the best in contemporary Korean cinema.
All films in Korean with English subtitles.
THURSDAY – SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20-NOVEMBER 23, 2014
BAM Rose Cinema
30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn
(718) 636-4100 x 1
BAM
GYEONGJU (경주) 2014^
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20 @ 7:15 PM
US Premiere
Director Zhang Lu will be in attendance.
2014, 145 min. DCP
Directed by Zhang Lu
Cast: Park Hae-Il, Shin Min-A, Yoon Jin-Seo, Kim Tae-Hoon, Shin So-Yul, Baek Hyun-Jin, Ryoo Seung-Wan
An “existential ghost story” (Variety) and a poetic, sentimental journey in the vein of Hong Sang-soo’s best films, Zhang Lu’s new film follows the wanderings of Peking University professor Choi-Hyun (WAR OF ARROWS’ Park Hae-Il) as he returns to the city of Gyeongju to attend a friend’s funeral. Spurred by the memory of an obscene picture he saw seven years ago on the wall of a teahouse, he proceeds to go on a strangely aimless quest, fumbling between tantalizing possibilities of erotic satisfaction or perhaps something of a more spiritual nature.
THE ATTORNEY (변호인) 2013^
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21 @ 7:00 PM
2013, 127 min, Blu-ray
Director: Yang Woo-Seok
Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Kim Young-Ae, Oh Dal-Su, Kwak Do-Won, Siwan 2013, 127 min, Blu-ray
Based on the life of former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, THE ATTORNEY was this year’s most controversial box office hit, with over 10 million admissions. Set during the days of the military dictatorship, it follows the moral transformation of a pragmatic, mercenary and a tad shady attorney-at-law Song Woo-Seok (star Song Kang-Ho), who only got into the legal profession for the money. But everything changes one day, when he decides to take on the country’s National Security Law by accepting as his client the student activist Jin-Woo (Lim Si-wan), who has been unfairly arrested and tortured by the government.
A HARD DAY (끝까지 간다) 2014^
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21 @ 9:30 PM
2014, 111 min, DCP
Directed by Kim Seong-hun
Cast: Lee Sun-Kyun, Cho Jin-Woong, Jeong Man-Sik, Shin Jung-Keun, Kim Dong-Young, Joo Suk-Tae
A selection of the Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes film festival, A HARD DAY is a slick police thriller that follows detective Ko Gun-Soo (Lee Sun-Kyun, both a Hong Sang-Soo regular and a blockbuster frequent flyer) on a lung-bursting race against karma and all sorts of odds and (deadly) ends, as he runs over a stranger on an otherwise deserted, dark highway. Hastily shoving the dead body in his trunk in a moment of wild panic, the detective has just bought himself a world of trouble. What follows is a super-charged mixture of bone-crushing action, chases, black humor, and social satire, proving once again that no one makes smart genre films the way Korea does.
THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS (명량 – 회오리 바다다) 2014^
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22 @ 7:00 PM
2014, 128 min, DCP
Directed by Kim Han-Min
Cast: Choi Min-Sik, Ryoo Seung-Ryong, Cho Jin-Woong, Jin Goo, Lee Jung-Hyun
The blockbuster to sink all blockbusters (17.6 million admissions and counting), THE ADMIRAL: ROARING CURRENTS is a massive sea epic that depicts the 1597 Battle of Myeongryang, when a formidable Japanese fleet threatened the very existence of the peaceful peninsula. In a desperate, defiant last stand, Korea’s most celebrated historical hero, Admiral Yi Sun-Shin, portrayed by Choi Min-sik (Besson’s LUCY, Park Chan Wook’s OLDBOY) tries to save his homeland from a dire fate, with only a dozen ships at his command and his fierce determination not to go down without a good fight.
MAN ON HIGH HEELS (하이힐) 2014^
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22 @ 9:30 PM
2014, 125 min, Digibeta
Directed by Jang Jin
Cast: Cha Seung-won, Oh Jeong-se, Esom, Ko Kyeong-pyo, Ahn Kil-kang, Lee Eon-jeong
After a three-year hiatus, Jang Jin (WELCOME TO DONGMAKGOL), one of Korea’s most inventive writer-directors, is back to subvert the tough-guy detective genre and established notions of Korean masculinity. Detective Ji-wook (Cha Seung-won) is the most bad-ass cop in town, never missing an opportunity to beat the crap out of the bad guys. But deep inside, despite his uber masculine good looks, Ji-wook is tired of being a tough boy. Tortured by the unavowable desire to be a woman, he decides to get a sex change. Things get messy when a gang that Ji-wook had busted starts hurting people close to him: time to prove that, even in high heels, he can still kick some ass.
THE PIRATES (해적: 바다로 간 산적) 2014^
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23 @ 5:30 PM
2014, 130 min, Blu-ray
Directed by Lee Suk-Hoon
Cast: Kim Nam-Gil, Son Ye-Jin, Yu Hae-Jin, Lee Kyoung-Young, Kim Tae-Woo
Korea’s answer to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN is a family-friendly, Hollywood-style swashbuckling period comedy, powered by an even-keeled ensemble cast, including Son Ye-Jin (WHITE NIGHT, MY WIFE GOT MARRIED) as a lady pirate and Kim Nam-Gil as the unshaven beau. Set in the 14th century during a crucial period in Korean history, the film follows four rival parties of pirates, bandits, and soldiers, as they collide on a search for a grey whale that swallowed a royal seal of great importance. Enter hard-ass sea wenches, a bad guy with an eyepatch, slapstick aplenty, and an impressive display of special effects. A perfect summer popcorn blockbuster that delivers the fun in spades. Arrrrr!
FUTURELESS THINGS (이것이 우리의 끝이다적) 2014^
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23 @ 8:00 PM
North American Premiere
2014, 107 min, DCP
Dir. Kim Kyung-Mook
Cast: Kim Su-hyeon, Yoo Yeong, Jeong Hye-in, Gong Myeong, Shin Jae-ha
An affectionate and delightful comedy of manners, structured in 13 episodes, FUTURELESS THINGS chronicles 24 hours in the intertwined lives of young clerks working at the same convenience store, and brings into the spotlight the private joys and tears of usually invisible people. What’s revealed is that there’s nothing ordinary about ordinary existence as we’re thrusted into a fascinating world of part-timers, college dropouts, North Korean defectors, gays and lesbians and other social outcasts, eking out a living in the interstices of ultra consumerist South Korea.
Welcome Spring by filling a Korean lunchbox (dosirak) with tasty foodto take on a picnic! Learn how to prepare kimbap, theseaweed rice rolls at the center of any Korean picnic, in a hands-on workshop led by culinary instructor Shin Kim. She’ll demonstrate how to make several kimbap fillings, including shigeumchi muchim (seasoned spinach), gyeran mari (rolled omelettes), and danmuji (sweet pickled radishes)–all of which can also be served as banchan, Korean side dishes.
