Korean

  • Man-hui Lee – Sampoganeun kil AKA The Road to Sampo (1975)

    1971-1980ClassicsDramaMan-hui LeeSouth Korea
    Sampoganeun kil (1975)
    Sampoganeun kil (1975)

    Going through a jail and a site of construction, a young laborer Young-Dal meets middle aged Mr. Jeong on his way to his hometown Sampo after ten years’ absence. They become to know a waitress Baek-Hwa who runs away from a restaurant and then, they travel together. Arriving at the destination Kangcheon Station, Mr. Jeong is disappointed at the changes of the old village by building a hotel. Young-Dal and Mr. Jeong stay at Sampo not as the hometown but as the site of living. Baek-Hwa leaves Sampo with a ticket Young-Dal buys her with his last money.Read More »

  • Sun-Woo Jang – Sungnyangpali sonyeoui jaerim AKA Resurrection of the Little Match Girl (2002)

    Sun-Woo Jang2001-2010ActionSci-FiSouth Korea
    Sungnyangpali sonyeoui jaerim (2002)
    Sungnyangpali sonyeoui jaerim (2002)

    Synopsis:
    A matchstick girl who was frozen after death 200 years ago (for failing to sell any matchsticks), becomes reborn in this movie which pays homage to computer games. Working at a Chinese restaurant, Ju (played by Kim Hyeonseong) is a game maniac who suffers from unrequited love with Hui-mi (Im Eungyeong), who works part-time at a game room next door. One day, he meets a little matchstick girl of the same countenance as Hui-mi, and buys from her a gas lighter where he finds a phone number. When he calls the number, he comes upon the question: “Will you please log in the game ‘Resurrection of the Little Match Girl?'” From that time on, Ju enters into the world of virtual reality with a view to save the girl and win her love, which is by no means an easy job.Read More »

  • Ounie Lecomte – Yeo-haeng-ja AKA A Brand New Life (2009)

    Ounie Lecomte2001-2010DramaFrance
    Yeo haeng ja (2009)
    Yeo haeng ja (2009)

    Quote:
    Set in a South Korean orphanage circa 1975 and featuring a concentrated, thoroughly convincing perf by preteen Kim Sae-ron, “A Brand New Life” is an admirably un-manipulative drama about the impermanence of relationships and the resilience of kids in the face of it. Drawing on her own childhood experience as an orphan living with Catholic nuns in Seoul, first-time writer-director Ounie Lecomte has made a film that’s emotionally and aesthetically involving in almost every shot. Only an imperfect DV-to-35mm transfer minimizes the impact of a picture that remains intimately and movingly focused on a bereft 9-year-old girl’s p.o.v.Read More »

  • Andrzej Fidyk – Historie z Yodok AKA Yodok Stories (2008)

    2001-2010Andrzej FidykDocumentaryNorway
    Historie z Yodok (2008)
    Historie z Yodok (2008)

    imdb wrote:
    Today, more than 200.000 men, women and children are locked up in North Korea’s concentration camps. Systematic torture, starvation and murder is what faces the inmates. Few survive many years in the camps, but the population is kept stable by a steady influx of new persons considered to be ‘class enemies’. A small group of people have managed to flee from the camps to a new life in the prosperous South Korea. Some of them gather and decide to make an extraordinary and controversial musical about their experiences in the Yodok concentration camp. Despite death treats and many obstacles the musical becomes a tour de force for this ensemble of refugees and for them a possibility opens to talk about their experiences and inspire others to protest the existence of the camps.Read More »

  • Sang-soo Hong – Kangwon-do ui him AKA The Power of Kangwon Province (1998)

    Sang-soo Hong1991-2000ArthouseDramaSouth Korea
    Kangwon do ui him (1998)
    Kangwon do ui him (1998)

    The Power of Kangwon Province traces, one after the other, the trajectories of a man and a woman traveling separately through the mountainous eastern province of South Korea known as Kangwon. Both have left Seoul for the weekend to get some perspective on their lives and to assuage a common sense of loss and loneliness. As they wander, the pair just misses crossing paths with each other. Their separate encounters, however, reveal to the spectator links between the two drifting characters. This resonant work firmly announces Hong’s fascination with chance, the tenuousness of connection and the ability of narrative cinema to orchestrate the two. – DP (Harvard Film Archive)Read More »

  • Doo-yong Lee – Choihui jeungin AKA The Last Witness (1980)

    Doo-yong Lee1971-1980ActionCrimeSouth Korea
    Choihui jeungin (1980)
    Choihui jeungin (1980)

    Ji-hye, the daughter of an army captain, receives a treasure map from her father just hours before he is killed by communist guerillas in the mountains near their home. While the communists are defeated, several escape the battle and begin a quest to track down the map and make its secrets their own.Read More »

  • Sun-Woo Jang – Ggotip AKA A Petal (1996)

    Sun-Woo Jang1991-2000AsianDramaSouth Korea
    Ggotip (1996)
    Ggotip (1996)

    Synopsis:
    A young girl is caught up in the 1980 Gwangju massacre, where Korean soldiers killed hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters who opposed the country’s takeover by the military the year before. Flashbacks show the girl seeing her mother shot to death in the massacre. The film spurred the Korean public to demand the truth behind the incident, and their government eventually opened previously classified files on the massacre.Read More »

  • Lee Yong-ju – Geon-chook-hak-gae-ron AKA Architecture 101 (2012)

    2011-2020DramaLee Yong-juRomanceSouth Korea
    Geon chook hak gae ron (2012)
    Geon chook hak gae ron (2012)

    A 20-year-old architecture student, falls in love with a music student. However, he fails to confess his feelings to her, and they grow apart. 15 years later, she reappears before him and asks him to design her house.Read More »

  • Chang-dong Lee – Milyang AKA Secret Sunshine (2007)

    2001-2010AsianDramaLee Chang-dongSouth Korea
    Milyang (2007)
    Milyang (2007)

    Renowned Korean filmmaker Lee Chang Dong, the director of Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, and Oasis, returns to the director’s chair in 2007 with the critically acclaimed Secret Sunshine. This is his fourth film, and his first directorial work since his stint as Minister of Culture and Tourism from 2003 to 2004. In addition to Lee’s long-awaited return, Secret Sunshine attracted much attention with its pairing of two of the biggest names in Korean cinema – Song Kang Ho and Jeon Do Yeon, who was named Best Actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for her amazing performance.Read More »

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