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60 Years of South Korean Cinema in NYC

One of the most exciting film events in New York City this fall is the massive Korean film retrospective being held at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center. Dubbed "The Newest Tiger", this is probably the most comprehensive survey of Korean film ever put together outside of Korea. Covering the last six decades, the festival contains some of the most important films of the "golden age", which ran from the late 50s through the early 60s, as well as an excellent selection of films from the new generation of directors. Readers of this site will now have an opportunity to see some of the films that Filmbrain has been raving about for the past seven months. The festival runs from November 12 through December 7, and Filmbrain will be providing weekly recommendations. Though there's really not a bad film in the bunch (well, Filmbrain wasn't crazy about Ardor), here are the must-not-miss highlights for the opening week: Aimless Bullet (1961) Dir: Hyonmok Yu. Banned in Korea on its original release, Aimless Bullet chronicles the hopeless life of a North Korean family living in Seoul in the years following the Korean War. A public accountant struggles to support his troubled family, even as he watches depression and despair slowly destroy his family's lives. Voted "Best Korean Film of All Time" by Korean film critics in 1999. This one actually screened back in August, but Filmbrain missed it. He surely won't this time. Friday 12 November @ 1:00, Wednesday 17 November @ 6:40 To the Starry Island (1993) Dir: Park Kwang-su. What begins as a simple story of a son trying to bury his father on his birth island turns into a gripping tale of the Korean war. One of the first films to address how civilians were mistreated by the South Korean army, this film is a product of South Korea's new democracy of the early 90s. Friday 12 November @ 3:00, Thursday November 18 @ 6:40 Low Life (2004) Dir: Im Kwon-taek. Korea's best-known filmmaker returns with his 99th (!) film, a portrait of the politically tumultuous 60s. Political mobsters, film producers, citizens' uprisings, military coups -- all part of the dog-eat-dog world of the streets of Myungdong, where gangsters and artists once coexisted. Filmbrain has read mixed reviews of this one, but it certainly sounds interesting enough. Friday 12 November @ 7:10, Saturday 13 November @ 7:00 The Housemaid (1960) Dir: Kim Ki-young. This is the film that several Korean film scholars/experts have implored Filmbrain to see. (One writes, "DIE rather than miss this film!") Released in 1960 (the same year as Psycho), this gothic horror psycho-thriller concerns a love triangle between a composer, his wife and their maid. Kyung Hyun Kim, who devotes a lengthy chapter to the film in his book The Remasculinization of Korean Cinema, says that the film "challenges the ethical conventions of the era by focusing on the tension between faithfulness and desire, and between conformity and passion." Filmbrain can't wait for this one. Saturday 13 November @ 2:45, Wednesday 17 November @ 2:00 The Hidden Hero (1979) Dir: Im Kwon-taek. Considered to be one of his best films, The Hidden Hero chronicles the story of a journalist who leaves North Korea for the south shortly after the liberation from Japan. Filmbrain has been told that it is one of the best portraits of Korea in the years leading up to the Korean War. Sunday 14 November @ 1:00, Sunday 21 November @ 7:00 Peppermint Candy (2000) Dir: Lee Chang-dong. Director Lee's last film, Oasis, had a small run in NYC several months back, and was met with critical success. As good a film as that is, Filmbrain finds it not half as compelling as Peppermint Candy, which is overtly political. Told in reverse (à la Memento, Irreversible), it begins in 1999 with Yong-ho (Sol Kyung-gu) about to commit suicide. The story then proceeds backwards, revealing not only the personal traumatic events that led him to his death, but of Korea's historical trauma from 1979-99. The Kwangju Massacre, the labor and student uprisings, and the economic crisis of the 90's -- Yong-ho is directly tied to (and affected by) all of them. This powerful and important film really should not be missed. Sunday 14 November @ 3:00, Thursday 18 November @ 2:00 Cinema on the Road: A Personal Essay on Cinema in Korea (1995) Dir: Jang Sun-woo. This is, as the title indicates, a personal journey through the history of Korean cinema, with particular attention paid to the relationship between film and contemporary Korean history. From the program notes: "[The film ends with an] exorcism to rid Korean cinema of its demons -- the Japanese occupation, military dictatorships, and Hollywood." (Now, if only that last bit can hold true!) There are plenty of other interesting films the first week of the festival -- Madame Freedom (1956) and Home is Where the Heart Is (1949) are certainly classics in their own right, and 1992's Marriage Story is the film that gave birth to the new romantic comedy -- without it we wouldn't have films like My Sassy Girl. Complete schedule and ticketing information can be found HERE. Check back for next week's recommendations, including a rare screening of Hong Sang-soo's second feature, The Power of Kangwon Province.

The Assassination of Richard Nixon

The timing of a film -- the when, where, how and why we wind up watching -- can have a tremendous effect on our assessment of it. As previously mentioned, Filmbrain saw Niels Mueller's The Assassination of Richard Nixon on the eve before George W. Bush won a second term as president. Though the film contains many disturbing parallels to America in 2004 (more on that in a bit), Filmbrain watched it in the comfort of knowing that the days of insanity, stupidity, lies, and ignorance were coming to an end. No, Kerry was no savior, nor was he even a great Democratic candidate -- but he wasn't George Bush, and that's really all that mattered. Surely, the American people were not about to re-elect a man that lied to his country in order to......[Filmbrain really doesn't have to go into details, does he?] The shock and dismay that many (49%) of us are feeling is not simply because Bush won, but because we now truly see just how different (and distant) we are from the other 51%. The "red" states voted against their own economic interests in order to realize their idea of a more "moral" America (read: no gay marriage). There's clearly going to be an even greater move to the right in Bush's second term -- and where does that leave the rest of us? Might we feel alienated? Helpless? Will we be able to control our rage? In The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Sean Penn plays Samuel J. Bicke, a man who finds himself at a loss with the world around him. Bicke is a good, honest, caring man in a world full of power, corruption and lies. A weak man, his attempts at finding something to believe in are continually met with failure. His wife has left him (taking their kids with her) and all Sam wants is an opportunity to make something of himself in order to win them back. Though he cannot abide lies, his work as an office furniture salesman forces him to do so on a daily basis. He finds solace in the music of Leonard Bernstein, convinced that a person who can create something so pure, so beautiful, must be a good person. Bernstein becomes his confident of sorts -- Sam sends him audio tapes of his innermost thoughts. As things grow worse for Sam, his grip on reality loosens, resulting in a plan to kill the president of the United States. As he says to Bernstein on a tape, "I will kill the president to show those in power what one grain of sand can do." Sam's plan is to hijack an airplane and fly it into the Whitehouse. The film is based on a true story. Filmbrain can't help but wonder if there are people who, in the next four years, will find they've lost their way in society, much as Sam Bicke did. Look at America in 1974 -- the nation was run by a corrupt Republican administration accused of tampering with a national election, while at the same time an unpopular war was being fought overseas. (Sound familiar?) Nixon, to Sam's boss Jack, is the greatest salesman in history -- he swindled the American people twice about ending the war in Vietnam. Jack spins that into the ultimate manifestation of "believing in yourself". Jack is also a great believer in Dale Carnegie and Norman Vincent Peale, and he strongly urges Sam to read, study and master their books, something that alienates Sam even further. The one dream Sam clings to is to be reunited with his ex-wife Marie (Naomi Watts) and their children. To achieve this, he plans to start a mobile tire repair business with his best friend Bonny (Don Cheadle), and he believes this will convince Marie that he is a responsible husband and father. The approval process for the small business loan Sam applies for takes ten weeks, and in that period of time, Sam will grow more and more delusional, convinced that there are evil, racist forces at play that are standing in the way of his happiness. It is during these weeks that Sam will hatch his plan to kill the president. Mueller's decision to have the entire film take place from Sam's point of view (Penn is in nearly every shot) forces us to consider what he thinks and feels. Though there will doubtless be some that write off Sam as a loser and sociopath, Filmbrain found himself being pulled deep into Sam's world, and felt genuinely sorry for him. (Those feelings have become even stronger in the past few days.) Sam wants to do the right thing, even in the face of corruption and the injustices he feels take place on a daily basis. (He is strongly against racism, and donates money to the Black Panthers in order to feel he's done something.) Looking to his leaders for guidance is futile. Nixon, whose face fills every TV screen throughout the film, is shown continually addressing the Watergate scandal. Faced with what he perceives as failure from all directions, Sam chooses to do something that will forever make him famous. Though based on a true story, very few people remember Sam Bicke (his real name was Byck). At the time, it was thought that he was simply hijacking a plane -- his designs on Nixon weren't revealed until a letter of his reached Washington Post reporter Jack Anderson. Even so, the story was overshadowed by the Watergate hearings, thus resulting in Sam's failure to achieve even his final goal -- to be remembered. Penn is phenomenal in the role -- it's rare that he plays such a meek, small character, yet he pulls it off beautifully. Writer/director Mueller has stated that he wants us to identify with Bicke throughout the first two thirds of the film so as to greater enhance the shock of the finale. He feels that it is Penn's performance (and the nearly continual focus on him) that will draw people in. What Mueller may find, in fact, is that more and more people find themselves thinking like Bicke, and our identification with him might owe less to Penn's performance and more to our own sense of feeling disenfranchised. Does this mean somebody will try to kill the president? Doubtful. Yet the film might just have a greater impact today than it would have a few weeks ago. At the moment, Filmbrain has this as one of his favorite films of the year, but he's unable to honestly say if that's a result of the film itself, or from the events of this past week. Regardless, The Assassination of Richard Nixon is an impressive, tense drama that is easily one of the most original American films of 2004, and one that shouldn't be missed.

Filmbrain's Screen Capture Quiz: Round 2, Week 8

[It's just about 3:00 AM and it looks like Bush might win this election. This is a dark, dark day. Apologies in advance for a distracted or aggravated tone.] Choosing a scene from Bob Rafelson's Head that can barely be detected without the aid of the pause button was clearly a miscalculation on Filmbrain's part. While he's thrilled that so many of you feel the same way about the film, he's speechless about the sheer numbers that correctly guessed it. (The second highest number of guesses since the contest began!) Jack's appearance in the film is fleeting (though not as brief as Dennis Hopper's), and Filmbrain is again amazed at all of you could identify the film. Head is a quasi-surreal masterpiece -- one of the best American films of the 60's. Don't let the fact that it stars The Monkees turn you off. This is a film that simply must be seen (by everybody). Not a whole lot of time was spent on choosing this week's capture -- worrying about the election took precedence. Looking at it just now, it seems almost too easy. Name the actress and the film. Send your guesses to this address. Good luck!

Filmbrain spends election eve with a would-be assassin

As Filmbrain sat in a screening room Monday night watching Niels Mueller's The Assassination of Richard Nixon, all he could think of was how oddly appropriate it was on the eve of one of America's most important presidential elections. Not that Filmbrain is encouraging anybody to kill the president (got that, Mr. Ashcroft?), but this gut-wrenching tale of a man (brilliantly played by Sean Penn) fed up with a culture built on lies and injustice rings alarmingly true to the present day. Though it's not overtly political, images of Nixon loom over the entire film. It was impossible to watch him lying about Watergate without thinking about the many lies the American people have been fed over the last four years.

Filmbrain is too tired to complete his review tonight (look for it in a day or two) -- he needs to get some sleep, as he expects to get little to none on election night. He simply wanted to take this opportunity to beseech everyone to VOTE on Tuesday.

Putting it into a context appropriate to this blog:

Bush's favorite film -- Field of Dreams
Kerry's favorite film -- Scaramouche

Kevin Costner vs. Stewart Granger. The choice is yours.

Jerry Schatzberg presents Puzzle of a Downfall Child @ BAM

Back in June, Filmbrain saw a poor quality DVD bootleg of Jerry Schatzberg's Puzzle of a Downfall Child and was seriously impressed. (Read his review here.) Even though the quality was abysmal, he considers the film to be a major discovery, and one of the unsung (minor) masterpieces of 1970's American cinema. It's been years since the film has been screened in NYC, but that is about to change. On Monday, November 8 @ 7:30 the cinématek at The Brooklyn Academy of Music will not only show a 35mm print of the film, but will also host a Q&A session with director Jerry Schatzberg after the screening. Filmbrain highly recommends this event for all NYC film lovers. Take him on his word -- you won't be disappointed! Don't miss a rare opportunity to see this powerful psychological drama -- it's arguably the greatest performance of star Faye Dunaway's career. You'll marvel at the fact that a film like this was created within the Hollywood studio system! Click here for program and ticket information, or call BAM at 718.636.4100.