The 2006 New York Korean Film Festival

Traditionally, the period between late August and Labor Day is a relatively quiet one for NYC film lovers. The megaplexes are busy squeezing what little life is left out of the summer blockbusters, while the cinephile crowd champs at the bit awaiting the arrival of the New York Film Festival. Yet there is one event that makes staying in NYC through the Labor Day weekend more than worthwhile — the New York Korean Film Festival. Back for its sixth year, the NYKFF is a great opportunity to catch an impressive selection of studio and independent features that will most likely never find distribution in the States. This year's festival also includes an added attraction — a four film mini-retrospective of director Lee Man-hee. Lee, one of the major figures from Korea's Golden Age of Cinema, was one of the few directors to create masterworks in nearly every genre possible. A true auteur, he directed fifty films in only fourteen years. His career would have gone on, had it not been for his untimely death at the age of 45 while editing his final film, A Way to Sampo. The four films offered focus on Lee's darker side — with stories of jealousy, infidelity, and murder — including his Hitchcockian The Devil's Stairway. I'll be writing about Lee's films in a separate post next week. The festival, which runs from 25 August - 3 September at the ImaginAsian, Anthology Film Archives, and BAM includes fourteen features and a handful of shorts. Here are my picks: This Charming Girl — Though I was disappointed with director Lee Yoon-ki's follow-up Love Talk, his debut from 2004 is still one of the strongest features to come out of Korea in the past few years. A low-key, nearly silent, psychological portrait of a female postal worker who lives an uneventful, isolated life, it's less about plot development than it is a detailed character study. This is the one film at the festival that should not be missed. Forbidden Quest — Kim Dae-woo, the screenwriter of Untold Scandal makes his directorial debut with another ribald tale set in the Chosun dynasty. Han Suk-kyu (the gum-chewing CIA agent from The President's Last Bang) plays an aristocrat who is lured into the lurid world of erotic fiction. Teaming up with an imperial officer who doubles as an artist, the two wind up creating the most successful erotic novel of the era. A unique look at the underbelly of a repressive society, Forbidden Quest succeeds thanks to a strong screenplay and stunning cinematography. Rules of Dating — Han Jae-rim's he said/she said take on the Korean rom-com is an unromantic romance that dares to look at the darker side of sex and relationships. Full review here.

My Scary Girl — Like Rules of Dating, My Scary Girl is yet another clever twist on the Korean rom-com, with murder thrown into the mix. Dae-woo is a 30 year-old virgin who falls head over heels for his new neighbor Mi-na, an art student who never heard of Mondrian or Kandinsky, and who keeps something very peculiar in her kimchi freezer. Like the similarly titled My Sassy Girl, the film's success is due to its two lead actors. With his droopy eyes and sad-sack face, Park Yong-woo is perfect as the naive, timid, English lit professor who is too lost in love to see the truth about his homicidal girlfriend. As Mi-na, Choi Kang-hee is perfect in her seamless blend of sheepish innocent and knife-wielding murderess. Their on-screen chemistry and comic timing is wonderful, making My Scary Girl a perfect bit of silly fun. Murder Take One — A genuine surprise, Murder Take One finds director Jang Jin offering a unique spin on the standard policier. A woman is found stabbed to death in a hotel room, and an obvious suspect has been taken into custody. Jumping back and forth in time, the many twists, turns, and complications of the investigation are played out live on national television — its CSI turned into a reality show. A procedural that is darkly comic at times, the film grows increasingly absurd as the investigation is driven by audience reaction and the need for ratings. A combination of The Truman Show and The Usual Suspects, Murder Take One is an odd little film that includes a handful of great performances (especially from Shin Ha-kyun, star of Save the Green Planet), and a plot that continually leaves you guessing. This one has Hollywood remake written all over it, so see the original while you can. Grain in Ear and Shin Sung-il is Lost — I've yet to see either of these films, but the buzz on both from numerous film festivals has been impressive. Jane Shin's low-budget Shin Sung-il is Lost is set in a desolate Christian orphanage where children are brainwashed into believing that eating is a sin, and their only sustenance comes from "Choco Pies" that are consumed in private. A bleak satire that borders on the surreal, I've heard nothing but good things about this film ever since I missed it at the Berlinale in 2005. Grain in Ear, which has appeared at the Cannes, Pusan, and Rotterdam film festivals (to name but a few), tells of a Korean-Chinese single mother struggling to raise her son in rather dire circumstances. With long static shots and, as Adam Hartzell puts it, a "wonderfully slow pace," the film chronicles "the Sisyphean uphill climb of flat, false assumptions about who we are and can be and what we're capable of when all hope is lost." Sounds like my kind of film. Tickets for all films can be purchased online here.

Comments

[lars]

This Charming Girls is a beautiful film. i'll definitely be there.

[ed]

I second the recomm. on Forbidden Quest. A genuinely fun adventure into the minefields that is the creative process. 200 times less predictable than writer biopics like Quill, and FQ isn't even about a real person!

Interesting that it lost best screenplay to Rules of Dating at baeksang (http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/005510.html), but then good scripts from Kim Dae-woo are no longer surprising.

I think the acting actually distinguishes the film from other similarly lavish, gorgeous looking period films though (Blood Rain, Untold Scandal, etc.) Han Suk-kyu does a kind of Korean John Gielgud on the ancient-speak. Oh Dal-su, in the biggest role I've seen him yet, brings ad-lib energy & outrage from more contemporary theater for contrast - which is great because he's a vulgar, oily innocent, & businessman!!

[Brian]

Grain in Ear, one of the few of these to have screened in San Francisco, is a must.

The annual Asian Film Festival that usually occurs in August here in San Francisco has either been cancelled or postponed- I've been having trouble determining which. Either way, I'm feeling deprived of an expected opportunity to see Korean (and Japanese, Hong Kong, etc) films. I hope prints of some of these films (espcially This Charming Girl) somehow make it to town somehow.

[Darcy]

By the way, just thought I'd mention that THIS CHARMING GIRL director Lee Yoon-ki has started shooting his third film. It's a low-budget, TV-financed film based on a Japanese novella that he's planning to shoot in only ten days. He says it will be ready by the Pusan Film Festival in October. It would be nice to see him get back on track. (I was also disappointed with LOVE TALK)

[nkw88]

MY SCARY GIRL was unexpectedly well received on Saturday night. RULES OF DATING and FORBIDDEN QUEST are well as expected. You can see my report at koreanfilm.org.

[nkw88]

THIS CHARMING GIRL....
I don't know whether Lee Yoon-ki adapted her novels or not but I found this film was similar to Cho Kyung-Ran's novels. Lonely girl who lives in a peripheral area of Seoul endures her everyday life and keeps her trauma. Her famous novels are TIME OF MAKING BREAD (1995) and I LIVE IN BONGCHEONDONG (2003).

[Susan]

My Scary Girl looks pretty entertaining! I love the photo. :-)