Korean Cultural Service hosts free series of films by up-and-coming filmmaker Jang Hun

NEW YORK CITY -- The Korean Cultural Service's 2012 film series began last week at New York City's Tribeca Cinemas, with the East Coast premiere of Korea's submission to this year's Academy Awards, The Front Line on January 10th and will continue, with a movie shown every other Tuesday night at 7pm, through February 28.  (This Tuesday's movie is Rough Cut -- see below.) All screenings are free and open to the public -- a situation that TrustMovies dearly loves -- and this initial series is dedicated to the work of up-and-coming Korean filmmaker Jang Hun (it's titled, poetically, Jang Hun Plus One). Details are listed below:

Korean Movie Nights at Tribeca Cinemas
from January 10, 2012 - ­ February 28, 2012
Courtesy of the Korean Cultural Service

Screenings take place every other Tuesday @ 7:00PM
Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick Street, Manhattan
(on the corner of Canal Street, one block from the A, C, E, and 1 train Canal Street stops)

Admission is free, but all seating is first-come, first served. Doors open at 6:30PM -- so arrive early!

Series One: Jang Hun plus one!

Starting out as an assistant director to Kim Ki-Duk, with his first film, Rough Cut, Jang Hun (shown at right) is said to have established himself as Korea's answer to Steven Soderbergh: a director making big budget movies with an independent sensibility. Three of the films shown in this series -- Rough Cut, Secret Reunion, and The Front Line -- have all become massive South Korean box office hits without making compromises or talking down to their audiences. The series will be rounded out with the North American premiere of a film that's in a similar genre as Jang's but directed by Park Shin-woo: White Night.

Tuesday, January 10 @ 7PM 

THE FRONT LINE (East Coast Premiere, 2011) 

(Yes: this screening has concluded but the film itself just opened and so can still be seen)

One of the biggest Korean hits of 2011, The Front Line is the simple story of a hill: Aerok Hill, a small rise on the Eastern Front of the Korean War that changed hands 30 times over 18 months of fighting. A military investigator is dispatched to see if allegations that the South Korean soldiers tasked with taking the hill are collabora-ting with their North Korean enemies to deliver letters to their families. It turns out that they are, and that's the least of it. A movie about men (and some women) trying to hold onto their humanity in the midst of war, The Front Line is Korea's official submission to this year's Academy Awards. The film opened this past Friday, January 20, in New York City at the AMC Empire 25 and in New Jersey at the AMC Loews Ridgefield Park 12, and in Los Angeles at the CGV Cinemas and in Monterrey Park the AMC Atlantic Times Square 14.

Tuesday, January 24 @ 7PM
ROUGH CUT (2008)

Kim Ki-Duk wrote this wonderfully high-concept (Asian-Mafia-meets-moviemakers) genre-mash-up that's part thriller, part love story, part identity-changer.  It concerns a spoiled actor, famous for playing gangsters, who, for reasons that make excellent sense when you see the film, hires a real-life gangster to appear in his new movie. Filmmaker Jang probes personality, how we see ourselves, and how others see us -- while layering his movie with humor, anger, social comment and fights aplenty. 

"Acting" (indeed the whole moviemaking process) gets a good going-over, and both leading men -- So Ji-Sub as the gangster (above, right) and Kang Ji-Hwan as the actor (above, left) -- are gorgeous, sexy and charismatic. This is probably as good an introduction to Jang's work as any, so if you're interested and live in the Tri-State area, try not to miss it.

Tuesday, February 15 @ 7PM
SECRET REUNION (2010)
TrustMovies hasn't seen this one yet, so the below is what the film's publicist has to say about it:  I'll post my own thoughts here, just as soon as I've had time to watch  the screener....  

Two of Korea's best actors face off in this blockbuster action flick that manages to be sly, subversive and really funny while delivering white knuckle thrills. Song Kang-Ho (The Host) is a South Korean secret agent who fumbles a sting operation on a North Korean spy. Pop star Gang Dong-Won (Haunters) is the North Korean assassin who has been embedded in the South. After the botched operation, both men are cut loose by their respective agencies and Song becomes a private eye, while Gang sinks into deep cover, trying to survive long enough to go home. Years later, they cross paths and what audiences are treated to is a buddy movie to end all buddy movies.

Tuesday, February 28 @ 7PM
WHITE NIGHT (North American Premiere, 2009) 

TrustMovies hasn't seen this one yet, so the below is what the film's publicist has to say about it:  I'll post my own thoughts here, just as soon as I've had time to watch  the screener.... 

White Night is a sprawling, evil epic about an unsolved crime that happened 14 years previously that has spilled its poison out over the subsequent years. Based on a best-selling Japanese novel, and featuring a riveting performance by Ko Soo, star of The Front Line, director Park Shin-Woo turns this movie into a slick, beautifully realized film about true evil, as a detective refuses to let go of this single case, instead insisting on following its threads for years no matter where they lead. And where they lead is dark and truly shocking. This hit film has been called the best Korean film of 2009 by several critics and once you've seen it, it's hard to forget.


Currently, only The Front Line is viewable anywhere except this Korean festival, though both Rough Cut and Secret Reunion can be saved to your Netflix queue (whether "saving" on Netflix means eventually "getting" is debatable these days). White Night is available nowhere on DVD (in a North American NTSC version) that I could find, but maybe, after this premiere screening, some company will get wise and pick it up.

Sex 'n sin for the arthouse set: Im Sang-Soo's remake of THE HOUSEMAID opens

Ooooh, mama -- is this one ever fun! TrustMovies admits to never having seen Kim Ki-young's 1960 original, which is said to be by far the superior version of this tale of a pretty young woman who goes to work for a wealthy Korean family as its housemaid and the complications that thereafter ensue. Consequently, he will concentrate only on what he saw before him on-screen in the very sexy, very nasty, very gorgeous remake, called once again THE HOUSEMAID and this time adapted (from Mr. Kim's original screenplay) and directed by Im Sang-soo (shown below). For its stunning and sensual visuals alone, the movie is definitely worth seeing -- and on the big screen.

The Housemaid is a melodrama told with broad strokes of character and event, even as it deals with issues of class and of the use and abuse of the have-nots by the haves. That the have-not in question -- the young woman who takes the job of housemaid -- is complicit in her own mis-use is both pertinent and beside the point. Once she accepts the position, she is powerless to do anything about what happens, short of leaving of her own volition or being fired. And once she capitulates to the off-the-menu demands of her employers, the woman's fate is sealed. Her understanding of all this, when it finally comes, is what leads to one hell of a wham-bam, knockout finale.

There is so much to enjoy about this film, admittedly in the manner of a somewhat guilty pleasure, that the movie must be recommended. Starting with the incredible lensing by Lee Hyung Deok, whether in bright daylight or noirish shadow, continuing on to the amazing house that provides the set of much of the movie, and finally to the spot-on editing of Lee Eun Soo that brings all this together -- your eye is constantly delighted by the wonders dancing before it. (That the movie is from South Korea -- home to some of the lengthiest genre films ever made -- and yet is only 106 minutes long, is another plus.)

Sure, we're easily dazzled by how the other half lives, but unlike those "real" housewives of NY, DC, NJ and Beverly Hills, the folk on view here appear to have taste as impeccable as their understanding of the rights-of-others is nonexistent.

Performances, too, are first-rate -- within the oddly broad-yet-narrow range required for melodrama. Looking the part is two-thirds of the battle, and Mr. Im has assembled quite a provocative cast. In the role of the housemaid,  Jeon Do-yeon, above and on poster, top, is perfection. No raving beauty, this actress is still quite pretty, sexy and able to do and be, it would seem, anything that is asked of her. Compare her performance here to her award-winning one in the recently-released Secret Sunshine, and you'll see what I mean. Then check out Untold Scandal, the sumptuous Korean version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses from 2003 to see even more of the range of this unusual actress.

Her leading man, Lee Jung-Jae (from Il Mare, Typhoon and The Accidental Gangster) is one of the sexiest performers to hit the screen in decades. I can't vouch for his acting ability, having seen him only in this one and in Il Mare (the original upon which a silly, sodden The Lake House was based), but Mr. Lee has the ability to hold you fast simply by placing his more-than-impressive body on the screen in all its lithe yet massive stillness. He and his director use quiet remarkably well. They insist that his co-star (not to mention the viewer) come to him willingly and service him properly. The actor's ability to radiate privilege and entitlement should have you eating out of his hand (if not other protuberances) at the same time as you despise him.

The remaining characters are equally well-defined and acted, from the pliable wife (bathing, at left) to the icy, steel-trap mother-in-law; from the older, seen-it-all, if not done-it-all, maid (above) to even the charming little sleaze-in-training child of the household. They'll all combine to give you a memorably despicable and terribly enjoyable time at the movies.

The Housemaid, from IFC Films, opens this Friday, January 21, at the IFC Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema.  As with most film from IFC that open theatrically, it will also be available via IFC On-Demand, be-ginning Jan. 26.  Click here to determine how to get it in your home.

On-Demand -- Hong Sang-soo's NIGHT AND DAY: a Korean in Paris (no dancing)

According to the final end-credit of NIGHT AND DAY (Bam gua nat), this movie is the eighth in the ongoing oeuvre of South Korean director Hong Sang-soo, shown below, who earlier gave us the much-
heralded, but for me over-rated, Woman Is the Future of Man, and the better, though less seen, Woman on the Beach. Night and Day falls somewhere in between Hong's earlier films in terms of interest and success. While I would not have missed it, I would also not necessarily recommend it to non-film buffs.  It's long (nearly two-and-one-half hours), not much happens (in any conven-
tional movie manner) and there is little character growth or change in our non-hero, Sung-nam, played by the very hunky-but-dumpy Kim Young-ho, who appears in literally every scene of the film.

What the movie actually performs is an unraveling of character, both in the sense of a man coming to the end of his rope and the writer/director making clear how feeble a fellow this is on whom we have just spent our 144 minutes. Initially Sung-nam seems rather lost and sweet; by the finale, his constant waffling, followed by the betrayal of one woman after another, have taken their toll on us -- if not him. He'll continue his bad behavior as long as he can get away with it, which -- given South Korean society's general deference to the male -- should probably be quite awhile.

One of the pleasures of a Hong film is that you learn so much about Korea, its populace and culture, via so little exposition.  Here, for instance, we see the immediate competition between the North and South Koreas, the place of religion, how male/female relationships work (or don't), and especially the importance of art -- in daily conversation, in a visit to a museum, and in one character's stealing ideas from another. At that museum, for instance, Sung-nam spots a certain painting (seen on the poster art above -- a poster, by the way, that you will certainly not see in any U.S. advertising for the film), which he and his lady friend discuss in terms of their reactions to it.  Art is seldom far from anyone's mind in this movie.  Except when sex raises its randy head.

Our non-hero, above, certainly wants sex, and the longer he's away from his Korean wife, the more he seems at the mercy of his libido.  But so incredibly self-involved is he (as he has evidently always been) that he does not even recognize an old girlfriend (Kim You-jin) -- a woman who had six abortions because of his preference for condom-less rutting -- when they pass each other on a Paris street.  He becomes involved again with this woman, and then with then a young art student (Park Eun-hye, shown at right, two photos above) who for awhile manages to give as good -- maybe even better -- than she gets.

Sung-nam has gone to Paris to escape possible ramifications from the arrest of a friend made at the party where the participants were smoking pot. What this rather extreme response to a minor problem says about Sung-nam's character is another tip-off -- or is South Korea possibly even more conservative than the USA regarding marijuana?  Beginning as what seems like a gentle comedy-romance, the movie gradually morphs into something darker and more problematic.  A clue to what is to come may be found as the camera catches a stream of water flowing, curbside, down a typically charming Parisian street.  Then the stream gently encircles a pile of dog-shit, carrying it off in a quick little swirl.

As usual in a Hong film, near volumes -- about desire, need and subservience -- can be seen in a single shot (above for instance, and below).  There are a number of these along the way and they comprise maybe the best recommendation I can make for why you might want to see this film.  Sung-nam is himself an artist, a painter of clouds: a subject as beautiful, amorphous, changeable and untouchable as they come, and more than a little like our slutty, self-deceiving "hero."

After a week's run last year at NYC's Anthology Film Archives, Night and Day, which, if I am not mistaken, contains barely a single scene set at night, is available now from IFC On Demand via many TV reception providers across the country. Check here, then scroll down just a bit, to discover if it's playing in your neck of the woods.