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2/5/2012

Korean cinema today

Haus der Kulturen der Welt - HKW, Berlin

Films from Korea, just like productions from Japan and China, are to be found at all the big festivals and often come away with awards – yet these films seldom make it to German cinemas.

The Haus der Kulturen der Welt is putting on a comprehensive program – KOREAN CINEMA TODAY – Films from Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) featuring eleven of the most exciting Korean contributions of the last two years to what has become Asia’s most important film festival. The films take an impressive and often unsparing look at the country’s social realities – and address social taboos at the same time – leaving no viewer unmoved. These are films we seldom see in the cinema but which are increasingly being shown at festivals. Now, Haus der Kulturen der Welt is screening a compressed and concentrated program of award-winning films from Korea from 3 – 13 May.

The Korean film scene, which has been booming since the turn of the century is notable for its highquality, cross-genre productions with lovingly portrayed, nuanced characters and finely-composed plots which give Berlin audiences an exquisite insight into the Korean mentality.

The Border, one of three main topics at the festival, puts the spotlight on relations between North and South Korea: in “The Journals of Musan“, the North Korean refugee Sengchoul struggles with social isolation. His ID number 125 brands him as a northern defector for life. The movie, honored with the New Currents Award BIFF 2010 and a Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2011 is screening in the presence of director PARK Jungbum in Berlin.

The development of Korean cinema between the past and the future is the subject of a lecture by LEE Yongkwan, co-founder of BIFF and festival director since 2011, who is also one of the most renowned experts in Korean cinema and one of its most tireless advocates. And how better to illustrate his theories than by comparing the two versions of “Hanyo, The Housemaid“. KOREAN CINEMA TODAY compares the Hollywood-style blockbuster “The Housemaid“ of 2010 (original title: Hanyo, directed by IM Sangsoo) with the original by KIM Kiyoung from 1960. These films are running in the section Love on Detours in the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. The story of a young woman hired to help the pregnant lady of the house, who falls in love with her husband, gets pregnant, is punished for that and exacts terrifying revenge, is an extremely tightly woven, intimate psycho-social play in both versions. Martin Scorsese considered it one of the great tragedies of cinematic history that this (the original) passionately claustrophobic film is so little known in the western world. The remake was deservedly one of Korean cinema’s biggest global box office hits.

The section Young Korean Directors examines friendship in a range of aspects. Director YOON Sunghyun’s “Bleak Night”, which won awards in Busan and Hong Kong, tells of three high-school students whose emotionally stunted worlds make them immune to the suffering of others. Friendships which break one of Korea’s most enduring taboos, homosexuality, are the subject of the documentary film “Miracle on Jongno Street“. The “Eden Quarter“ around Jongno Street has developed into an oasis for homosexuals since the 1980s.

The two-hour film with many interviews and insights into the local scene is the first Korean documentary to address this issue and, at the same time, was the public “coming out” of director LEE Hyuksang. The Berlin screening is the German première of this production, which won the BIFF Mercenat Award for Best Documentary at BIFF 2010.

The children’s and teenagers’ program kids&teens@hkw features parallel screenings in German and Korean of the children’s film “Liefi: a Chicken in the Wild” on the Sundays, 6 and 13 May. In this animated film for children aged 6 and up, Liefi escapes from a battery farm and gets a taste of freedom. “Liefi” broke all the box office records in Korea.

The co-curator of the festival, HONG Hyosook, programmer of BIFF and director of the Asian Cinema Fund, is expected in Berlin along with numerous directors: LEE Hyuksang (“Miracle on Jongno Street“), PARK Jungbum (“The Journals of Musan“), YANG Ikjune (“Breathless“) and YOON Sunghyun (“Bleak Night“) will personally present their films to audiences in Berlin and answer questions posed by interested viewers.

The festival KOREAN CINEMA TODAY opens on Thursday, 3 May, with the wonderfully tender film “Poetry“ by LEE Changdong. Named “Best Screenplay” at Cannes 2010, it tells in emotional images of a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease who attends evening classes and changes her outlook on her environment by writing poetry. The lead role is played by the grande dame of Korean cinema, YUN Junghee, who has acted in 330 films and won 84 prizes.

After the opening ceremony, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the director of the Busan International Film Festival, LEE Yongkwan, and CHOI Jaejin, director of the Berlin office of the Korea Foundation as well as the visiting filmmakers from Korea invite the audience to join them for Korean specialties made by the trendy Kreuzberg restaurant, “Kimchi Princess“, accompanied by funky sounds from DJ Hunee.

To see the full program of the festival, KOREAN CINEMA TODAY visit www.hkw.de/korean_cinema

KOREAN CINEMA TODAY is a cooperation of Haus der Kulturen der Welt with the Busan International Film Festival and the Korea Foundation. Co-curated by HONG Hyosook.

Haus der Kulturen der Welt is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as well as by the Federal Foreign Office.

Image: The Housemaid, Still. R: IM Sangsoo, Korea 2010, 107 min

Anne Maier
Press Officer
Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10
D - 10557 Berlin
Tel. +49 30 397 87 153
Fax: +49 30 394 86 79
presse@hkw.de

Opening 03 May 2012 I 7 p.m. Admission free

Haus der Kulturen der Welt
John Foster Dulles Allee 10 - Berlin
Admission: 5 € / 3 €

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