By If you are reading this, I think it’s probably safe to assume you live in New York City. If not, I recommend moving there, because it’s a pretty great place. They show a lot of Korean films. Here’s some more proof of that. This weekend (February 24th to the 26th), the Korea Society, in concert with BAM Cinématek and CJ Entertainment, will be showing seven films as part of the 10th Annual New York Korean Film Festival.
The festival will take place at the BAM Rose Cinema in Brooklyn (which is a pretty awesome theater). There is some pretty awesome variety on display, so I definitely recommend hitting up the source link (or the jump, which will have essentially the same information) and seeing what’s showing when.
As always, you can expect reviews of the films to make you either jealous (if you don’t live in New York) or ecstatic (if you do). So look out for those.
[Via The Korea Society] [Press Release Via Twitch Film]BAMcinématek presents the 10th New York Korean Film Festival, Feb 24–26
Seven films, two New York premieres
The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek.
Brooklyn, NY/Jan 25, 2012–From February 24 to 26, BAMcinématek and the Korea Society, in partnership with CJ Entertainment, present the 10th New York Korean Film Festival (NYKFF) showcasing the best in contemporary Korean film.
BAMcinématek has been a strong champion of Korean cinema, hosting the festival on eight separate occasions, as well as showcasing many other series of films from the peninsula: the first-ever US retrospective of auteur Hong Sang-soo (Woman on the Beach), as well as retrospectives of Park Chan-wook in 2005, Bong Joon-ho in 2010 and Kim Ji-woon last year. Since the festival’s inception, Korean film has made many inroads stateside–most notably Park Chan-wook’s fanboy revenge favorite, Oldboy (2003), and Bong Joon-ho’s monster-on-the-loose blockbuster, The Host. Past NYKFFs have included: Jeong Jae-eun’s Take Care of My Cat (2002), Bong’s epic and haunting police procedural Memories of Murder (2004), Jang Jun-hwan’s nutty sci-fi melée Save the Green Planet (“snazzy, playful, some-what gory, often hilarious, and generally unpredictable” [J. Hoberman]), and in last year’s edition, Im Sang-soo’s remake of the 60s Korean thriller The Housemaid.
This year’s festival opens Friday, February 24 with Toronto, Berlin, and Busan selection Late Autumn by Kim Tae-yong (Memento Mori), in which a romantic rapport between a fugitive and a convict on leave (Tang Wei of Lust, Caution) emerges over 72 hours in Seattle. Turning Before Sunrise on its head, Kim remakes the 1966 South Korean film Full Autumn, but sets it within “the melancholic, gray backdrop of Seattle as both character and metaphor, crafting a film that’s visually beautiful and incredibly moving” (Ernest Hardy, The Village Voice).
Kang Woo-suk, who has topped the Korean film magazine Cine21’s annual list of “50 Most Powerful Men in Korean Cinema” for seven consecutive years, premiered his hits Public Enemy (2002) and Another Public Enemy (2005) at previous festivals. This year’s edition showcases the box-office king’s last two films. Moss (Sun, Feb 26 at 5:45pm) is a labyrinthine mystery in which a man returns to a small village to bury his father, but uncovers that his death was foul play. The whodunit was followed by Kang’s stirring drama about a deaf baseball team, Glove, a New York premiere screening that evening at 9pm.
Also in a New York premiere, Lee Hyun-seung’s Hindsight (Fri, Feb 24 at 9:15pm) follows an ex-mob boss played by Song Kang-ho (The Host, Memories of Murder) who falls in love with a young female assassin as he’s attempting to flee his past in the underworld. Premiering at this past fall’s Busan Film Festival, Hindsight is Lee’s fourth film in 20 years, and his acclaimed return to the screen after 2000’s Il Mare.
The Servant, screening on Saturday, February 25th at 6:50pm, is Kim Dae-woo’s adaptation of a Korean pansori tale from the 17th and 18th centuries called “Chunhyangseon,” which has been adapted numerous times, most recently in Im Kwon-taek’s Chunhyang. Kim’s erotic 18th-century period piece is decidedly more sensual and comedic than its predecessors–an O. Henry-esque social climbing satire with a steamy undercurrent.
Also screening is Kang Hyeong-cheol’s 80s nostalgia piece Sunny, one of the highest grossing films in South Korea last year, and Cho Beom-goo’s ticking cinematic time bomb Quick.
New York Korean Film Festival schedule
Fri, Feb 24
6:50pm: Late Autumn
9:15pm: Hindsight
Sat, Feb 25
6:50pm: The Servant
9:30pm: Quick
Sun, Feb 26
3pm: Sunny
5:45pm: Moss
9pm: Glove
Film Schedule
Glove (2011) 144min NY Premiere!
Directed by Kang Woo-suk. With Jeong Jae-young, Sun Yoo, Kang Shin-il
A hot-tempered former professional baseball player is sent to the countryside to coach a team of hearingimpaired
players–all in an effort to avoid media coverage of his recent involvement in an assault case. At first, he’s skeptical but as he spends time with the players he starts to believe in them and decides to help
them prepare for the nationals.
Sunday, Feb 26 at 9pm
Hindsight (Poo-reun-so-geum) (2011) 120min NY Premiere!
Directed by Lee Hyun-seung. With Song Kang-ho, Shin Se-kyeong, Cheon Jeong-myeong.
Veteran filmmaker Lee Hyun-seung transcends the crime genre in this film about retired mob boss Duheon (Song Kang-ho), who has hopes of making a fresh start as a restaurant owner and enrolls in a cooking class, where finds himself drawn to the charming and quirky Se-bin. But there may be more to her than meets the eye. Despite his determination to wipe the slate clean, Du-heon is summoned back into the criminal fold by his old colleagues.
Fri, Feb 24 at 9:15pm
Late Autumn (Manchu) (2010) 113min
Directed by Kim Tae-yong. With Hyun Bin, Tang Wei
On a special weekend release from prison, where she’s serving time for killing her abusive husband, Anna ventures to Seattle to attend her mother’s funeral. On the bus, she meets Hoon, a “companion for hire” for lonely, older women, and they soon discover they are both running away: Anna from her past and Hoon from one of his clients’ husbands. This remake of the famed 1961 film by director Lee Man-hee features beautiful cinematography, all shot on location in Seattle.
Fri, Feb 24 at 6:50pm
Moss (Iggi) (2010) 163min
Directed by Kang Woo-suk. With Jeong Jae-yeong, Park Hae-il, Yu Hae-jin.
Upon hearing news of his father’s death, Ryu Hae-guk travels to an isolated village, where he soon realizes that the increasingly threatening villagers are hiding something from him. The mystery behind his father’s death continues to unravel in this atmospheric thriller, as Ryu learns that his father was a savior to this small town and shared absolute power with the town chief.
Sun, Feb 26 at 5:45pm
Quick (2011) 115min
Directed by Cho Beom-goo. With Lee Min-ki, Kang Ye-won, Kim In-kwon
Former motorcycle gang member Gi-su makes his living as a bike messenger. When he delivers a package one day, the building later blows up, but he never suspects that he could have anything to do with the bomb. But when Ah-rom, an ex-girlfriend from his biker days, puts on a bike helmet, she triggers a timing mechanism that sets off a countdown clock: Gi-su must make a series of deliveries within a fixed time limit–or suffer the consequences.
Sat, Feb 25 at 9:30pm
The Servant (Bang-ja jeon) (2010) 124min
Directed by Kim Dae-woo. With Kim Joo-hyuk, Ryu Seung-beom, Jo Yeo-jeong, Oh Dal-su.
This retelling of the classic Korean folk tale Chun-hyang is told from the point of view of Bang-ja, a personal servant to the aristocratic scholar Lee Mong-ryong. When the two men encounter a maiden named Chun-hyang, Mong-ryong courts her with the prospect of marriage while Bang-ja begins an illicit affair with her. With eroticism and humor, Kim Dae-woo’s The Servant illustrates the pursuits of love and class status.
Sat, Feb 25 at 6:50pm
Sunny (2011) 124min
Directed by Kang Hyeong-cheol. With Yu Ho-jeong, Shim Eun-kyeong, Jin Hee-kyung, Kang So-ra, Hong Jin-hee.
Kang Hyeong-chul’s (Speedy Scandal) latest film, drawing on memories of the 1980s, was a huge boxoffice hit in Korea. The story follows a group of high school friends who go their separate ways after a sudden accident. Twenty-five years later, Na-mi–who’s married and has a daughter but feels something missing in her life–runs into Chun-hwa, and decides to seek out the others.
Sun, Feb 26 at 3pm
About BAMcinématek
The four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas (BRC) opened in 1998 to offer Brooklyn audiences alternative and independent films that might not play in the borough otherwise, making BAM the only performing arts center in the country with two mainstage theaters and a multiplex cinema. In July 1999, beginning with a series celebrating the work of Spike Lee,
BAMcinématek was born as Brooklyn’s only daily, year-round repertory film program. BAMcinématek presents new and rarely seen contemporary films, classics from cinema history, work by local artists, and festivals of films from around the world, often with special appearances by directors, actors, and other guests. BAMcinématek has not only
presented major retrospectives by well-known filmmakers such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Shohei Imamura, Manoel de Oliveira, Luchino Visconti, and Vincente Minnelli, but it has also introduced New York audiences to contemporary artists such as Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In addition, BAMcinématek programmed the first US
retrospectives of directors Arnaud Desplechin, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Hong Sang-soo, among others. From 2006 to 2008, BAMcinématek partnered with the Sundance Institute and in June 2009 launched the first BAMcinemaFest in a 16-day festival of new independent films and repertory favorites with 15 NY feature film premieres; the third annual
BAMcinemaFEST ran in June 2011 with a total of 50 films–including 20 NY feature premieres and one world feature premiere.
Credits
The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek.
The Best of Korean Film Festival series is part of Global Connections at BAM sponsored by the MetLife Foundation
BAM Rose Cinemas are named in recognition of a major gift in honor of Jonathan F.P. and Diana Calthorpe Rose.
BAM Rose Cinemas would also like to acknowledge the generous support of The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Estate of Richard B. Fisher, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Bloomberg, and Time
Warner Inc. Additional support for BAMcinématek is provided by The Cultural Heritage Preservation Fund, The Grodzins Fund, The Liman Foundation and Summit Rock Advisors.
Special thanks to Yuni Cho/The Korea Society, CJ Entertainment.
General Information
Tickets: General Admission: $12
BAM Cinema Club Members: $7, BAM Cinema Club Movie Moguls: Free
Seniors & Students (25 and under with a valid ID, Mon–Thu): $9
Bargain matinees (Mon–Thu before 5pm & Fri–Sun before 3pm no holidays): $8
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn’s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, is open for dining prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé, currently on hiatus until mid-September, also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live on select Friday and Saturday nights with a special BAMcafé Live menu available starting at 8pm.
Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater)
D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue
Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal
Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM
Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM
For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.