ACF 1467: CHOI Min-Shik Tribute

The Korea Society, as part of its ongoing "Korean Cinema Now" program with the Museum of the Moving Image (MoMI), will be presenting a three film tribute to Korean actor CHOI Min-Shik (also spelled CHOI Min-sik or anglicized as Min-sik CHOI).

The films to be shown are:
Failan - Sunday, May 20th, 2012 at 3:00 PM
Stroke of Fire / Chiwaseon, Sunday, June 3rd, 2012 at 3:00 PM
Old Boy, Sunday, July 1st, 2012 at 4:00 PM

Choi Min-shik had numerous television roles, but his big break came in 1999 when he played a cold-blooded North Korean soldier in Swiri (directed by Kang Je-gyu) and suddenly gained a reputation as one of Korea’s finest actors. His acting dominates the silver screen, but his characters have more than charisma. In Failan, he played a thug, married to a Chinese woman out of convenience, but who sheds tears of regret when his “fake” wife dies. In Strokes of Fire, which won the Best Director Prize at the 55th Cannes Film Festival, he played the famous nineteenth-century Korean painter Jang Seung-up. In 2004, Choi returned to Cannes when director Park Chan-woo’s bloody revenge epic, Old Boy, won the Grand Prix-award. Choi's impassioned and robust acting can seize an audience's heart, and he is now known to film buffs worldwide.

This Choi Min-shik tribute will be presented at the newly renovated Museum of the Moving Image, home to New York City’s finest, state-of-the-art screen. MoMi is located at 36-01 35th Avenue (at 37 Street), Astoria, NY. Travel directions here. Films are free with museum admission.

This tribute is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

In related news, the 11th New York Asian Film Festival (June 29 - July 15) will be bringing CHOI to New York as a guest and will be screening his latest film, Nameless Gangster. NYAFF will also be showing a fistful of his classics, including Oldboy, and his underseen and heartbreaking boxing film, Crying Fist.