BEYOND OZU: HIDDEN GEMS OF SHOCHIKU STUDIOS coming to The Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
Presents

Yoru no henrin (The Shape of Night). 1964. Japan. Directed by Noboru Nakamura. Courtesy Shochiku

Beyond Ozu: Hidden Gems of Shochiku Studios
When: June 10 - July 9, 2022
Where: The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street, NYC

Founded in 1920 by a pair of peanut vendors who hoped to achieve the commercial success of Hollywood, the Shochiku film studio adopted Western methods of filmmaking (a training institute, a star system, a studio campus) and made Western techniques of storytelling (closeups, flashbacks, panning shots, dissolves, montage editing) into something distinctively Japanese.

 

Thanks to the generosity of Shochiku, together with the National Film Archive of Japan and Japan Foundation, New York, MoMA will present a centennial selection of hidden treasures, most of them in archival 35mm prints, from the studio that produced such masterpieces as Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story, Keisuke Kinoshita’s Ballad of Narayama, Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth, and Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri.

 

This exhibition goes beyond these perennial favorites to deepen appreciation of the history of Japanese cinema, featuring newfound discoveries like Hiroshi Shimizu’s Eternal Heart (1929), Kôzaburô Yoshimura’s Temptation (1948), Tai Kato’s The Ondekoza (1981), and Kôhei Oguri’s The Sting of Death (1990).

 

The exhibition opens on June 10th with the North American premiere 4K restoration of Masahiro Shinoda’s Demon Pond (1979).

Complete series information and screening schedule is available here.

Kazuo Miyagawa retrospective begins tonight at Japan Society NY

Japan Society NY

presents

Kazuo Miyagawa: Japan's Greatest Cinematographer

When: April 13-28, 2018

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC
Map

Japan Society NY's spring film series opens tonight with a brand new 4K restoration of Yasujiro Ozu’s Floating Weeds (above), introduced by Ichiro Miyagawa, eldest son of Kazuo Miyagawa, and Masahiro Miyajima, Miyagawa's longtime camera assistant. Followed by an opening night reception with food, drinks and live music. Limited tickets remain. [UPDATE: This event is sold out. A waitlist will begin at the box office at 6 PM.]

Opening Night Tickets  

Japan Society will screen 10 more of Miyagawa's greatest works over the next two weeks, including Rashomon (1950), The Rickshaw Man (1943), and Ballad of Orin (1977). Advance ticket purchase is recommended.

Full Schedule & Tickets

Note that co-organizer The Museum of Modern Art will host repeat screenings and additional Miyagawa retrospective titles from April 12-29. Preceding the retrospective, new 4K restorations of Mizoguchi's A Story From Chikamatsu and Sansho the Bailiff, both shot by Miyagawa, will run at Film Forum from April 6-12.

Retrospective of renowned Japanese cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa

Japan Society NY

presents

Kazuo Miyagawa: Japan's Greatest Cinematographer

When: April 13-28, 2018

Where: Japan Society NY

333 East 47th Street, NYC
Map

In celebration of the 110th anniversary of his birth, Japan Society will present an 11-film retrospective surveying the work of Kazuo Miyagawa (1908-1999), the most influential cinematographer of postwar Japanese cinema. Working intimately with directors like Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Kon Ichikawa on some of their most important films, Miyagawa pushed Japanese cinema to its highest artistic peaks through his lyrical, innovative and technically flawless camerawork. This career-spanning selection displays his great versatility, including major masterpieces and rarely shown titles, screening in 35mm and new digital restorations.

For further information, a complete list of the films that will be shown at Japan Society and to buy tickets for screenings there, click here.

Note that co-organizer The Museum of Modern Art will host repeat screenings and additional Miyagawa retrospective titles from April 12-29. Preceding the retrospective, new 4K restorations of Mizoguchi's A Story From Chikamatsu and Sansho the Bailiff, both shot by Miyagawa, will run at Film Forum from April 6-12.

THE GREAT BUDDHA + will be shown at the NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS festival in New York

Cheng Cheng FIlms

presents

The Great Buddha +

Written and directed by HUANG Hsin-Yao

Starring Cres CHUANG, Bamboo CHEN, and Leon DAI

Taiwan, 2017, 104 minutes

Taiwanese director HUANG Hsin-Yao's feature film debut The Great Buddha + will have its New York Premiere at the 47th New Directors/New Films festival. It will be shown on Tuesday, April 3rd at 8:45 PM at MoMA's Titus 2 theater and on Wednesday, April 4th at 6:30 PM at the Walter Reade Theater of the Film Society of New York. For venue information and to buy tickets, click here.

Synopsis:
Provincial friends Pickle and Belly Button idle away their nights in the security booth of a Buddha statue factory, where Pickle works as a guard. One evening, when the TV is on the fritz, they put on video from the boss’s dashcam—only to discover illicit trysts and a mysterious act of violence. Expanded from a short, Huang Hsin-yao’s fiction feature debut The Great Buddha + (the plus sign cheekily nodding to the smartphone model) is a stylish, rip-roaring satire on class and corruption in contemporary Taiwanese society.

NAOMI KAWASE Retrospective coming to MoMA NY

Japanese film director Naomi Kawase

Naomi Kawase Retrospective

When: June 25–July 14, 2016

Where: : Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

11 West 53rd Street, NYC

Map

Info

Naomi Kawase is among the most renowned contemporary Japanese filmmakers. She began making films in 1988, when she was 19 years old, and has been garnering awards for the intimate and timeless tenor of her work ever since. Her earliest films, shot in an experimental style on Super 8mm and 16mm film, had an autobiographical bent, focusing on her family life and abandonment by her birth father (Embracing, 1992), or the loving but charged interactions with the foster mother who raised her (Katatsumori, 1994). While she continued to explore nonfiction, Kawase began developing fiction films, and in 1997 she released her debut dramatic feature, Suzaku. Focusing on the trials of a family living in a rural area of Japan in economic decline, the film won the Cannes Film Festival’s Camera d’Or—making Kawase the award’s youngest recipient to date. Ten years later The Mourning Forest, her feature about the intertwined fates of a young woman and an older man, won the Cannes Grand Prix.

Kawase’s films are often based in her native Nara Prefecture, the woodsy, rural area of one of the ancient capitals of Japan. Nature, the elements, and the seasons are important signposts in all of her films, signifying both permanence and the cycles of life. Japanese culture, traditional ritual, and music are also significant elements in her films, and she often works with a combination of professional and non-professional actors.

Kawase studied television and film at Visual Arts Osaka, graduating in 1989. She founded Kumie Inc. Production Company in 1996, and the Nara International Film Festival in 2010. Kawase received the Chevalier des Arts et des Letters of France in 2015.

Retrospective of cinematographer MARK LEE PING-BING coming to MoMA NY in June

The Rooftop

Luminosity: The Art of Cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-Bing

When: June 16–30, 2016

Where: : Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

11 West 53rd Street, NYC

Map

Info

In a career that spans over three decades, Mark Lee Ping-Bing (Taiwanese, b. 1954) has distinguished himself as one of the world’s foremost cinematographers and moving image creators. His exquisite presentation of light, shadow, and color; graceful camera movement; and arresting compositions bring cinematography’s central role in the creation of motion pictures to the forefront. Lee is a master of filming in natural- and low-light conditions, revealing dense, lustrous layers of light and darkness that provide incredible depth and space. Each frame allows viewers to immerse themselves in rich visual landscapes, whether naturalistic or highly stylized. Lee’s seductive, observant long takes do more than punctuate the passage of time; they mark subtle emotional transformations and inject distinctive rhythmic shifts. He has shot primarily on film throughout his career, and he remains among a small number of cinematographers who continue to use this medium today.

An essential partner to the directors he works with, Lee is best known for his longtime collaboration with director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. In the 10 award-winning features they’ve made together, the duo has defined a vision for Taiwan New Cinema realism—and beyond. Lee has also collaborated with such celebrated filmmakers as Wong Kar Wai, Tran Anh Hung, Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Ann Hui, and his work has won him numerous international honors, most recently a Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 2016 Berlinale, for Crosscurrent. For this first American retrospective of Lee’s work, MoMA presents a diverse group of films from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Japan, and France.

An evening with WONG KAR WAI at MoMA NY on May 23rd

MoMA

Presents

Brigitte Lin in Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express (Hong Kong, 1994)

An Evening with Wong Kar Wai

When: Monday, May 23rd, 2016 at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

11 West 53rd Street, NYC

T1, Titus Theater 1

Map

Tickets go on sale May 9th

Known for his striking visual sensibility, Wong Kar Wai, cinema’s reigning aesthetician, has taken films about romance and heartbreak to a whole new level, earning the hearts and minds of critics and cinephiles alike who favor loftier philosophical and moral inquiry. Lovelorn and lonesome souls, always played by the most glamorous film stars, inhabit a richly constructed world saturated with elaborate visual and sonic details. Lush colors, sensuous music, and sinuous movements combine with kinetic camerawork, shifting film speeds, and exhilaratingly fast editing to create a total sensory overload whereby Wong explores themes of time, memory, love, and loss.

Born in Shanghai in 1958, Wong studied graphic design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University before enrolling in a training program offered by a local television station. He became a screenwriter, first in television, then in film, and made his directorial debut with As Tears Go By in 1988, during the heyday of Hong Kong cinema. This gangster film combined genre conventions with an unusual visual flair, signaling a gift for formal experimentation that has continued in his subsequent work—and earned him a place among the greatest living auteurs.

Wong Kar Wai joins La Frances Hui, Associate Curator, Department of Film, to discuss his films (along with short film clips), work processes, and partnerships with various long-term collaborators, both on and off screen.

The program is followed by a book signing and sale of Wong Kar Wai and John Powers’s WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai (Rizzoli, 2016).

ContemporAsian presents 13 film Lens on Tibet program at MoMA NY

Yartsa Rinpoche. 2013. China/France. Directed by Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang. 101 min.Courtesy of Chenaktsang and Trace Foundation

Lens on Tibet

When: August 21–31, 2014

Where: Museum of Modern Art

ContemporAsian, MoMA's showcase of Asian cinema, typically features weeklong engagements of films that capture the various styles, histories, and changes in Asian cinema. The series turns a Lens on Tibet with a 13-film program of recent Tibetan documentary and narrative films beginning this Thursday, August 21st.

Lens on Tibet includes the world premiere of Tashi Chopel's The Son of a Herder (2014), an unembellished portrait of the life of a plateau herder in eastern Tibet's remote Zehok region. The film highlights an existence caught between ideals and reality, modernity and tradition, and individual choices.

Yartsa Rinpoche (Precious Caterpillar) (2013), directed by Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang, follows Darlo, an elder in the Amdo region, and his family as they journey 800 kilometers to collect Cordyceps sinensis (in Tibetan, Yartsa-gunbu), which has been called "Tibet's golden worm" and "The Viagra of the Himalayas."

Yartsa Rinpoche—which is presented in a weeklong run—receives its North American premiere along with Jocelyn Ford's breakout Nowhere to Call Home (2014), Dan Smyer Yu's Embrace (2011), Khashem Gyal's The Valley of the Heroes (2013), and Dukar Tserang's They Are One Hundred Years Old (2014).

For further information about each film, showtimes and to order tickets here.

MoMA's ContemporAsian film series presents MANUSCRIPTS DON'T BURN for one week starting tomorrow

Manuscripts Don’t Burn / Dast-Neveshtehaa Nemisoosand

Written and directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

Iran, 2013, 125 minutes

In Persian with English subtitles

When: June 13–June 19, 2014

Where: MoMA
11 West 53rd Street, NYC

Clandestinely produced in disavowal of a 20-year filmmaking ban passed down by the Iranian authorities, the scathing Manuscripts Don’t Burn brings a whole new level of clarity and audacity to Mohommad Rasoulof’s already laudable career. Drawing from the true story of the government’s attempted 1995 murder of several prominent writers and intellectuals, Rasoulof imagines a repressive regime so pervasive that even the morally righteous are subsumed or cast aside. A lacerating and slow-burning thriller filmed in a frigid palate of blues and greys, Manuscripts Don’t Burn is perhaps the most subversive and incendiaryj’accuse lodged against an authoritarian regime since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Screening Schedule:

Friday, June 13, 2014, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2 (Introduced by Jamsheed Akrami)

Saturday, June 14, 2014, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Sunday, June 15, 2014, 5:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Monday, June 16, 2014, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Tuesday, June 17, 2014, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Wednesday, June 18, 2014, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

Thursday, June 19, 2014, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2

MoMA's ContemporAsian film series presents COLD BLOOM for one week

Cold Bloom / Sakura Namiki no Mankai no Shita ni

Directed by Atsushi Funahashi

Japan, 2012, 120 minutes

In Japanese with English subtitles

When: May 16–May 22

Where: MoMA

11 West 53rd Street, NYC

Cold Bloom, the next film in the Museum of Modern Art's ContemporAsian film series, opens a one week run this afternoon, Friday, May 16th at 4:30 pm. Showtimes for all seven screenings can be found and tickets can be ordered here.

Synopsis: In Hitachi, a seaside town recovering, if slowly, from its 2011 devastation, the young couple Shiori and Kenji are working in a small factory and even thinking of children, until one day Kenji is killed in a work accident, leaving Shiori and the remorseful co-worker responsible for the accident to confront difficult questions of grief and forgiveness. Embracing a tender humanism and classical style, Cold Bloom’s distinctly contemporary setting and narrative infuse a rich tradition with vitality and aplomb.

Flora Lau’s BENDS to kick-off MoMA's 7th ContemporAsian film series

MoMA Presents

ContemporAsian

 Bends

Written and directed by Flora Lau

With Carina Lau, Chen Kun, Tian Yuan. 

Hong Kong, 2013, 97 minutes

In Cantonese, Mandarin; English subtitles

When: April 21–27, 2014

Where: Museum of Modern Art 

11 West 53 Street, New York
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters
Buy tickets here

 
The seventh season of the Museum of Modern Art's ContemporAsian film series will begin next Monday with a one week run of Flora Lau’s classical drama, which debuted in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section. The film is a two-character piece in which each personifies the differences between Hong Kong and mainland China, and their somewhat uneasy coexistence.

A wealthy Hong Kong housewife, Anna, lives a spoiled, bored life. When her husband suddenly leaves, taking the money and prestige with him, she refuses to accept her changed circumstances. Her chauffeur, Fai, who lives in an ugly barrack across the border in Shenzhen, is trying to get his wife—whose second pregnancy is a violation of the Chinese one- child policy—over the border so she can give birth in Hong Kong. With beautiful camera work by the incomparable Christopher Doyle, the film’s elegant look and languorous rhythms create an affecting reflection of the characters’ emotional isolation. As they become increasingly desperate, the sharp distinctions between their two worlds become ever clearer. In Cantonese, Mandarin; English subtitles

Schedule:
Monday, April 21 at 7:00 - at this screening the film will be introduced by director Lau, who will also participate in a post-screening discussion
Tuesday, April 22 at 7:00
Wednesday, April 23 at 4:00
Thursday, April 24 at 4:00
Friday, April 25 at 7:00
Saturday, April 26 at 4:00 
Sunday, April 27 at 5:00

ACF 1987: ContemporAsian: Focus on Korea film series at MoMA

ContemporAsian: Focus on Korea @ MoMA

When: Monday, August 5 to Sunday, August 11, 2013

Where:  MoMA, 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019

Map

(By Subway, E, M to 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue

or B, D, F to 47-50 Street Rockefeller Center)
Series and ticket info here

The Korea Society and MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) co-presents 'Focus on Korea' as part of 'ContemporAsian' film series which presents many contemporary Asian films from pan-Asian countries. The series selects critically lauded Korean films, highlighting current social issues, injustice and human nature. The films maximize distinctive narrative skills from some of Korea's insightful and penetrative renegade filmmakers.

Three directors will be presented: Dir. Chung J-young (National Security), Dir. Lee Ji-seung (Azooma) and Dir. Jeon Soo-il (El Condo Pasa). National Security (New York premier) garnered acclaim by The Hollywood Reporter as "one such picture from South Korea, an entirely sincere and dignified effort by Chung Ji-young." Screen Daily commented that "El Condo Pasa (New York Premier) is a compelling addition to Jeon Soo-il's body of work," noting that the film "mirrors the Themes of religion, grief and forgiveness found in Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine (2007)." Director Lee's Azooma had accolades from Beyond Hollywood, "Azooma is certainly a very angry film, though justifiably so, and it's all the more powerful for the fact that it's very well made."

Azooma

Azooma (Gongjeongsahoe) 2012 (74 min, T2) directed by Lee Ji-seung.
An ordinary mother stands up against the corrupt and dysfunctional society plays the main protagonist in Azooma to protect her daughter. Friday, August 9, 2013 @7:00 p.m. (filmmaker present for this screening)

National Security

National Security (Namyeong-dong 1985) 2012 (106 min, T2) directed by Chung Ji-young.
This film is based on the memoir written by the late Kim Geun-tae, a famous politician and the former Minister of Health and Welfare in Korea. Kim was captured, imprisoned, and tortured for 22 days at a specially designed facility located at Namyoung-dong on September 1985. Monday, August 5, 2013 @7:00 p.m.; Tuesday, August 6, 2013 @4:00 p.m.; Wednesday, August 7, 2013 @7:00 p.m.; Thursday, August 8, 2013 @4:00 p.m.; Friday, August 9, 2013 @4:00 p.m. (filmmaker present for Friday's screening; Saturday, August 10, 2013 @1:30 p.m

El Condor Pasa

El Condor Pasa (Kon-dol-eun Nal-a-gan-da) 2012 (101 min, T2) directed by JeonSoo-il.
Catholic priest Park adored and cared much about a middle school girl, but she was murdered. He departs journey to look for the redemption. Sunday, August 11, 2013 @ 5:00 p.m. (filmmaker present for this screening)

Sleepless Night (Jammotdeuneun Bam) 2012 (65 min, T2) directed by Jang Kun-jae.
A working middle-class married couple in their early thirties struggle through daily trials and facing the decision of starting a family. Saturday, August 10, 2013 @ 7:30 p.m./Sunday, August 11, 2013 @2:00 p.m.

White Night (Baek-ya) 2012 (75 min, T2) directed by Leesong Hee-il.
The film is loosely based on a real-life hate crime that happened in Seoul, and two men try to overcome from the wound.Saturday, August 10, 2013 @ 4:00 p.m.

All films are in Korean with English subtitles.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.

ACF 1889: MoMA to present CHINESE REALITIES / DOCUMENTARY VISIONS film series

24 City / Er shi si cheng si

Chinese Realities/Documentary Visions

When: May 08, 2013–June 01, 2013

Where: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, NYC

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

Map

The Museum of Modern Art has announced Chinese Realities/Documentary Visions, an exhibition that features nearly 30 films made between 1988 and 2013. The films highlight the evolution of documentary practice in China over the past 25 years, revealing the growth and ever-increasing influence of nonfiction film and media as a mode of communication and expression in contemporary Chinese film and art.

China Villagers Documentary Project / Zhongguo cunmin yinxiang jihua

Amid China's epochal transformations over the last two decades, new documentary aesthetics have emerged, as the cultural and societal challenges caused by China's transition to a free-market economy compelled professional and aspiring filmmakers alike to capture new realities on screen. The selections, encompassing a wide range of Chinese film and media, including independently made films, state-approved productions, amateur videos, and Web-based Conceptual art, provide a vivid look into a society in perpetual transformation. Chris Berry, co-editor of the foundational text, The New Chinese Documentary Movement: For the Public Record will be present to discuss the movement's impact and the aesthetic and moral questions it has raised for Chinese cinema.

Old Dog / Lao gou/Khyi rgan

The exhibition is organized by Sally Berger, Assistant Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, and Kevin B. Lee, independent curator and Vice President, Programming and Education, dGenerate Films.

Click here for more information and full screening schedule.

ACF 1843: HIGHWAY to be showcased in MoMA's annual Asian film series

MoMA
presents
ContemporAsian

Highway

Directed by Deepak Rauniyar

Nepal, 2012, 80 minutes

When: April 25, 2013–May 01, 2013

Where: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, NYC

The Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters

Map

ContemporAsian, MoMA’s annual showcase of Asian cinema, features weeklong engagements of films that capture the various styles, histories, and changes in contemporary Asian filmmaking. This series includes recent independent gems by both new and established filmmakers whose work represents the rapidly transforming visual culture of the region.

The sixth season of ContemporAsian opens with the New York premiere of Highway, the first Nepalese film to premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. The most talked-about cinematic event in Nepal’s history has divided audiences at home and thrilled cineastes worldwide.

Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film.

ACF 1841: Two screenings of PEOPLE'S PARK in NYC

People’s Park

Directed by Libbie D. Cohn & J.P. Sniadecki
USA/China, 2012, 78 minutes
When: Thursday, 3/28/2013 at 6:15 PM
at MoMA Titus 1 Theater, 11 West 53rd Street, NYC
Tickets at MoMA

and
Saturday, 3/30/2013 at 6:00 PM
at Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65 Street, NYC
Tickets at Walter Reade
New York Premiere!

Directors JP Sniadecki and Libbie Dina Cohn in person at all screenings

An immersive, inquisitive visit to the People’s Park in Chengdu, China, this film was created in a single virtuoso tracking shot. The joys of communal play, exercise, and leisure time come under intense scrutiny from the relentless gaze of the directors' lens, creating alternate states of unease and exhilaration.

Online sales for screenings at MoMA end three hours prior to showtime. Any remaining tickets will be available at the MoMA Film desk beginning 30 minutes before showtime.

These screenings of People's Park are part of the New Directors/New Films series which is co-presented by the Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

ACF 1837: NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS 2013 begins tomorrow

NEW DIRECTORS/NEW FILMS 2013

When: March 20–31, 2013

Where: The Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center

and The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1 at MoMA

Now in its 42nd year, the renowned New Directors/New Films festival, presented jointly by The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, introduces New York audiences to the work of emerging or not-yet-established filmmakers from around the world.

Here's some info about two Asian-related films that will be shown:

Emperor Visits the Hell 

Directed by Luo Li

U.S. Premiere!

Director Luo Li in person at all screenings!

In this crafty reworking of part of the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, Emperor Li Shimin is now a bureaucratic boss in a big city, where the crooked Dragon King’s attempt to change the weather has backfired and condemned him to death.

People’s Park

Directed by Libbie D. Cohn & J.P. Sniadecki

New York Premiere!

Directors JP Sniadecki and Libbie Dina Cohn in person at all screenings!

An immersive, inquisitive visit to the People's Park in Chengdu, China created in a single virtuoso tracking shot, this film scrutinizes the joys of communal play, exercise and free time.

Visit newdirectors.org for details about the entire series.

ACF 1640: Final four films of Yeonghwa: Korean Film Today

Today and tomorrow are the final days of the Yeonghwa: Korean Film Today series at the Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition, a collaboration of the MoMA and The Korea Society, was made possible by Hyundai Card Company. Here is information about the four remaining films to be shown.

Poongsan / Pung-san-gae

Directed by Jeon Jae-hong

Screenplay by Kim Ki-duk

With Yoon Kye-sang, Kim Gyu-ri, Kim Jong-soo, Han Gi-jung

South Korea, 2011, 121 minutes 

Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 5:00 PM

Jeon (Beautiful, 2008) was an assistant to filmmaker Kim Ki-duk, who wrote and produced this film and whose influence is at once palpable and subordinate to Jeon’s own talent. Poongsan, who does not speak, carries messages back and forth between separated families in North and South Korea. When he is enlisted to smuggle the mistress of a high-ranking North Korean defector out of the North, passion intervenes, and an unexpected, “crazy” love threatens political chaos.

Pink / Ping-keu

Directed by Jeon Soo-il

Screenplay by Jeon Kim Kyung

With Lee Seung-yeon, Seo Kap-sook, Park Hyeon-woo, Kang San-eh

South Korea, 2011, 97 minutes

Saturday, September 29, 2012 at 8:00 PM

Among a clutch of derelict buildings sits Pink, a condemned bar that caters to drifters and lost souls. Jeon’s eighth feature is a portrait of a struggling small business, the world-weary middle-aged woman who runs it, and her dwindling clientele.

From Seoul to Varanasi / Varanasi

Written and directed by Jeon Kyu-hwan

With Yoon Dong-hwan, Choi Won-jung, Shin Ye-an, Nollaig Walsh

South Korea, 2011, 96 minutes 

Sunday September 30, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Jeon, whose Town Trilogy (Mozart, Dance, and Animal) was a highlight of last year’s Yeonghwa, returns with a steamy and explicit melodrama that moves beyond Korea to India and even the Middle East. A married executive in Seoul has an affair and, eventually, so does his wife—with a foreign worker. Secrets multiply, and what began as personal betrayals become explosive global incidents.

Fire in Hell / Ji-ok-hwa

Written and directed by Lee Sang-woo

With Won Tae-hee, Cha Seung-min, Kim Hun, Lee Yong-rye

South Korea, 2012, 99 minutes

Sunday, September 30, 2012 at 5:30 PM

A graduate of both UC Berkeley and the Kim Ki-duk “school” of filmmaking, Lee, one of Korea’s maverick multitasking filmmakers, makes his Yeongwha debut with this sensual melodrama. In a vivid exploration of the notion of karma, a Buddhist monk loses control. The calamitous results are followed, perhaps, by redemption. In Korean; English subtitles. 99 min.

 

ACF 1635: Korean thriller BLIND at MoMA tomorrow afternoon

MIN Soo-ah is followed in a subway car by a psycho-killer

Blind / Beul-la-in-deu

Directed by Ahn Sang-hoon

South Korea, , 111 minutes

When: Monday, September 24, 2012 @ 4:30 PM

Where: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, NYC

Map here

One night MIN Soo-ah (KIM Ha-neul), a bright young woman who's a student at the police university, makes a terrible mistake. As a result someone dear to her dies, and she goes blind and loses her chance to join the police.

Three years later she is still struggling to adapt to her condition, this despite the assistance of Wisey, her female guide dog. One day she goes alone to visit the House of Hope, the orphanage where she grew up. Prideful, she gets angered at a suggestion that is made and takes off on her own. Consequently, she is drawn into the case of a psychotic killer who targets young women.

Using her skills of observation -- sound and smell, if not sight -- and of her police training, she's pitted against this maniac. Will she be able to save herself and at the same time find redemption for her earlier mistake in judgement?

For me, there were some serious problems with the film. One was what I perceived as an overly melodramatic linking of the terrible consequences of her mistake of three years earlier with the situation that develops later.

Secondly, we know nothing about the killer until near the very end of the film, and even then what we learn doesn't really give us enough information to make him anything more than a cardboard cut-out of a psychopath. The explanation -- such as it is -- for his actions are simplistic and don't begin to meaningfully account for his motivation to kidnap and kill young women, nor for his physical abilities.

Finally there are some developments that are just way too implausible. Why, for example, would a cop who's assigned to guard Soo-ah and the young man, sit out in his car in the rain and not be with them inside the building where they are staying? It's clearly to allow the killer to get to his targets, but it's also just plain dumb. I might give this sort of thing a pass in a teen horror/thriller -- such as House at the End of the Street -- but Blind aspires to a higher level of cinema. Sadly, it falls a bit short.

But while the plot could've been better fleshed out, the acting is uniformly good, particularly that of KIM Ha-neul and Jo Hie-bong, who plays the rather out-of-his-league detective who's assigned the case. Also the cinematography is well done, and there are some truly suspenseful moments.

ACF Rating: 2.5 out of 4 stars. Flawed, but overall a fairly good film for the genre. Certainly worth seeing.

This screening of Stateless Things is part of the third edition of Yeonghwa: Korean Film Today. This joint presentation of The Korea Society and MoMA includes 11 distinctive contemporary narratives, from genre films to unclassifiable features by some of Korea’s leading renegade filmmakers.

And if you're drawn to the theme of blind women effectively dealing with really bad guys, then consider checking out Audrey Hepburn in Terence Young's Wait Until Dark (1967).

ACF 1633: Two screenings of Korean drama STATELESS THINGS at MoMA

Stateless Things / Jool-tak-dong-si   

Written and directed by KIM Kyung-mook

South Korea, 2012, 118 minutes

When: Sunday, September 23, 2012 @ 5:30 PM
Friday, September 28, 2012 @ 8:00 PM

Where: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, NYC

Map here

The “stateless things” in the title of documentarian Kim’s first narrative feature are three marginalized young people in Seoul: a teenage North Korean defector and a Chinese Korean girl who occasionally do odd jobs together, and a gay hustler who, for a while anyway, has a lovely apartment and a sugar daddy. At once harsh and dreamy, the film treats its dispossessed characters with a hopeful empathy, bringing them together in a fresh and provocative manner.

These screenings of Stateless Things are part of the third edition of Yeonghwa: Korean Film Today. This joint presentation of The Korea Society and MoMA includes 11 distinctive contemporary narratives, from superior genre films to unclassifiable features by some of Korea’s leading renegade filmmakers.

ACF 1629: HELPLESS - movie review

 Helpless / Hoa-cha

Written and directed by BYUN Young-Joo

South Korea, 2012,  117 minutes

When: Thursday, September 20, 2012 @ 4:30 PM

and Saturday, September 22, 2012 @ 8:00 PM

Where: Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, NYC
Map here

JANG Mun-ho (LEE Seon-gyun), a successful veterinarian, is driving his fiancé GANG Seon-yeong (KIM Min-hie) to meet his parents. They stop at a service area rest stop, and Mun-ho gets out to get some coffee. When he returns, Seon-yeong is not in the car. Mun-ho cannot find her anywhere and can't reach her on her cell phone.

When he goes to her place, he finds that every personal item of hers is gone. Desparate to find Seon-yeong, Mun-hoe enlists the aid of Jong-geun ( JO Seong-ha), a former policeman who'd been dismissed for taking bribes. Their search leads them along an increasingly complex path involving loan sharking, debt and bankruptcy, identity theft, and more.

Seon-yeong, left, and Mun-ho

This gripping mystery thriller was adapted by director BYUN from the novel All She Was Worth by Miyabe Miyuki. It's exceedingly well-crafted, and the rising suspense is palpable.

ACF Rating: 3.5 out of 4 stars, highly recommended

These screenings of Helpless are part of the third edition of Yeonghwa: Korean Film Today. This joint presentation of The Korea Society and MoMA includes 11 distinctive contemporary narratives, from superior genre films to unclassifiable features by some of Korea’s leading renegade filmmakers.