ACF 111: Death Note @ 300+ theaters!

Light (left) and the enigmatic detective known as L (right)

Death Note / Desu noto
Japan, 2006
Directed by Shusuke Kaneko

Death Note was a big hit at last year's New York Asian Film Festival. On Tuesday, May 20th and Wednesday, May 21st, VIZ Media and NCM Fathom will present the film at over 300 theaters across the United States! The film will be shown at 7:30 pm local time both nights at each theater.

When Ryuk, a Shinigami God of Death, drops his notebook, it's found by a young law student named Light, whose father just happens to be a cop. Light has become cynical about the normal legal system's ablity to mete out justice. When he discovers that he can kill criminals by remote control, as it were, simply by writing their names in the notebook, he embarks on a mission to rid the world of crime.

Ryuk hangs out with Light in his bedroom

Seeking to arrest this vigilante, the police enlist the aid of legendary detective L, a youth who likes to squat barefoot on furniture and who has perhaps the world's biggest jones for sweets. Soon Light and L are engaged in a battle of intellects, one to carry on his own brand of justice at all costs, the other to hasten his arrest.

This special two-night even will feature an English-dubbed version of the film, which was based on the manga written by Tsugumi Oba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. I've only seen the subtitled version, so I can't attest to the quality of the dub. However, VIZ is pretty conscientious about their product, so I'm optimistic that it'll be of good quality or better.

I rate Death Note at 3.5 out of 4 stars (highly recommended), and I hope that lots of you manga, anime, and Asian cult film fans out there will go see it in a theater. This special event, multi-city distribution marks a departure from VIZ's past practice of a limited release, usually three cities (New York, Seattle, and L.A.). So if you want to see a really fine film in a theater with like-minded fans, make plans to attend a screening.

To find a participating theater, click here for the NCM Fathom website.

P.S. I recently learned that select Hot Topic stores are doing a special promotion in connection with these screenings. While supplies last, customers who purchase a Death Note t-shirt or DVD (I think this refers to the anime DVDs that are already out) will receive a free ticket to attend the film event.

ACF 110: North Korean Film Series @ The Korea Society

The Korea Society's Classic Movie Night, held the third Thursday of every month, is one of the treats among myriad offerings of Asian films in New York. Next week, in addition to the regular screening (more of that at the end of this post), a special presentation of three North Korean films will be held from May 12th to 14th at 6:30 each night.

While South Korean films have garnered international support and recognition in recent years, little attention has been given to the admittedly lesser cinema from the other half of the peninsula. This mini-series offers a rare opportunity to see these North Korean movies.

Schedule:

Monday, May 12

6:00 PM Opening Reception, with talk by Prof. Charles Armstrong, Columbia University

6:30 PM Hong Kil Dong (1986, 104 min.)

A mix of Hong Kong-style kung fu and a socialist ethos, the Robin Hood-esque Hong Kil Dong helps farmers fend off feudal exploitation. When Korea is invaded by Japanese ninja, he must unite with his perennial enemies to defend the fatherland.

Reportedly a big hit in Bulgaria in the late 1980's!

I am so going to be there for this one!

Tuesday, May 13

6:30 PM Bellflower / Dorajee ggot (1987, 83 min.)

In this very popular North Korean production of the 1980s, Jin Son Rim (O Mi-ran, the "People's Actor") endeavors to transform her humble mountain hometown into a model socialist village. Released as the economy of the DPKR tanked, Bellflower "praises the spirit of workers who accept their roles and work for the greater good of the nation."

Wednesday, May 14

6:30 PM My Look in the Distant Future (1997, 102 min.)

As North Korea was ravaged by famine in the mid-1990s, tens of thousands of urban residents were mobilized for emergency agricultural work in the countryside. My Look in the Distant Future depicts that dire period with an optimistic gloss. One transplanted young, urban loafer is inspired by a stalwart village leader to become a model worker himself.

These three special presentation Classic Movie Night screenings will be at The Korea Society, 950 Third Avenue, 8th Floor (entrance on 57th Street). Price: $7 each (members), $12 each for $30 for all three movies (non-members).

To order tickets at The Korea Society's website, click here.

Also, on Thursday, May 15th at 6;30 PM, the regular Classic Movie Night series will present The Ball Shot By A Midget (1981, 100 min). Directed by Lee Won-se and based on a best-selling novel by Jo Se-hee, it's about a family struggling to get by in the ironically named neighborhood of Haengbok-dong (happy street).

For info about The Ball Shot By A Midget or to order tickets, click here.

ACF 109: Lee Chang-dong Retrospective - Secret Sunshine

Jeon Do-yeon (left) and Song Kang-ho (right)

The Asia Society's Lee Chang-dong retrospective continues tomorrow night with a screening of Secret Sunshine, his fourth and most recent film, made after he served as Korean Minister of Culture and Tourism from 2002 until 2004.

Lee Shin-ae ( actress Jeon Do-yeon) and her young son move to Miryang, the rural Korean city which her deceased husband was from and which gives the film its name. There she hopes to start a new life giving piano lessons. When their car breaks down, Kim Jong-chan (Song Kang-ho), who owns a garage, brings them and their car into town.

It's immediately obvious that he's attracted to her and that she is indifferent to his interest. Perhaps because I'm so accustomed to what Hollywood would do with such a situation, the film seemed to be starting out as a romantic comedy. You know, the guy keeps after the woman until she finally realizes that he's her "Mister Right."

Then a crime takes place. My initial reaction was that perhaps this was an incident that was gong to play into the thwarted romance. But it soon turned out to be for real, and to have dire consequences for Lee Shin-ae. The remainder of the film is an incredibly powerful exploration of human suffering, as Shin-ae searches for spiritual peace in the face of one of the worst tragedies that can befall a person. Throughout it all, Jong-chan continues to be there for her.


Like all of Lee Chang-dong's films, Secret Sunshine has won numerous festival awards. Last year at Cannes, Jeon Do-yeon received the award for best actress. Her performance, like Moon So-ri's in Oasis, is one of those rare, magnificent thespian tour-de-forces that I can only term "beyond incredible."

At the inaugural Asian Film Awards earlier this year, the movie won for best film, best director, and best actress. And Song Kang-ho has not come away empty handed. He won the prize for best actor at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival. Complete info about the film's wins and nominations can be found at this link to imdb.com.


Secret Sunshine further solidifies Lee Chang-dong's place in my list of great film directors. Though an emotionally demanding film to watch, it deserves to be seen by anyone who appreciates magnificent film making and story telling.

Screenings for it and the two other remaining films in this retrospective are at Asia Society, 725 Park Ave (at 70th Street), Manhattan. The schedule for the three remaining films, each of which will be shown at 7:00 pm, is:

Secret Sunshine
2007, 142 min
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
- This screening is co-sponsored by The School of Visual Arts
- Director Lee is scheduled to be present

Peppermint Candy
2000, 127 min
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Green Fish
1997, 111 min
Monday, May 12, 2008

For more information or to order tickets, click here.

ACF 108: Lee Chang-dong E-Interview

Renowned South Korean Film Director Lee Chang-dong

In conjunction with the retrospective of his four films at Asia Society in New York, which begins Monday, May 5th, I was given the opportunity to submit an email with some questions for director Lee Chang-dong. This method does not allow for follow-ups or for asking about things that come up in a response, as a normal face-to-face interview does, but I think it worked pretty well nonetheless.

At the end of this post, after my questions and his responses, I've provided a link to the Asia Society webpage about the series.

ACF: I understand that you had achieved success as a writer, then, when you were not yet 40 years old, did your first work on film as one of the screenwriters of Director Park Kang-soo's To the Starry Island.

How did your involvement with that film come about?

Lee: Actually at that time, I was in considerable doubt both as a writer and as a person stepping into his late 30s. Perhaps you could say I wanted to punish myself. And so I wanted to do something like hard physical labor, and what I chose was to work as an Assistant Director. Director Park Kwang-soo had just suggested that I do the scenario[script] for 'To the Starry Island,' and I made a kind of 'deal' with him to use me as an Assistant Director. Of course at the time, my filmmaking experience was nonexistent and I was in no way qualified to AD. In a way what made me a director today is very much indebted to Park Kwang-soo's gamble to use me as First Assistant Director.

ACF: After writing another screenplay (for A Single Spark, 1995), you wrote and directed your fist film, Green Fish (1996).

How did you come to direct? Was it something you had been considering for some time? Did you want to make a personal statement rather than have another director produce his own interpretation?

Lee: How I came to be a director results from a few unexpected coincidences. Because I wanted to 'punish myself' I worked very hard on the set, and it seems that made a good impression on some of the staff and cast members that I didn't expect. After that, those people kept suggesting that I become a director, and eventually helped me to debut as one. Of course, it's not as though I had never had the desire to become a director. I had always been curious about the distance between film and reality, and had questions about the apathy of movies (whether commercial movies so-called art films) that were growing farther and farther detached from reality. I wanted to make films that closed the distance a little, between film and reality.

ACF: Both Green Fish and Peppermint Candy, which followed, allude to the economic and political situation in South Korea. While they, like all your films are primarily about individuals and their stories, did you deliberately set out in Green Fish and Peppermint Candy to portray the economic and political problems that South Koreans faced in the 80s an d 90s?

Lee: There's no question that 'Green Fish' and 'Peppermint Candy' draw on the political and economic problems of Korea. But they weren't my main focus. My main interest has always been human beings. I believe film is the best medium to show something about human beings. But people can't be separated from the environment (including the political and economical reality) that surrounds them. Man is affected by his reality, and in fighting against it finds meaning in his life. Those are the kinds of things I wanted to show.

ACF: I loved the train footage used between segments of Peppermint Candy. As I recall, they were filmed from the back of the train as it traveled forward, but the film was run backwards in the movie so it looks like we're going forward, but we're actually going back time, in terms of the train's "real movement." How did this idea for using this device come about?

Lee: 'Peppermint Candy' is a film about a sort of time travel. And so I needed a way to visualize time. That's the train. Actually, time and trains have several similarities. You could say that mankind's perception of time changed with the invention of the train. Film is, of course, a medium that deals with time, and in that sense, the fact that one of the first films ever made is the Lumiere Brothers’ 'Arrival of a Train' is very symbolic. Trains are also linked with memory. That's probably why the image of a ‘train journeying to the past’ came to mind.

ACF: In both Green Fish and Oasis, there are characters with Cerebral Palsy, though the male in Green Fish is of far lesser plot significance than Moon So-ri's Han Gong-ju in Oasis. In Green Fish the character is cared for and loved by his family, whereas in Oasis, Gong-ju is exploited or ignored. Does this have to do with your belief in a difference in approach to family in more traditional, rural-rooted families (Green Fish) vs urbanized, Westernized families (Oasis)?

Lee: It's possible. Another reason could be that there is a mother in 'Green Fish,' and in 'Oasis' there are no parents. I think it's very difficult, a strain for brothers and sisters to care for a sibling with cerebral palsy, even more so than for parents to care for such a person. But I don't think the two individuals with cerebral palsy in the films are in such different circumstances from each other.

ACF: You have been described as "an actor's director," much as Sidney Lumet has. While your films all tell compelling stories, and tell them marvelously, you have clearly elicited incredible performances from your actors and actresses, who have been nominated for and won numerous awards. [I personally thought that both Moon So-ri, for Oasis, and Jeon Do-yeon, for Secret Sunshine, should have at least received Oscar nominations, but such are the vagaries of Hollywood.]

Are you comfortable with being considered "an actor's director"? Are their certain things about your approach to filmmaking that you think especially contribute to such outstanding performances?

Lee: Though I'm not exactly sure what 'an actor's director' means, it's clear to me that of the many things shown on the screen, the human being is the most important thing. There are probably a million things a director can do to draw out an actor’s performance. These words also mean that there is no particular method to it at all. I often tell my actors "Don't act." I tell them instead to instead "experience" the character's emotions. I only help them to the extent that they can feel and experience those emotions.

ACF: Are there any things that you accomplished as Minister of Culture and Tourism about which you are particularly proud?

Lee: Though I did my best as a Minister, I’d prefer not to talk about it right now. Others will be able to judge the things I did.

ACF: The publicity materials for Secret Sunshine indicate that you were planning Peppermint Candy even before Green Fish had been released, and that Secret Sunshine had been, as you put it, "in my head ever since 2002." after Oasis came out.

Is something already in the works for your next project? If so, can you say something about what it will be about?

Lee: There is something I'm thinking about. But I don't think it’s the right time to reveal it yet. Before I start any film, I ask myself 'Why do we need this film right now?' I'm looking for the answer to that question these days.

Most sincere thanks to Director Lee for taking his time to consider and respond to my queries, to Ernest Woo for his terrific job translating the questions and answers, and to Helen Koh of Asia Society and Jenny Lawhorn of fatdot.net for arranging this interview.

For more information about the Lee Chang-dong film retrospective or to order tickets, click here.

ACF 107: Lee Chang-dong: A Retrospective

A fantasy sequence from Lee Chang-dong's Oasis

New Yorkers rejoice! Soon we'll be treated to the four film retrospective of this brilliant South Korean director that was part of the still ongoing Korean Film Festival DC 2008 in our nation's capital.

Oasis will be the first film shown. It happens to have been the first of his films that I saw. Sol Kyung-gu stars as Jong-du, a young man of limited mental abilities who's just been released from prison for vehicular manslaughter. After re-uniting with his family, he goes to visit the victim's family, where he meets Gong-ju, played with incredible intensity by Moon So-ri.

Both are shunned or exploited by their respective families, depending on circumstances. The relationship that develops between them is remarkable, and the acting is fabulous.

I've seen the film at least two or three times, and each time I've been haunted by it for days afterward. "Haunted" in a good sense, a wonderful sense, as in unable to stop thinking about the story and the performances. This is the mark of truly great cinema.

Sol Kyung-gu (l) and Moon So-ri

Oasis garnered 11 of the 13 awards for which it was nominated at various festivals, and deservedly so. Lee won eight awards and was nominated for two others. Moon So-ri won two, and Sol Kyung-gu, one. (For complete awards information at imdb, click here.) Although his first two films each won several festival awards, for me Oasis marks Lee's true arrival as a master director on the international film scene, a position he has further solidified with last year's Secret Sunshine.

The four films in the retrospective will be shown at Asia Society, 725 Park Ave (at 70th Street), Manhattan. All showtimes are 7:00 pm.

The complete schedule is:

Oasis
2002, 133 min
Monday, May 5, 2008
- This screening is co-sponsored by The Korea Society
- Director Lee and Ms Moon are scheduled to attend and participate in a Q&A after the screening

Secret Sunshine
2007, 142 min
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
- This screening is co-sponsored by The School of Visual Arts
- Director Lee is scheduled to be present

Peppermint Candy
2000, 127 min
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Green Fish
1997, 111 min
Monday, May 12, 2008

For more information or to order tickets, click here.