COLLECTIVE INVENTION: The Weirder Side of Korean Cinema

Looking toward the future of Korean Film

South Korean cinema has gotten a lot of international attention in the last fifteen years, but it's mostly for the tough, realistically grounded, often brutal and harrowing films like Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002); Oldboy (2003); Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005)), Kim Jee-woon's I Saw The Devil (2010), Bong Joon-ho's Mother (2009) and Na Hong-jin's The Chaser (2008).

But there's a whole other side to Korean film. A silly, weird and often satirical side. You might've got a glimpse of it with Bong Joon-ho's The Host, which played TIFF's Midnight Madness program in 2006. In The Host, a slippery river monster terrorizes Seoul and a family unites to rescue a girl carried off by the very disgusting critter. The Host is both affecting and hilarious. And the action's pretty sweet, too.

In Jang Joon-hwan's Save The Green Planet (2003), Byeong-gu (Shin Ha-kyun) attempts to save the world from an invasion from Andromeda before an eclipse renders the invasion inevitable. With the assistance of his girlfriend, Su-ni (Hwang Jeong-min), he kidnaps a business executive (Kang man-shik) and tortures the man--in a very cartoonish fashion. Still very violent, but cartoon violence. Is the executive an alien from Andromeda able to contact his people by means of his hair? Or is Byeong-gu torturing the man for revenge after a pharmaceutical trial went bad? (Hmm... you know, Collective Inventions involves a clinical trial...)

It's billed now as a sci-fi horror comedy, but I remember at the TIFF Midnight Madness premiere Jang told the crowd that it hadn't done well in Korea because it had been billed as a "romance." The weird thing, is I can kinda see it. 

Speaking of eccentric romance, Park Chan-wook moves away from vengeance and towards, weird but sweet love in, I'm A Cyborg, But That's Okay (2006). Young-goon (Im Soo-jung) who works in an electronics factory and believes she is a cyborg tries to fix herself by slitting her wrists and inserting the proper wiring. She wakes up in a hospital. And there she finds love when a soul-stealing man in a rabbit mask steals her heart. That man is also Korean superstar, Rain. But... it goes kinda dark for other people.

Did you know that there is a whole Google search category, "Rain Abs." There is.

He's not allowed to have shoelaces in the hospital, but his abs are the real danger.

Kim Jee-woon has made a lot of neat, eccentric films. His The Good The Bad The Weird (2008) is much lighter than, say, I Saw The Devil. It also premiered at TIFF, but it played the Elgin Theater as a Gala. It's a post-modern Western set in 1930s Manchuria as three gunfighters try to find the map to buried treasure. It also has an amazing chase scene. So good. You should watch it. Jung Woo-sung can really ride and Song Kang-ho in a motorcyle with a sidecar. And the action was explicitly inspired by Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films.

And one of Kim's earlier films, The Foul King (2000) is very fun. Plus, it's another film that played Midnight Madness. Dae-ho (Song Kang-ho) takes up professional wrestling in part to get his boss to stop harassing him. Fight, Ultra Tiger Mask!

Kim's first film, The Quiet Family (1998), inspired Takashi Miike's The Happiness of the Katakuris. In Kim's film a family running a small hiking lodge tries to deal with a series of more or less accidental deaths.

In Kim Tae-gyn's Volcano High (2001) the favorite, and possibly only subject, is asskicking. When teachers crack down, students rebel and every punch is explosive. Everyone is a master of martial arts. And everyone is a master of amazing hair. (And, yep, another Midnight Madness entrant. I saw it at 9am and it kept me awake).

But we know what you're wondering. You're wondering about Vampire Prosecutor. Will it ever be a feature film? I don't know. But I have heard there is a follow-up series in development, Vampire Private Investigator. Who knows?

Vampire Prosecutor ponders the future of Korean cinema.

Collective Invention premieres tonight!


COLLECTIVE INVENTION Screening Times:
Mon. Sept. 14, 6:00 PM SCOTIABANK 1
Tue. Sept. 15, 11:45 AM BLOOR HOT DOCS
Sat. Sept. 19, 9:30 AM SCOTIABANK 3

VETERAN: Profile of Director Ryoo Seung-wan

Director Ryoo Seung-wan is nicknamed, "Action Kid" or "Chungmuro's Action Kid" and we can expect a lot of action in his latest film, Veteran. We can also expect some humor and satire and analysis of Korean society--just with fights. Which is one of my favorite forms of exegesis, if I'm honest. Ryoo was part of the explosion of South Korean cinema onto the world film scene in the early 2000s. Ryoo discussed a little bit about being a part of this generation of filmmakers in an interview with Hangul Celluloid:

At the time I made my debut film in 2000, it was a very special time for me. I made my debut in the same year as director Bong Joon-ho and 2000 was also the year director Park Chan-wook made a very successful film [Joint Security Area] and Kim Jee-woon released The Foul King. For me, working at the same time as such competent directors who make very good films is very helpful in creating “face-makers” in the film industry. As I watched their films, I would learn and it would also give me the motivation to make better films, but it also caused me some suffering that I was living at the same time as such talented directors. At the end of the day, each of us has our own past and it’s an interesting journey. I don’t ever particularly have thoughts about leading the industry but we do, as directors, get together from time to time and talk about each other’s films.

Besides directing, Ryoo does a lot of screenwriting, particularly for his own films. Ryoo Seung-wan acts in some his own films. And in a few other films, like Park Chan-wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005). Ryoo's brother, Ryoo Seung-bum appears in good chunk of Ryoo Seung-wan's films. In fact you can see Ryoo Seung-bum in this little taste of Ryoo Seung-wan's very guerilla first feature, Die Bad (2000).

No Blood No Tears (2002) is heist film billed as "a new type of film noir." Cab driver and former safecracker Kyeong-seon (Lee Hye-yeong) is sick and tired of being harassed by jerks in her cab. Su-ji (Jeon Do-yeon) is tired of her gangster boyfriend. Together the two women decide to make some quick cash and get some revenge. I'm down with all of it.

In Arahan (2004), a young cop, played by Ryoo Seung-bum discovers that he has some powerful chi and a heroic destiny. Also, there is a restaurant fight, because every martial arts movie should have a restaurant fight. The action choreography owes a lot to Hong Kong cinema, even while maintaining a lot of the realism of Ryoo's other films. I guess what I mean is: it's not as brutal as a lot of realistically violent Korean films.

Crying Fist (2005) is Ryoo's boxing melodrama, starring Choi Min-sik (Oldboy; I Saw The Devil; Lucy) as an Olympic boxer down on his luck. (Because this is a Korean film, Choi's Tae-shik is a silver medalist, not a gold medalist). Tae-sik is making money through streetfighting, and not the cool kind. Ryoo Seung-bum plays a kid in juvenile detention who needs to get his life straight and sees boxing as a way out. Also, there is cancer. Because this is a boxing melodrama. (Though it could have a widow or an orphaned kid or both and Wallace Beery).

In City of Violence (2006) two men decide to go after the men who killed their friend. One, a policeman, is investigating the murder. The other, played by Ryoo Seung-wan himself, wants to kill every member of the gang. But because this is a Ryoo Seung-wan movies, it's more complicated than that. Much more complicated. Also, there's another sweet restaurant fight.

Ryoo Seung-wan turns his attention to corruptio in the justice system with the aptly named, The Unjust (2010). When five girls are raped and murdered, the president demands the police resolve the case. The police make political decisions. There are dirty prosecutors. Blackmail. Murder. And innocent people are framed.

No one tell Vampire Prosecutor.

Vampire Prosecutor is handsomely disappointed in the criminal justice system.

North and South Korean spies play a game in Ryoo's most John Le Carre thriller, The Berlin File (2013). When North Korean spy Pyo Jong-seong (Ha Jung-woo) becomes convinced he's been set up by his own government, he and his wife, Ryun Jung-hee (Jun Ji-hyun) who's a translator at the North Korean embassy, go on the run. Look at the black leather trenchcoats!  Berlin! Surveillance vans! Roof top battles!

And Ryoo has a short in the Mad Sad Bad 3D horror anthology film. Ryoo's segment is called, "Ghost."

So basically Ryoo Seung-wan has done every kind of film. Except for a romantic costume drama, but if he's done a boxing melodrama, a romantic costume drama's got to be coming soon.



VETERAN screening times:
Sep. 13, Sunday, 9:00 pm, SCOTIABANK 4
Sep. 15, Tuesday, 4:00 pm, SCOTIABANK 13
Sep. 19, Saturday, 6:15 pm, SCOTIABANK 4

VETERAN First Look: Posters and Trailer

 

Ryoo Seung-wan's Veteran plays Vanguard this year and we couldn't be more pleased. Ryoo is probably most famous for The City of Violence (2003), The Unjust (2010) and, most recently, The Berlin File (2013).  In Veteran, Detective Seo Do-cheol (Hwang Jeong-min) and his team try to bring Jo Tae-oh (Yoo Ah-in), scion of the powerful Sunjin Group, to justice.

Will there be fights? Absolutely! Will there be hilarity? Indeed! Will it be pretty to look at? With director Ryoo and cinematographer Choi Yeong-hwan how could it not?! 

Check out the TIFF.net description for more information, and in the meantime, enjoy these posters. Plus, we have a trailer!

 

A rag-tag band of detectives, just looking to bring a little justice--

and a whole lot of fighting, to a weary world.

Wealthy ne'er-do-wells, obvs.

Who will win in their fight? Justice or beautifully fitted suits???

VETERAN screening times:
Sep. 13, Sunday, 9:00 pm, SCOTIABANK 4
Sep. 15, Tuesday, 4:00 pm, SCOTIABANK 13
Sep. 19, Saturday, 6:15 pm, SCOTIABANK 4