The biography of director Lee Sang-eon (February 1, 1937- June 14, 1993) will be dealt with in the decade of his debut. During the 1970s, Lee made 19 films. The majority were in the early part of the decade and information on them has been posted previously. That can be viewed by clicking the tab marked ‘the 1970s’ at the top of the page and scrolling through the alphabetical list of directors there. Click the thumbnails below to see full-sized plates of his remaining films.

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Sigh– While everyone else is down in Busan at the film festival, do you know where I was? Sequestered in Seoul attending a seminar that required me to give up my phone, internet and books. It was to prepare me for writing some national exams.. and it was a lot of fun..except I could not leave the compound and even moving from building to building required me to be accompanied by a security guard!

Well, even if I don’t make it down to Busan, there are other things to do.. Like check out the two lastest films opening this week; HERO and HWAYI.

HERO

HWAYI: A MONSTER BOY

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There are four Korean movies opening this week. However, I am only able to come up with trailers for two of them. The omnibus LOVE SCENE and the erotic thriller VACANCE apparently do not have trailers, but you can see their posters below.

TOUGH AS IRON

WISH

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Lee Man-hee was born October 6, 2013 and began directing films in the early sixties. Because of that, I shall handle his biography when indexing that decade. However, his career was cut tragically short in 1975 when he succumbed to liver cancer on April 13, 1975. He was only able to complete nine films during the 1970s, some of which I had previously uploaded information. Below are plates with posters or images of his final films. Click the thumbnail to enlarge. To view information on his other films, or from other directors from this decade, click the tab marked ‘the 1970s’ at the top of this page.

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Director Kim Kyeong-tae was born in Seoul on March 1, 1938. Since he was a high school student he dreamed of becoming a movie director. However, when he entered Dangookdae University, it was as an English Literature major. In order to keep his dream alive, he joined a drama club. After graduating, he got a job as an assistant director for Shin Sang-ok. He worked at Shin Film for 12 years, often assisting new directors and arranging for filming overseas such as in Europe and Southeast Asia. It wasn’t until 1971 that he was given the opportunity to debut as a director. He would film four movies in the seventies and continue into the following decade. The information for one of his films was previously uploaded, the remainder from this decade are below… along with the single remaining film from Lee Min-wook.

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JIT

A MERE LIFE

ARE YOU READY?

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Scars (2009)– Korean Title: 흉터 Romanization: Hyoongteo. Directed by Im Woo-sang. Starring: Park So-yeon (as Seon-hee), Jeong Hee-tae (as Sang-yeob), Yoo Ye-in (as Seon-hee’s mother), Seo Yeon-soo (Yoo-jin) and Jeon Hyeon-sook. Running Time: 64 minutes. Original Release Date: October 13, 2011. Available on DVD: Yes

Scars is an emotionally intense film for the very fact that very little emotion is depicted on screen by any of the characters. Everyone of the three main characters is seething with emotions just beneath the skin but lack the ability or courage to express what they are feeling. The main character is Seon-hee. From a distance, she seems to have a perfect life. She has a successful career as an illustrator, she is married to a popular news anchorman making her the envy of the women around her and her mother is recovering well from a recent stroke. But despite her finacial and social success, there is something eating away at her. We learn that it has been three years since she has been intimate with her husband, the relationship she has with her mother seems oddly distant, and Seon-hee is haunted each night by strange dreams involving a smiling Buddha’s face. The image of this face seems to follow her into the waking world as well and Seon-hee starts to see it in the most unexpected places.

One thing we also notice about Seon-hee is that she neither smiles nor frowns. In fact, she does not seem to have normal human emotions at all. The distance that seems to have built up with her and her mother extends with every other relationship in her life. It is telling that she is tasked with drawing a picture book for children with emotional problems in order to help them come out of their shell and express what they want. Our illustrator is quite skilled at making images for others, but she cannot break out of her own head. At one point she tells her husband, “There is nothing I want” but the very next scene betrays that declaration. She has wants, desires and dreams but she suppresses them and does not let them out. This internalization of her feelings is having a serious effect on her health.

Her husband is not much better off in expressing himself. He appears, for very different reasons, as emotionally cold as Seon-hee. Sang-hyeob compensates for this by striving for perfection. And in doing so, he comes across as an obsessive-compulsive. He goes through the same motions day after day, lining up his wallet, phone, keychain and watch in a row and straightening them until no flaw can be found. He brushes his teeth several times in succession using different sized toothbrushes, and spends hours reciting the same line again and again after making a mistake on the air. He is uncommuncative with his wife and it takes his mistress to finally break the news to his wife that he has been invovled in an affair for the past six months. His complaint against his wife is that he always “strives for perfection” will turn out to be ironic indeed.

Seon-hee takes to visiting her mother more often and although she does not reveal her personal crisis, she seems to take pleasure in being with her. As a result of recovering from her stroke, her mother has turned to Buddhism and has taken up Buddist art as a form of mediation and healing. However, she carries her own scars, quite different from the scars carried by her daughter and son-in-law. Hers are based on regret, most especially for how she treated her daughter as a child and why. Her quiet revelations in an attempt to find inner peace, explain to the viewer precious details in explaining Seon-hee and the reasons behind the way she is today.

The director makes ample use of the color yellow in dreams and scenes that represent memories. They are beautiful, quiet and intense, especially after the mother’s confession. The results of that single line from the mother makes subtle but marked changes in Seon-hee and the way she reacts to her husband.

I enjoyed this movie very much and wished it had gone just a little bit longer as I liked the direction it was heading and wanted to see it through to a decisive conclusion. I was however, very much surprised to find that I seem to be in the minority in my opinions. Looking at the user ratings on Daum, I was shocked that the average rating was around 4 out of ten, with many users giving the film two or less stars. I found it to be quite enjoyable. There is deep meaning to be discovered in many scenes and I liked that I had to work to find it as it is often not readily apparent. I loved the pacing of the movie and I loved learning that there was much more going on beneath the surface of the characters than we can know from dialogue or even from their actions. It is like knowing someone only from work or school and then learning something a little more intimate and personal about their lives. By the end of the movie, I liked all three of the main characters.

A short, quiet movie that has the potential to spark conversations after viewing. I would strongly recommend seeing it, though the pacing and reserved conversations will probably put off people who require a lot of action and expository dialouge.

Director Lee was born on November 27, 1935. He graduated from Hongik University with a BA in Applied Arts. From there, he went straight into working in film, debuting as a director in 1966. He only has a handful of films to his name, most of them in the 1970s. After 1979, he did not direct anything more, however he worked as a cinematographer on Kim Cheong-ki’s 1997 animation, Im Keok-jeon: Korean Robin Hood. Below are listed his films in 1970s. Click the thumbnail to see the full-sized images. Information on the other directors from this decade completed up to this point can be viewed by clicking the tab marked “the 1970s” at the top of this page.

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Lee Jang-ho was born in Seoul on May 15, 1945. He attended university at Hongik University where he majored in Architecture. He hated it. Instead, he wanted to study film and make movies. So he began working and studying under director Shin Sang-ok. He made just a handful of films in the 70s, debuting in 1974. Of these movies, The Heavenly Homecoming of the Stars is probably the most well-known, but he would go on to greater fame during the 1980s. Below are his films from the 70s. You can click the thumbnails to see a larger image. You can also visit the tab marked “the 1970s” at the top of the page for information and images from other films produced during that decade.

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With a long Chuseok holiday approaching this week, it is unusual to just see a single Korean film being released. But that is the case this coming week with only RUSSIAN NOVEL opening in theaters. But both Spy and Face Reader opened recently and are doing well, so they may be among the big draws over the holiday.