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Temporary Exhibition of Korean Film VODs in March and April, 2013Someone Rings the Bell: from Melodrama to Horror 4 Guests frequently appeared in Korean FilmsLiterary critic Lee O-Ryoung once said of the low-lying stone fence in Korean tradition, "It doesn't mark any division or opposition between 'you' and 'me', but it's nothing more than a line drawn to fight emptiness felt otherwise." Korean accommodation was generous towards a guest who arrived to the low fence "that reveals half of the inside to whoever looks in." In the city nowadays, however, horror story and fear of a stranger have become commonplace, while our fences go up ever higher. From when did a visiting stranger become an unwelcome person in Korean society? The higher the wall is, however, the more the visitor longs to knock on the door to look into the daily routine. March and April Classic Film VOD Planned Showing provides an opportunity to take a look into our anxiety and expectation projected into the stranger: the guest. Please check out the guests who appear like a bolt out of the blue in Korean films and the intriguing stories they bring with them. Films in EditionGuest 1: the Guest in Sarangbang
Guest 2: the Housemaid
Guest 3: Savior Woman
Guest 4: the Uninvited Guest from History
Guest 1: the Guest in SarangbangHere go the four guests who so frequently show up in Korean films as to verify their presence as its accepted taste. The first of them is 'the guest in Sarangbang' as constituting the most wistful memory of a guest that is known to us. In the transitional period of the 1930s when tradition and personal ethic clash with each other, young widow played by Choi Eun-hee lives with a child. And one day, a male stranger came to her house as a tenant. The demure lady tries to remain unperturbed, but the unexpectedly budding affection between the two persons is undeniable. Director Shin Sang-ok presents one same plot in variation, one time in melodrama and another time in Manchurian western. The former is well-known Mother and a Guest (Sarangbang Sonnimgwa Eomeoni), and the latter is his obscure masterpiece, The Homeless Wanderer (Musukja). We add to the list a movie that makes an innocent and light-hearted depiction of the love between a boy and a girl: The Shower (Sonagi) directed by Go Yeong-nam. One feels desolate about the scene in which the boy stands vacantly on the stepping stones spanning a rivulet with clear water sound, after the shower is gone with the girl. Even after the movie, one is haunted by the fair complexion of Jo Yun-suk who plays the girl. Guest 2: the HousemaidIf one feels afraid of the guest, it should be around the time when one is visited by The Housemaid (Hanyeo) directed by Kim Ki-young. The 1960s when the true story movie arrived was an era infestered with poverty and political tumults, and owning a house in those days was tougher than it is these days. The horror of The Housemaid starts as a young housemaid comes to stay with a couple who has bought with difficulty a two-storied western-style house with a piano, everyone's dream at that time. The appearance of the guest worries the wife while it captivates the husband. And the scheme in which two persons have their desire and anxiety intensify is an archetype that repeats endlessly through ages. First of all, we present you with two masterworks that describe the wife's anxiety and horror: A Bloodthirsty Killer (Salinma) by Lee Yong-min and Suddenly in Dark Night (Gip-eun bam gabjagi) by Go Yeong-nam. 'The portrait that has a woman's face dripping, the carefree dance of ghosts in white mourning clothes, the blood-sucking cat feeding on a dead body ...' Unique horrors are teeming in A Bloodthirsty Killer, which portrays the revenge of a wife who suffered a wrongful death. As one of the most grotesque Korean films, Suddenly in Dark Night by Director Go Yeong-nam pivots on the ominous sign shown by the wooden doll. With that, a woman arrives as a housemaid, and the wife (played by Kim Young-ae) feels madly jealous about the attractive body of the young maid. While the woman shudders beside her indifferent husband for fear of losing the nice house and her family, her pain grips the film ever tighter until it unlocks an ending that is frightening beyond imagination. On the other hand, as films that sketch a man who is paralyzed at a fatal attractiveness, we have lined up The Tiger Moth (Bulnabi) by Jo Hae-won and The Pollen of Flowers (Hwabun) by Ha Gil-jong. Against the dark-shaded backdrop of a film noir, men captivated by the femme fatale (played by Kim Ji-mee) flock to her like tiger moths. The Pollen of Flowers unfolds in a similar scheme with an homme fatal (played by Hah Myung-joong). Women and men who get awash with passion and jealousy about the beau end up betraying their degrading depths and falling with the collapsing blue house. While The Tiger Moth by the actor turned director Jo Hae-won makes a genre film with high degree of completion, The Pollen of Flowers as Ha Gil-jong's debut film is an experimental work that started a heated debated about films for the first time in a daily citing the movie's unintelligibility as seen in the title of a story, "Uproar over Exclusion from Examination for Candidacy in Blue Dragon Awards".* Added to the four above-mentioned films, we present Hwa-nyuh of '82 (Hwanyeo '82) produced by Kim Ki-young in 1982. With the same plot as was used for The Housemaid of 1960, Hwa-nyuh of '82 reveals a more dangerous and bizarre pattern. It is because the passion and anxiety aroused by a housemaid intensify with passage of time. Guest 3: Savior WomanIf a master of the house is afraid of a visit by an attractive guest like 'the housemaid', it's because he has a comfortable house and family. But for those who aren't afraid of losing like the men who either has killed a man who took his wife from him (like the man played by Shin Seong-il) or who meets a lonely death in an empty house (like the one played by Lee Soon-jae), a visiting stranger isn't such a big deal. The door to the house is unbarred, while the desperate men prowl the street. To them appears the third guest in Korean films: the savior woman. She is either vivacious like Mun Suk playing in A girl who looks like the sun (Tae-yangdalm-eun sonyeo), or so warm like Moon Hee playing in The Guests of the Last Train (Makcharo On Sonnimdeul). Dealing with the men's helpless despair, these 'savior women' console and hug them to reawaken their sense of life. The Guests of the Last Train directed by Yu Hyun-mok deserves your doubled attention. Faced with the tough despair of Lee Soon-jae barely catching the last train in his time-limited life, Moon Hee puts a pillow under the weary head of the collapsed man while providing warmth with hot tea. "Our life is this poor and tiny." In that last scene in which Lee Soon-jae embraces Moon Hee, her words conjure up hope matching all the erstwhile emptiness and despair. Guest 4: the Uninvited Guest from HistoryThe fourth guest in Korean films originates not from genre but from the wounds of history. In the visit with the unsavory purpose of forcefully urging folks to change their names to Japanese names under Japanese occupation (as in The Family Pedigree [Jogbo]), in the sneak into the basement of the catholic church of the NK soldier straggling towards the end of the Korean War (as in 7 People in the Cellar (Jihasil-ui Chil-in), or in the refuge taken in the coal-mining town by an activist wanted by police under the dictatorship (as in Black Republic [Guedeuldo ulicheoleom]), we witness the wounds of the Korean history. While all three films are excellent enough to deserve unstinted appreciation, especially 7 People in the Cellar directed by Lee Seong-gu, so far relatively unknown, is the hidden gem that's not going to missed. Actors's performance is particularly wonderful. The face of Lee Soon-jae in his younger years agonizing between the divine love and the human anger, and the wistful glance from Park Keun-hyong who struggles for life facing the horror of death shine throughout the move as brilliantly as the subtle action by Heo Chang-kang who wants to embrace all. Meanwhile, the glamorous body and the voluptuous eyeglance of Kim Hye-jeong who unclothes the man to queen it on top clearly show who the sexy icon is for the era. You cannot safely miss the odd scene in which the party with Father Ahn now taken hostage and the fierce-eyed NK soldiers sit around the table and share food. Breaking the silence of one night, someone's ringing the bell. Depending on how this unexpected guest is received, film genres differentiate. If the guest shows either as 'the one in Sarangbang' or as 'the savior woman', a melodrama will start, whereas if she is a femme fatale like 'the housemaid', thrill and horror should top romance to enthrall the audience. Or faced with the unavoidable, uninvited guest from the history, the film focuses on the human face in their daily life rather than on the genre. We hope you will never fail to meet a certain visit by the four guests in Korean films, through thirteen interesting movies to be presented in the flowering season. - Media Services Dept./ Lee Ji-young
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