VOD Choice in November

2019-11-01 ~ 2019-11-30
VOD Choice in November
Especially, the VOD Choice of November has recommended by the KMDb VOD audience. We selected three of the recommended works & comments that were submitted to the KMDb VOD event "My Own VOD PICK!" held on Sept. 16 to 30 for members of the website of the Korean Film Archive. Let’s enjoy the audience's special recommendations and their unique perspective.
 

Films
  • 01. The Ginko Bed(Eunhaengnamu chimdae) Kang Je-kyu, 1995
    “Technical skills and popular theme elements of Korean films in the 1990s”
    I happened to see THE GINKO BED which was released in 1996. You can see animation, computer graphic, and special effect make-up in this film which is a bit unsophisticated at the present technology, however it's a great fantasy love story considering the level of technology 14 years ago, mid-90s. This film is a story of Princess Midan (played by Jin Hee-kyung), a court musician (played by Han Seok-kyu) and General Hwang (played by Shin Hyun-jun) who is the incarnation of obsession with Midan. The love story begins when Soo-hyun, who was a court musician for the royal family one thousand years ago buy an old gingko bed at a market. As the memory of his past life being returned to him and General Hwang’s revengeful spirit came back, their tragic love begins again. This film has the latest elements in the story, which are the protagonist of the present who has the memories of his past life, and the story of the afterlife and the karma that cannot escape from the bond. Maybe the theme and material of the contents are going around like fashion trend. It is an important film that shows the technical skills of Korean film in the 90s. At the same time, this film has an attractive story compared to any popular contents of these days. (Audience Kim Ha-lim’s Recommendation)
  • 02. The Maiden Who Went to the City (Dosilo gan cheonyeo) Kim Soo-yong, 1981
    When I grow into an adult, I wondered where they all had gone. They were ‘bus guide girls’ whom I met every time I got on the bus standing in front of the back door of the bus wearing a uniform, shouting for a stop every time the bus stopped, and getting paid to open and close the bus door. In the '90s, a TV comedy show called “Young-ja’s Heydays” was popular for portraying the bus guide girls of the '70s. Lee Young-ja, a popular comedian of the time acted as the bus guide girl, and star entertainers who were invited to the show appeared as bus passengers, creating fun situations and making a pleasant laugh in the bus. And Lee Young-ja's comment “If there's no one to get off, let’s go!”, which marks the end of the show, was the hottest buzzword at that time. Although ‘Bus Guide Girl’ has forgotten these days, there have been works that dealt with their lives in the past. I would introduce one of them, director Kim Soo-yong’s THE MAIDEN WHO WENT TO THE CITY. The bus guide girl was urban female workers’ common job until the early '80s, but it was often seen as an image of immoral conduct in daily newspapers and magazines. This film using their poor labor environment as the main subject describes the dark side of urbanization and industrialization at that time. Although it is curious that the slogan "Let's Remember Lee Moon-hee" on the back door of the bus is so instructive that the main character's high-flying struggle on the roof came from his colleagues’ ‘pocketing’ rather than at a bus company that violated human rights. But despite these scenes, the value of this film is good enough because I think that these are just intentional device against censorship by the authorities. The film consistently shows the human rights issues of ‘female’ workers and their solidarity. (Audience Yoo Moon-bong’s Recommendation)
  • 03. Jagko (Jjagko) Im Kwon-taek, 1980
    “21century’s Korea that JAGKO wanted”
    JAGKO run after two men who have been crushed by the ideology of left and right, a policeman Song Ki-yol and a communist guerrilla Baek Kong-san. This film is full of suggestions because this ideological confrontation is still ongoing in Korea, and is getting more acute. The film has symbolic scenes that seem to be concerned about that and hope not to happen. Baek Kong-san declares that he will donate his eyes after death because he has been spent his whole life in hiding himself and has not seen the world as much as he would like to. This seems to be Baek Kong-san's wish to see a world where there is no more ideological confrontation between the left and the right through the eyes of those who will live in Korea in the future. Also, Song Ki-yol is assaulted by someone and half of his glasses are damaged. This scene means that the left or the right is neither clear nor blurry nor anything less. There is a scene in which Baek escaped from prison and Song give a fight in the letter part of the film. When the two of them are fighting, the camera is strangely closing up the cars on the highway, not the two. If this can be read as director’s willingness to show the present of the rapidly changing Republic of Korea, it would not be too much to say that this film hopes that the ideological tragedy that separated the two is never repeated. There was an article that said JAGKO will be remade in 2017, but there has been no news so far. In the present world where the word ‘red’ is still being used as a shield, I think that the remake of JAGKO will be a must-have project. (Audience Lee Ho-joon’s Recommendation)

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