It's fair to say that Lee Chang-dong is one of the leading lights in South Korean cinema, if not cinema in general, though his relatively sparse output over the last decade leaves us yearning for more. His debut made a quarter of a century ago, while not as accomplished as his subsequent five films, features many of the themes that would appear throughout his oeuvre, and serves as a strong foundation for the rest of his work to build on.
Film Movement Presents The Films Of Lee Chang-dong, A Retrospective Showcase Including The US Theatrical Premieres Of New 4K Restorations Of Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis & Poetry In Seleected Cinemas In Canada And The US
Makdong (Han Suk-kyu) is fresh out of his army service and is returning home on the train. It is here he meets the mysterious Mi-ae (Shim Hye-jin), trying – and failing – to come to her rescue from a group of thugs.
Film Movement Presents The Films Of Lee Chang-dong, A Retrospective Showcase Including The US Theatrical Premieres Of New 4K Restorations Of Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis & Poetry In Seleected Cinemas In Canada And The US
Makdong (Han Suk-kyu) is fresh out of his army service and is returning home on the train. It is here he meets the mysterious Mi-ae (Shim Hye-jin), trying – and failing – to come to her rescue from a group of thugs.
- 4/24/2024
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
Lee Chang-dong set Cannes ablaze in 2018 with the uneasily beautiful “Burning,” a loose Haruki Murakami adaptation about the folie à troix between an alienated delivery man (Ah-in Yoo), the wily young woman (Jong-seo Jun) he covets, and the handsome charisma machine who blows them apart. The South Korean director’s sixth film made history as Korea’s first to make the International Feature Oscar shortlist (it wasn’t nominated) but is perhaps best remembered for two scenes: the woman, Haemi (Jun), dancing topless for them to the tune of Miles Davis’ “Elevator to the Gallows” soundtrack, and for its abruptly violent ending involving murder and arson in the nude. Then, there’s a missing cat that may have never existed — pure Murakami.
“Burning” remains a new classic of the 2010s, an elusive portrait of loneliness and desire that never spills on its narrative secrets. It grossed an impressive $718,000 at the U.
“Burning” remains a new classic of the 2010s, an elusive portrait of loneliness and desire that never spills on its narrative secrets. It grossed an impressive $718,000 at the U.
- 4/10/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
This month, Metrograph is running “Novel Encounters: The Films of Lee Chang-dong,” a retrospective of the filmmaker’s career to date. The program includes four films in new 4K restorations from Film Movement: Green Fish, Peppermint Candy, Oasis, and Poetry.
Lee’s debut, Green Fish, particularly benefits from restoration, considering it was previously quite hard to find outside Internet back-channels ever since its low-quality DVD went out-of-print some years ago. The film, an impressive debut, more fully brings into light Lee’s career-long preoccupations––how a character is impacted by anger and isolation, the dichotomy between rural and urban landscapes, and their particular socio-political context.
Lee’s work can be cleaved into two parts: the first three films and the next three films. Not only is there an important shift, following Oasis, from male protagonists to female protagonists, but also a gravitation towards a more ephemeral subject matter and ambiguous mode of storytelling.
Lee’s debut, Green Fish, particularly benefits from restoration, considering it was previously quite hard to find outside Internet back-channels ever since its low-quality DVD went out-of-print some years ago. The film, an impressive debut, more fully brings into light Lee’s career-long preoccupations––how a character is impacted by anger and isolation, the dichotomy between rural and urban landscapes, and their particular socio-political context.
Lee’s work can be cleaved into two parts: the first three films and the next three films. Not only is there an important shift, following Oasis, from male protagonists to female protagonists, but also a gravitation towards a more ephemeral subject matter and ambiguous mode of storytelling.
- 4/5/2024
- by Shawn Glinis
- The Film Stage
Though South Korea’s hardly produced a better-seen, more-beloved auteur, Lee Chang-dong hasn’t been quite so represented as the reputation suggests. Thus the work of restoring his earlier films is a major necessity and all the more reason to celebrate Film Movement’s forthcoming releases of his feature debut, 1997’s Green Fish, and 2002’s Oasis, screening as part of Metrograph’s retrospective “Novel Encounters: the Films of Lee Chang-dong,” running from April 5 to April 28. Ahead of this momentous occasion we’re pleased to exclusively present trailers for both.
If, on the good chance you’re not familiar with either, here are synopses for Green Fish and Oasis, respectively:
Already established as a novelist and playwright, Lee made the leap to the director’s chair with this spectacularly assured first feature, a scourging commentary on South Korean society dressed up in film noir trappings, focused on a freshly demobbed young man (Han Suk-gyu) who,...
If, on the good chance you’re not familiar with either, here are synopses for Green Fish and Oasis, respectively:
Already established as a novelist and playwright, Lee made the leap to the director’s chair with this spectacularly assured first feature, a scourging commentary on South Korean society dressed up in film noir trappings, focused on a freshly demobbed young man (Han Suk-gyu) who,...
- 3/27/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
New York's Metrograph Theater is proud to announce the details of Novel Encounters: the Films of Lee Chang-dong, their upcoming retrospective headlined by the New York Premieres of four new 4K restorations of Lee Chang-dong's directorial works; Green Fish (1997), Peppermint Candy (1999), Oasis (2002), and Poetry (2010). The series begins April 5th and also includes Lee's critically acclaimed Burning, South Korea's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, and his 2007 Cannes Award-Winning Secret Sunshine, alongside a filmmaker-curated duo of his most celebrated and valued writing and producing efforts: Ouni Lecomte's A Brand New Life and July Jung's A Girl at My Door. Each restoration title, which are being released by Film Movement Classics in North America, will have a week-long run at the esteemed Lower East Side repertory and first-run cinema, marking their US Theatrical Premieres.
Poetry
Filmmaker, playwright, and novelist, Lee Chang-dong has been a vital force...
Poetry
Filmmaker, playwright, and novelist, Lee Chang-dong has been a vital force...
- 2/14/2024
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
At the end of last year we learned that Film Movement picked up four new 4K restorations of the films of Lee Chang-dong: Green Fish (1997), Peppermint Candy (1999), Oasis (2002), and Poetry (2010). Now today finally brings news of when we’ll be able to see them. New York City’s Metrograph Theater announced their retrospective Novel Encounters: the Films of Lee Chang-dong, taking place April 5-27, featuring the four aforementioned restorations as well as Burning, Secret Sunshine, and Ouni Lecomte’s A Brand New Life (which Lee co-wrote) and July Jung’s A Girl at My Door (which Lee produced).
“We are thrilled to present a retrospective of Lee Chang-dong’s outstanding body of work, celebrating him as one of the most esteemed auteurs in contemporary cinema,” said Metrograph’s Director of Programming Inge de Leeuw. “Each film in this retrospective delves into the profound complexities of the human condition. As big admirers of his filmmaking,...
“We are thrilled to present a retrospective of Lee Chang-dong’s outstanding body of work, celebrating him as one of the most esteemed auteurs in contemporary cinema,” said Metrograph’s Director of Programming Inge de Leeuw. “Each film in this retrospective delves into the profound complexities of the human condition. As big admirers of his filmmaking,...
- 2/14/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong is getting his flowers stateside, thanks to a retrospective exhibit curated by New York’s Metrograph Theater. Titled “Novel Encounters: the Films of Lee Chang-dong,” the upcoming program is headlined by the New York premieres of four new 4K restorations of Lee’s directorial works, including “Green Fish” (1997), “Peppermint Candy” (1999), “Oasis” (2002), and “Poetry” (2010). “Novel Encounters” runs from April 5 through 27.
“We are thrilled to present a retrospective of Lee Chang-dong’s outstanding body of work, celebrating him as one of the most esteemed auteurs in contemporary cinema,” Metrograph’s Director of Programming Inge de Leeuw said. “Each film in this retrospective delves into the profound complexities of the human condition. As big admirers of his filmmaking, we are delighted to bring his compassionate films to the big screen and we are proud to work with the North American distributor Film Movement to present the restored versions...
“We are thrilled to present a retrospective of Lee Chang-dong’s outstanding body of work, celebrating him as one of the most esteemed auteurs in contemporary cinema,” Metrograph’s Director of Programming Inge de Leeuw said. “Each film in this retrospective delves into the profound complexities of the human condition. As big admirers of his filmmaking, we are delighted to bring his compassionate films to the big screen and we are proud to work with the North American distributor Film Movement to present the restored versions...
- 2/14/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
When the history books are written to include modern world cinema, one name that is sure to be mentioned as a titan not just of Korean or Asian cinema, but cinema in general, will undoubtedly be that of South Korean maestro Lee Chang-dong. In a career spanning more than 25 years now, starting in the early days of the Korean New Wave all the way till the modern day, Lee has made a mere six feature films, almost all of which are generally considered among the finest. In their 2022 edition, the Jeonju International Film Festival held a retrospective of the celebrated director’s works, which included 4k remastered versions of all of Lee’s feature films, along with the world premieres of his new short “Heartbeat” and “Lee Chang-dong: The Art of Irony”, a new retrospective documentary by French director Alain Mazars.
Much like Lee’s breakthrough sophomore work “Peppermint Candy...
Much like Lee’s breakthrough sophomore work “Peppermint Candy...
- 2/23/2023
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
There’s perhaps no movie sub-genre as simultaneously and paradoxically relevant and expired as the internet romance. Relevant in the fact that online matchmaking and hook-ups have, over the last decade, become the new definition of modern dating; expired for the same reason. Cyber-dating is now, for better or worse, *so* synonymous with our daily lives that a movie based on the concept almost feels redundant in retrospect. After all, the idea of meeting someone digitally before becoming acquainted in real life (if that) is about as second nature as brushing your teeth in the morning. This makes Chan Yoon-Hyun’s 1997 melodrama “The Contact” somewhat of a relic, or rather, an origin story for the new era of ‘connection’ that we’ve found ourselves in. It certainly sent a pulse through audiences at the initial time of release, winning the Grand Bell Award for Best Picture (not to mention a...
- 5/30/2021
- by Luke Georgiades
- AsianMoviePulse
It’s fair to say that Lee Chang-dong is one of the leading lights in South Korean cinema, if not cinema in general, though his relatively sparse output over the last decade leaves us yearning for more. His debut made a quarter of a century ago, while not as accomplished as his subsequent five films, features many of the themes that would appear throughout his oeuvre, and serves as a strong foundation for the rest of his work to build on.
Makdong (Han Suk-kyu) is fresh out of his army service and is returning home on the train. It is here he meets the mysterious Mi-ae (Shim Hye-jin), trying – and failing – to come to her rescue from a group of thugs. But she takes a shine to the young soldier and asks him to look her up when he returns home. Soon he discovers that she is...
Makdong (Han Suk-kyu) is fresh out of his army service and is returning home on the train. It is here he meets the mysterious Mi-ae (Shim Hye-jin), trying – and failing – to come to her rescue from a group of thugs. But she takes a shine to the young soldier and asks him to look her up when he returns home. Soon he discovers that she is...
- 4/22/2021
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
After his debut feature “Green Fish” (1997) South-Korean director Lee Chang-dong made what is possibly one of his most commercially and critically acclaimed films, “Peppermint Candy”. Especially with the success of his latest film “Burning”, Chang-dong’s body of work has to be regarded as one of the most interesting focusing on topics such as his home country’s history, masculinity, human relations and art. Similar to his work as a novelist previous to his film career, art, as the director explains in an interview with writer Andrew Chan, is a way “to communicate with all those certain somebodies out there […] whose names and faces I didn’t know” and to explore new worlds and environments.
Over the course of 130 minutes, the film accompanies the events which led to the suicide of Kim Yong-ho (Sol Kyung-gu). Starting with him standing on a railway bridge facing an oncoming train,...
Over the course of 130 minutes, the film accompanies the events which led to the suicide of Kim Yong-ho (Sol Kyung-gu). Starting with him standing on a railway bridge facing an oncoming train,...
- 4/12/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The Korean New Wave in cinema really kicked off late-90s onwards, when South Korean blockbusters, financed partly or largely by large conglomerates’ fundings, began to have an exposure in the West, courtesy of home video releases and limited theatrical engagements. Of these, arguably the first major hit, and certainly among the first South Korean films that many western audiences saw, was Kang Je-gyu’s “Shiri”, a massive financial and critical success domestically that took the west by storm when it was introduced there too. Backed by technology giants Samsung, “Shiri” was at that time the biggest budgeted cinematic project in Korea and one that pulled in vast dividends.
As the two Koreas gear up for a football match against each other, in a move that the government hopes will move public sentiments and work towards talks of a reunification, a rogue militant North Korean group activates...
As the two Koreas gear up for a football match against each other, in a move that the government hopes will move public sentiments and work towards talks of a reunification, a rogue militant North Korean group activates...
- 10/18/2020
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
Launched in 2006, the Cine Fan Summer International Film Festival (SummerIFF) premieres new films with an added appeal to the younger audience in Hong Kong. The screenings of around 30 titles from pop Asian fare to restored classics to award-winning titles freshly from world-class film festivals are held in August every year. SummerIFF arouses the interest of public in watching films and continues to develop new audiences for Hkiff. Filmmakers and critics are invited to attend meet-the-audience sessions to facilitate cultural exchange.
This year, SummerIFF will be bringing a host of Cannes titles, including “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” sees Korea’s burly charismatic actor Don Lee anchors the high-concept thriller.
“The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil”
The Fantastic East section brings awe-inspiring experience with a selection of six gripping films from Japan and South Korea, including “Almost a Miracle”, a lighthearted romance by Ishii Yuga, “Ride Your Wave” from free-spirited animator Yuasa Masaaki,...
This year, SummerIFF will be bringing a host of Cannes titles, including “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” sees Korea’s burly charismatic actor Don Lee anchors the high-concept thriller.
“The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil”
The Fantastic East section brings awe-inspiring experience with a selection of six gripping films from Japan and South Korea, including “Almost a Miracle”, a lighthearted romance by Ishii Yuga, “Ride Your Wave” from free-spirited animator Yuasa Masaaki,...
- 7/22/2019
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
Perhaps unknown to many at the time, especially at the onset of the Asian financial crisis, 1997 would become a huge year for South Korean cinema, turning the tide before the country’s second New Wave. Lee Chang-dong released his multi-award-winning feature length debut ‘Green Fish’; ‘The Contact’ would catapult director Chang Yoon-hyun and stars Han Suk-kyu (who also starred in ‘Green Fish’ and in Song Nung-han’s debut ‘No.3’ that year) and Jeon Do-yeon; and Jeon Soo-il’s debut short ‘Wind Echoing In My Being’ would later screen at the Un Certain Regard in Cannes. Amongst all this, came Kim Sung-su’s tumultuous tale of wayward youth ‘Beat’ – starring the yet-unknown Jung Woo-sung in his breakthrough role – a landmark in the country’s gangster cinema stylings which boasts enough mainstream whilst remaining decidedly artistic in its execution.
“Beat” is screening at Florence Korea Film Fest
A tumultuous a coming-of-age gangster odyssey,...
“Beat” is screening at Florence Korea Film Fest
A tumultuous a coming-of-age gangster odyssey,...
- 3/26/2019
- by Jamie Cansdale
- AsianMoviePulse
South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Asian Film Awards, it was announced Wednesday. The 13th edition of the awards ceremony, which is presented annually during the Hong Kong International Film Festival, will be held March 17.
Renowned for such works as Green Fish (1997), Peppermint Candy (1999) and Oasis (2002), Lee most recently made waves with 2018's Burning starring Steven Yeun. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year and became the first South Korean film to make the shortlist for the Oscars' best foreign-language film category.
Lee ...
Renowned for such works as Green Fish (1997), Peppermint Candy (1999) and Oasis (2002), Lee most recently made waves with 2018's Burning starring Steven Yeun. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year and became the first South Korean film to make the shortlist for the Oscars' best foreign-language film category.
Lee ...
- 2/27/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Asian Film Awards, it was announced Wednesday. The 13th edition of the awards ceremony, which is presented annually during the Hong Kong International Film Festival, will be held March 17.
Renowned for such works as Green Fish (1997), Peppermint Candy (1999) and Oasis (2002), Lee most recently made waves with 2018's Burning starring Steven Yeun. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year and became the first South Korean film to make the shortlist for the Oscars' best foreign-language film category.
Lee ...
Renowned for such works as Green Fish (1997), Peppermint Candy (1999) and Oasis (2002), Lee most recently made waves with 2018's Burning starring Steven Yeun. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year and became the first South Korean film to make the shortlist for the Oscars' best foreign-language film category.
Lee ...
- 2/27/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
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