Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

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Michael Kerpan · #26 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Tue May 10, 2005 10:38 pm

Haven't seen Rosetta, but "Maborosi" and "After Life" are two of my very favorite contemporary films. Kore'eda's "Distance", btw, is probably even more like "Charming Girl" in this respect. And, uncharacteristically, Zhang Yimou makes brilliant use of a purely hand-held camera in "Keep Cool" (another of my favorites).

artfilmfan · #27 Post by **artfilmfan** » Wed May 11, 2005 7:02 pm

If you like films made with a "hand-held" camera, "Rosetta" is a must-see. And don't forget to check out "The Blair Witch Project" (which I've only read about).

I have not seen "Distance". There are a few things about this film I've read about that I don't like. Therefore, I've stayed away from it.

Michael Kerpan · #28 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Wed May 11, 2005 7:15 pm

Will see Rosetta...some day. No desire to see Blair Witch...ever. I don't prize handheld cinematography JUST because it is hand held. ;~}

If you are totally allergic to handheld films, you probably wouldn't want to see "Distance". Otherwise, however, it is a wonderful film. It does take at least two viewings before one can really start to piece things together.

kazantzakis · #29 Post by **kazantzakis** » Wed May 11, 2005 7:43 pm

artfilmfan's "Rosetta" comparison is very accurate, both in style and content. "Distance" is very close also. As for "Maborosi" , I would certainly agree that they are close thematically but the images in the Koreeda film carry a different purpose. The jumpiness of "This charming girl" is a coherent state of consciousness, as someone pointed above.

As for the Blair Witch analogy, I get the feeling you are being facetious artfilmfan...

Steven H · #30 Post by **Steven H** » Wed May 11, 2005 10:10 pm

There's a similar "hand-held" technique in Brakhage's Act of Seeing Through One's Own Eyes, which also seems to have the same "time-bending" effect, through silent purely visual means. Koreeda's Distance seems more closely related than any other film mentioned, I think (and Michael's right, it gets better with every viewing).

artfilmfan · #31 Post by **artfilmfan** » Thu May 12, 2005 7:26 pm

kazantzakis wrote:As for the Blair Witch analogy, I get the feeling you are being facetious artfilmfan...

You're right. I was. It was a bait for MEK. I'm still surprised that he bought "Weekend"

I might rent "Distance" someday when it's available (as I did with "Rosetta").

Michael Kerpan · #32 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Thu May 12, 2005 8:32 pm

> I'm still surprised that he bought "Weekend"

Well, I had liked everything by JLG up to that point (except the dreadful "Letter to Jane", which I set aside as an aberration). ;~}

As to "Distance", one definitely needs to set aside time to watch this twice during the first week one has it. (I watched it on two successive nights, as I recall).

There is supposedly a passable HK DVD (I have the Japanese DVD, however).

MEK

kazantzakis · #33 Post by **kazantzakis** » Thu May 12, 2005 9:02 pm

Since we disagreed on "Distance" in this past I wont argue with you on its merits Michael...but I was wonderring: why "definitely' two times in the same week?

Michael Kerpan · #34 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Thu May 12, 2005 9:13 pm

Two times -- because one hasn't (if one is like me) retained enough information the first time through top put all the pieces together properly. Once one gets to the end, one can begin sorting things out better the next time through.

The same week -- because if you wait too long, you'll start forgetting. ;~}

I also watched "Virgin Stripped Bare" twice on succeeding days (and even watched some extracts right after finishing the first viewing).

artfilmfan · #35 Post by **artfilmfan** » Thu May 12, 2005 10:31 pm

The HK DVD of "Distance": There were several occasions when I was tempted to buy this less expensive DVD. However, everytime I saw that cover, I couldn't bring myself to buying the DVD. I had a chance to see this film at the AFI Silver last year, right after the Ozu retrospective and before I read anything about it. However, at the time I was still in "the Ozu state of mind" and didn't think much of Kore'eda's films (they also showed "Maborosi" then). I had seen the New Yorker video of "Maborosi" about six years ago and I couldn't finish it because I thought (at that time) it was boring. It's only after seeing all those Ozu films and after buying the (beautifully transfered) Japanese DVD last summer that I was hooked on "Maborosi".

I agree that "This Charming Girl" more resembles "Maborosi" thematically. It has fewer moments when it resembles "Maborosi" stylistically (compared to its resemblance to "Rosetta", stylistically). One of the moments that comes to mind is the dinner scene after she cooked a big meal.

Talking about "Virgin Stripped Bare" (and rest in peace the actress who starred in it), I'm really looking forward to Hong's next film, which will come out near the end of this month (as I understand). I hope the DVD release will follow soon.

kazantzakis · #36 Post by **kazantzakis** » Thu May 12, 2005 11:21 pm

I am risking an outrage by saying this, but regardless of how marvelous, perceptive and sensitive Hong's cinema is, I do find the overlap between the 4 films I have seen a bit troublesome. The one competing at Cannes sounds along the same lines.

"Virgin" is his best work, imo. Soo-Jung is his most memorable character and I can see the effect Lee's acting could have on folks. Significantly, perhaps, the whole portrait brings out thew "savior" in men. I have no idea what effect this would have on women.

Michael Kerpan · #37 Post by **Michael Kerpan** » Fri May 13, 2005 7:59 am

I am risking an outrage by saying this, but regardless of how marvelous, perceptive and sensitive Hong's cinema is, I do find the overlap between the 4 films I have seen a bit troublesome.

While all five of Hong's earlier films may deal with the same basic themes, the style, tone and specific mode of treatment of those themes in each is pretty distinctive. I think he is very much a "parametric" film maker a la Ozu (a la Bordwell). -- which might be one reason I like his work so much. ;~}

artfilmfan · #38 Post by **artfilmfan** » Fri May 13, 2005 8:53 pm

kazantzakis wrote:I am risking an outrage by saying this, but regardless of how marvelous, perceptive and sensitive Hong's cinema is, I do find the overlap between the 4 films I have seen a bit troublesome. The one competing at Cannes sounds along the same lines.

Just think of the (much more) overlap in Ozu's films and you'll be fine with Hong's films

Hong is one of the few directors who films I will most likely collect all.

#39 Post by **zedz** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 7:45 pm

artfilmfan wrote:I didn't complain about "the look" of the film, by the way. I mentioned that the film looks beautiful. What I really complained about are (1) the unsteady camera and (2) the quick cuts between shots. An example of the "unsteady" camera is the icecream eating scene that I mentioned. If it was the directorial choice, then let it be. It's just strange (and uncomfortable to look at, for me that is) when the camera keeps moving like that. For that particular scene, for instance, the camera was moving side-to-side. I picked up an item near the right edge of the screen (when the camera is in front of the women), (I think it was a wooden post or something like that), and observed how it was oscillating toward and away from the edge of the screen.

I haven't seen this film, but the technique you're describing sounds very close to Pasolini, who would often shoot scenes you'd normally expect to be shot with a fixed camera (long static shots) or tracked / panned (breathtaking landscapes) hand-held. In a film like Medea, the very slight shaking / reframing - the images breathe - enhances the 'primitivist' aesthetic of the whole film, with its disjunctive editing, unconventional framing and ritualistic mise-en-scene. Unlike later exponents of hand-held (e.g. Dardennes, Dogme), the intent isn't to communicate newsreel immediacy, as the camera operator is usually trying to keep the camera as stationary as humanly possible.

artfilmfan · #40 Post by **artfilmfan** » Wed Jun 08, 2005 7:46 pm

zedz wrote: ... the technique you're describing sounds very close to Pasolini, ...

I haven't seen any Pasolini film; but I do have "Mamma Roma" and hope to get to it soon.

Pinback · #41 Post by **Pinback** » Wed Sep 07, 2005 3:42 pm

The program for this year's Pusan International Film Festival has been announced, and it includes the premiere of Lee Yoon-ki's next film Love Talk. I'm amazed that he's made another feature so soon, after such an assured debut in March. It must be pretty rare these days for a director's first two features to be released in the same year. Anyway, I loved This Charming Girl and can't wait to see Love Talk.

htdm · #42 Post by **htdm** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:26 pm

New Korean Cinema

3 more recent/upcoming classic Korean releases (R3, NTSC) with English subtitles from Spectrum:

Pong (1985) Lee Doo-young -- availlable
Between the Knees (1984) Lee Jang-ho -- 1/31
Euodong (1985) Lee Jang-ho -- 1/31

These are part of their ongoing campaign to release several dozen high quality classic Korean films. A list of the complete list of prospective titles can be found here.

kazantzakis · #43 Post by **kazantzakis** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:42 pm

Any of these any good?

yoshimori · #44 Post by **yoshimori** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:43 pm

kazantzakis wrote:Any of these any good?

'Good' is in the eye of the beholder, but I've seen all the Im Kwon-Taek films listed at the link, and though they're 'classics', I thought most of them were amateurish and door-knob dull. Best by far was Chunhyang, which I thought was only passable, and which you've probably seen, so...

Perhaps dmkb will provide a more charitable view.

htdm · #45 Post by **htdm** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 10:51 pm

Not sure if this is the right place to respond but here goes...

While I wouldn't call any of them door-knob dull (although I've now added that to my reservoir of phrases) I think most of the titles slated for release are important if for no other reason than they make available a larger breadth of work from a variety of filmmakers to mass audiences. These films show us that Korean film (the New Wave included) didn't just materialze out of thin air - but has a very real history underlying it. True, not all of the films may connect with audiences unfamiliar with their context, but that can also be true of films produced within one's own culture.

What I personally enjoy are the Korean Film Archive series (also released through Spectrum) for their historic and aesthetic value. These films add to our knowledge of world film in general and South Korean filmmaking practices in particular. Likewise, I don't think the Im Kwon-taek releases are throwaways. I would argue (along with many others) that Sopyonje is an unqualified classic. But even entries like The General's Son which is as commercial as it is political represent an entirely different but equally important part of Im's career that counterbalances our understanding of him as an "arthouse" director (whatever that means). Films like that help explain his endearment to a mass domestic audience in Korea before becoming the iconic "Korean" director abroad. They also make it easier to see where a film like Raging Years fits in his ouevre and why Im referred to it as a return to his roots.

The other releases - especially those of Lee Jang-ho - may not rank with Sopyonje but they are significant for other reasons. For one thing, they show us how filmmakers continued to advance filmmaking itself against the various constraints placed on them at different times and in a variety of conditions. I'm thinking of the frank (and at the time scandalous) representation of sexuality in Between the Knees which, like the Roman Porno movement in Japan a decade before, was able to find a space of political and artistic resistance even under the oppresive military dictatorship of Park Chun-hee. I guess my point is that it isn't only the themes of these films that make them important but also why certain films appeared at a given time. As if their availability wasn't enough, the inclusion of English subtitles on these releases is like a massive gift to those who don't speak Korean.

As an aside, it's funny how the interpretation of a film can change when it crosses borders. I remember when Pong came out, it was an unqualified hit in Japan (and all of the sequels) which might seem strange if one considers that it was set in the colonial period under the Japanese. But the main reason for its success in Japan wasn't that Japanese had become so liberal as to seek out films on the history of Japanese colonialization of Asia from Asian perspectives so much as for Lee Mi-suk's impressive nude scenes. So even though a film may be famous in more than one region in Asia, it's popularity (and/or reputation) can be ascribed to multiple reasons.

che-etienne · #46 Post by **che-etienne** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:32 am

Though he is not listed here. I think a really great Korean filmmaker is Lee Changdong, who has currently only made three films, and all quite recently. Still, his films do not feel as if they came from the nineties. They have a very at times minimalist quality to them. I would say that if you see them all you can see a very natural progression. His first film "Green Fish" is very good, but is surpassed by "Peppermint Candy" (which I believe is widely regarded as his best). Still, my favorite is "Oasis", which is truly moving, and does not let any didactic social messages shine through as in the previous two. He is first and foremost I think a social filmmaker. To me, he is almost like a combination of Ozu and Kurosawa, though perhaps not as great as either one.

Caligula · #47 Post by **Caligula** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 10:56 am

Im Kwon-Taek's Surrogate Woman/Surrogate Womb - Korean DVD?

I would dearly like to see this film, and I see that it is available on DVD (1 disc) at http://www.dvdfromkorea.com under the name Surrogate Womb (I am unable to locate this title at yesasia).

According to the listing it has English subs.

The price (4.49USD) seems reasonable enough.

A different edition (2 discs, English subs according to the listing) can be found here. The covers of the two editions appear to be the same.

Can anyone comment on the quality of any of these DVDs?

htdm · #48 Post by **htdm** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 12:56 pm

The difference between the two is mainly a matter of the case (digipack for the 2disc, plastic for the single disc) and the inclusion of a second disc of extras (unsubbed). The transfer is the same. The print used is good but not restored. You will find noticeable speckling but the colors are solid and the quality of the removable subtitles is good.

Caligula · #49 Post by **Caligula** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 1:33 pm

Thanks for the very helpful info.

One more question before I dive in: is the disc anamorphic?

htdm · #50 Post by **htdm** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 2:42 am

Yes it is.