ClumpRoll

First, straight from The Korea Society's website:

"Toys - always more meaningful than the simple playthings they appear to be - can embody the fantasies, values, obsessions and anxieties of a generation. Toy Stories: Souvenirs from Korean Childhood includes a veritable toy box of over 90 flamboyantly colored action figures, robots, miniature tanks and paper dolls from 1970's and 1980's Korea."

So the exhibit will have more than just action figures and robots for boys, but also girls' toys and dolls too. Being that Korea's growing industrialization made new things possible in the country for the first time during that period, it would be interesting to see just what got kids excited back when there was no Guitar Hero or PlayStation. Here's some key proceedings tied to the show:

• The opening reception for the exhibit is today at 5:30 PM
• Exhibit runs through April 18
• "Gallery Talk" (lecture): "Our Toys Our Selves: Robot Taekwon V and South Korean Identity" on February 7
• Film screening of animated feature Robot Taekwon V (2007, Digitally restored from original 1976 prints) on March 18

The film was the first Korean animated feature - ever. While original prints were long thought to have been destroyed by fire, a print was later found in one of KOFIC's (Korean Film Council) off-site storage warehouses, was digitally restored in a 3-year-long process and re-released in 2007 to theaters across the nation in a very successful run.

Second, the live-action/CG adaptation.  (More)

So it's already been about a week since this was out, but the "Vengeance Trilogy" (also called revenge trilogy) films of director Park Chan-wook are collected together into one special 7-disc boxset, and it's on sale now in Korea -- which makes it region 3. Time to break out the region-free dvd players! This would be the definitive way to see the collection, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, and Lady Vengeance (복수는 나의 것 Boksuneun nahehgut, 올드보이, 친절한 금자씨 Chinjeolhan geumjassi). Now, all the films have English subtitles, but as usual, the extras don't.

Japan already got their trilogy box set back in March 2006, Tartan UK put theirs out in October 2006. But in the original country of Korea there was a significant delay (almost 2 years since Lady Vengeance was first put on local DVD), and now we know why -- they were putting together the completely new extra features especially made for this boxset. Besides the obvious packaging redesign, these new extras are:

* Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
- 2 new audio commentaries (1 with Director Park and leads Song Kang-ho and Shin Ha-kyun revisiting/reflecting on the film now, the other with film critic Kim Young-jin)

* Lady Vengeance
- 1 new audio commentary with Richard Pena, Program Director of the New York Korean Film Festival (I can only guess this is English Audio of Pena with Korean subtitles, 'cause otherwise it would make no sense. UPDATE: this was already included in English language releases of the film in UK and US, so it's only new to the Korean edition)
- Short Film "The Freaking Family", by directors Park Su-young, Park Jae-young (this is recommended viewing from Director Park Chan-wook, Original Title 핵분열 가족 roughly translates to "The Nuclear Fission Family")
- "The man reading the pictures for you" - Picture slide show with Director Park
- "Get together" - behind the scenes of the reunion photo shoot (for this edition's package) with the main actors of all three films

You'll notice that Oldboy has no new extras. Because there was already 3 editions of the film in Korea (regular, Ultimate Edition, post-Cannes award Final Edition), they've decided to simply most recent edition and all it's extras (the Final Edition) into this Trilogy-pack as-is. But this also means that the Autobiography of Oldboy, which was a 3-hour production diary spanning 6 months of filming, was and is only available on the ultra-rare, out-of-print Ultimate Edition.

I won't get into the nitty gritty of the films themselves, as by now they've been lauded and praised the world over and again. If anything, watch any one of these if you haven't already and I guarantee you'll want to see the other two. They are not related to each other except the theme, which is of course about revenge and the human drama/psyche that causes and results from it.

Personally, it's exciting that we finally get to hear what the actors themselves thought of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. For what started it all, and as both Shin Ha-kyun and Song Kang-ho (and of course their director) are such bigger personages than they were back then. Also curious is the view of Richard Pena, committee chairman and program director of the Film society of Lincoln Center and the New York Film Festival (I write about this years fest in my next post, scroll up or click here).

Read on for the full specs of this collection, and you can buy it now from YesAsia.com.

• via DVD2.0, DVDTopic / Cine21 (JP boxset news, Jan. 2006), Twitch (UK dvd boxset news, Aug. 2006). Image/DVD specs from madmad.co.kr.

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and it's FREEEE!

This is only the 2nd year of the Short Film section at the New York Korean Film Festival, and they're doing something crazy - all three short film programs are completely free.  That's right, free. Each program covers 5 short films, and at each one there will be a video message or an in-person appearance by one of the short filmmakers. So they've timed a "sort-of" wrap-up party (with no cover charge, natch) after the screenings that night so that we can meet the filmmakers and festival staff in a casual setting.  Sort-of, because the actual rest of the Korean Film Festival still goes on for another three days at BAM Rose Cinemas in Brooklyn.

Anyway, the short films all cover a range of topics from, by, of, or starring Koreans and Korean-Americans, and this year there's a juried section of finalists. There's even James Kyson Lee from the hit NBC TV show Heroes in a short called Beef Palace (far right) about what else, the meaty foods, love and sex. The animation shorts like In Your Eyes look real good, 'cause you know, everyone knows that the Simpsons and every other anime from Japan, animation from US and Disney is outsourced to the capable Korean hands of the world.

So to summarize, there's 15 short films, all free, on one night, at Cinema Village. And then a party at Forum, with no cover charge. short film + party = i like~

Check it out! I'm bringing some friends to expose them to the fine cinematic sensibilites of the independents (films, that is)! And of course, to party!

• www.koreanfilmfestival.org (More)
   

The 7th New York Korean Film Festival 2007 starts this Tuesday and it turning out to be their biggest yet. Everything from romantic comedy to historical drama, the gangster flick and even documentary are represented. That includes 16 of the latest Korean movies from 2006 and 2007, a 4-film retrospective of renowned Mr. "101-films" director Im Kwon-Taek, 8 horror films (or rather 7 horror + 1 moody drama) and an expanded full day of short films for free(!). There will be a number of parties, and 2 special guest directors from Korea this year. Being pretty much the only chance for us to see these films in a theater-setting outside of Korea, I'm definitely looking forward to the fest.

• www.koreanfilmfestival.org
• podcast introducing this year's festival
  at right: image from Family Ties, one of the films from the fest

+ Highly Recommended +
Yesterday, July 28, was the closing night of the 30th New York Asian American International Film Festival. Among other things, they chose to bookend this year's run with the Sundance 2007 Grand Jury Prize Nominee, Never Forever.

Vera Farmiga (The Departed) expertly becomes Sophie, the well-to-do wife of a successful Korean American lawyer (David McInnis, The Cut Runs Deep). But even with the big house, the important company of upscale living and everything else, Andrew cannot give her a child, for he is impotent. After Andrew slips into suicidal depression and her in-laws give her stern looks during prayer sessions, Sophie takes on desperate measures to save her marriage. She secretly pays Jiha (Jung-woo Ha, The Fox Family, Kim Ki-duk's Breath and Time), an undocumented Korean worker, to impregnate her. When business dealings and secrets unravel, Sophie must choose how to carry on.

The second feature-length film from writer and director Gina Kim shows us a strong turn in her storytelling, now that it takes on a much more straightforward narrative approach than her first film from 2003, Invisible Light, which although dealt in a similar theme of woman and body in relation to longing/intimacy, was more experimental in style. 

Turning the table on interracial relationships, women's identity and self-empowerment, Never Forever gives us believable and strong performances that ring painfully true in our lives today, transcending the race divide that it kicks off from. An opportunity of circumstance culminates into the moment of self-discovery as Sophie defines her life beyond those around her -- and it stirs the viewer with a chill and a nod.   (More)