London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Event news: two screenings featuring Lee Mi-sook in March

The KCCUK’s season of films illustrating different aspects of Korean humour continues with two films starring Lee Mi-sook. A nice 10th birthday present.

Lee Mi-sook month

The Actresses

South Korea, 2009
Director: E J-yong
Cast: Yoon Yeo-jeong, Lee Mi-sook, Ko Hyun-jeong, Choi Ji-woo, Kim Min-hee
104 mins | Cert. 12 | Eng Subs
17 March, 7pm @ KCCUK

Actresses

In 2009 Director E created yet another first for Korean cinema with his satirical mockumentary piece The Actresses. The casting includes six of Korea’s leading actresses who were also each credited as scriptwriters. Inspired by the off-camera personalities of the female leads that he had worked with over the years, E asked the six women to simply play themselves. Set in Seoul on Christmas Eve, the six actresses prepare for a photo shoot. The piece is a film of improvisation and personal stories that took two weeks to shoot. What ensues is an exploration of their lives and the public and private challenges that fame brings in modern Korea.

Mulberry

South Korea, 1986
Director: Lee Doo-yong
Cast: Lee Mi-sook, Lee Dae-keun, Lee Moo Jung, Ra Jeong-ok, Han Tae-il
114 mins | Cert. 18 | Eng Subs
31 March, 7pm @ KCCUK

Mulberry

It is mid 1920s Korea, and basic provisions are scarce. In a rural village called Yong-dam lives An-hyup, a woman of unsurpassed beauty.

Selfish and self-centred, her husband Sambo is a renowned gambler who wanders from town to town looking for places to waste his time and lose his money. Only returning home every few months Sambo neither brings home any money nor takes care of his family. An-hyup’s situation is dire and she is left with little choice but to sell her body to local men so that she may put food on the table. However, there is just one villager with whom she wouldn’t sleep with, Samdol. Samdol is driven to distraction by An-hyup’s rejection of him, resorting to sometimes threatening and even begging her to comply with his carnal wishes but all to no avail. Angry and resentful Samdol decides to inform An-hyup’s husband of the illicit work that has been going on behind his back. Samdol tells Sambo that whilst he has been away his wife has been known to the men of the village, but the response Samdol gets is not what he had been hoping for.

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