Here they are, with synopses provided by the PR people, and links where available to reviews on Darcy’s site. Not a bad haul. The festival runs from 22 – 26 May, and the schedule is as follows:
Mon: 20.30 Princess Aurora (18)
Tue: 18.00 Murder Take One (15)
Tue: 20.40 All For Love (15)
Wed: 18.30 My Scary Girl (18)
Wed: 21:00 See You After School (15)
Thu: 18:30 Art Of Fighting (15)
Thu: 20:50 Lost In Love (15)
Fri: 18:30 Love Is A Crazy Thing (18)
Fri: 21:00 Rules Of Dating (18)
All screenings are at the Prince Charles cinema. Screenings are free, on a first-come, first-served basis. Synopses follow:
1 Rules of Dating (Han Jae-rim, 2005). LEE Yu-rim is a high school teacher. He’s cute, he’s clever… and shameless. Choi Hong is a student teacher. She’s sarcastic but somehow alluring by the same token. When they go out for drinks one night, Yu-rim suddenly confesses to Hong that he wants to have sex with her. Hong is hardly impressed, and that sets off a tug of war as Yu-rim and Hong battle wills and wits, unsure of what the other wants — and what they themselves want. Dating and desire mix explosively, changing our preconceptions of the motives behind of dating and relationships. There’s a review just posted at Filmbrain (beware spoilers).
2 Murder, take one (Jang Jin, 2005). An attractive copywriter is found dead in a five-star hotel room. The suspect is no other than her younger brother Young-hoon, and he is arrested on the scene for murder. But with lie detectors seem to prove his innocence and a series of events confuse the matter for prosecutor CHOI Yeon-ki, it seems like the answer is never to be found. On top of an actual murder case, CHOI has to deal with a producer keen to highlight the case television. But a small clue and an unexpected shamanic ritual turns things around, and the final say doesn’t exactly belong to prosecutor CHOI.
3 All for love (MIN Kyu-dong, 2005). A stubborn owner of a movie theater, KWAK secretly admires Mrs. OH, the owner of a coffee shop within the theater. Mrs. OH is displeased by the heartless and disgruntled KWAK, but does seem to enjoy his interest towards her. Sexy and proud psychiatrist Yoo-jeong argues strongly against arrogant detective NAH in a live television debate, and comes across him again when she loses her purse and visits the police station to retrieve it. Former basketball player Seong-won gives up the sport after his girlfriend leaves him, and he suddenly finds himself facing the daughter that he never knew about. Seven intertwined relationships in one love story, where the people experience the most beautiful week of their lives.
4 My Scary Girl (SON Jae-gon 2005) (Not to be confused with My Sassy Girl) A timid college lecturer, Dae-woo, who is smart but has never been in love, meets a mysterious but charming lady, Mi-na. With no skills to win a date, he asks her out awkwardly. To his own surprise, she gives him a date. And as a first time lover, he behaves very unnaturally. But she little by little gets to know his pure and truthful feelings toward her, and they start a passionate relationship. However, as they fall in love, Dae-woo discovers some weird things about Mi-na. She said that she likes reading in her free time and majored in the fine arts, yet she doesn’t even know Crime and Punishment of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, nor Mondrian, one of whose pictures she has in her living room. Also, Mi-na’s roommate, Jang-mi makes Dae-woo feel uneasy, even worse, Mi-na’s bossy ex-boyfriend appears and tries to get her back. Dae-woo also finds out that her real name is not Mi-na but Mi-ja. Mi-na’s real identity makes him more confused… There’s an interview with the director on this film at Twitchfilm.
5 See you after school (LEE Seok-hoon 2006) For Koong-dahl, nothing has gone right during his entire life. In attempts to rid of his “loser streak,” he signs up for a year- long psychological therapy program which he immerses himself into, full gear. Right out of the clinic and with high hopes for the future, Koong-dahl makes a fresh start into the high school battlefields. Koong-dahl manages to spot some losers who were bullying the school’s gorgeous heartstopper, Min-ah. But, alas! Koong-dahl’s lack of information of the school’s food chain and the school’s super cool dude, Jae-koo who is at the top of it, has Koong-dahl mistake Jae-koo as his prey. Naturally the tables are turned and Koong-dahl is challenged for a duel on the school rooftop.
6 Art of fighting (SHIN Han-sol 2006) A coward by nature, Byung-tae has hard days of enduring bullies in school. One day, he meets Pan-su, an expert at martial arts, and under Pan-su’s guidance, he learns how to fight back. He quickly absorbs how to avoid physical violence on him, but will he succeed in beating others? Now Byung-tae starts to learn what it really means to be in a duel and the true meaning of life.
7 Lost in Love (Chu Chang-min 2006) Sobbing drunk or cursing the love that has left you… Or going off to the military to escape from reality… Or getting into a rebound relationship to avoid loneliness… Have you ever let go of the love of your life? Have you suffered heartache for losing “the one” because of your indecisiveness? Is there anyone you picture in your head once in a while? Here… there is a man and a woman who had no idea about their feelings for each other. They’ve been friends, without knowing the feelings they’ve had deep inside their hearts. Or maybe they’d known but could not confess. And they eventually meet again after years gone by. The movie “Lost In Love” is about such love. And about “them” who have suffered from such love. About the never-ending relation in which they meet, separate and meet again.
8 Love is a Crazy Thing (OH Seok-geun, 2005) Au-jin’s life is a series of boring days, one after another, until she receives a call from a stranger offering her relief from her crushing monotony. To a woman suffocating in a listless routine, the stranger — whom she knows only by voice — is her only outlet, a personal friend she can pour her heart out to. However, her life takes an unexpected turn when a certain Madam Kim rescues her from her predicament, and she meets a seemingly debonair Min-su along the way.
9 Princess Aurora (Pang Eun-jin, 2005) A woman gets killed in a department store. No one imagines this could signal the first in a serial murder, but two days after the first murder, another homicide occurs. A woman is suffocated to death and the only evidence left at the crime scene is a sticker of the toy character “Princess Aurora.” A veteran detective, OH suspects an attractive and lively woman named JUNG Soon-jung as being the murderer. However, he does not tell anyone — not even his partner — that JUNG also happens to be his ex-wife. Again and again, the Princess Aurora sticker is found… each with a dead body. However, the remaining question is why? What is the murderer’s purpose?
(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.
oooh these sound really good.. bu which one to pick >_
Just a quick one your blog is great.
I’m a bit of a film buff and I was looking for information on this years Korean Film Festival and found your link as there doesn’t appear to be an official site. I got say that it’s a great resource I’m going to bookmark it for the Restuarant & Film links.