The Jeon Kyu-hwan month rounds off with From Seoul to Varanasi, followed by director Q&A. Note that this screening is at Vue West End / Leicester Square, not the more usual Apollo Piccadilly.
From Seoul to Varanasi (바라나시)
Director: Jeon Kyu-hwan
Cast: Dong-hwan Yoon, Shin Ye-an, Nigel D’Sa
Running Time: 98 mins (Cert 18, South korea)
Screening Date & time: September 27, 2012, 6:30pm
Theatre: Vue Cinema West End Screen 8Background
With our final film of the Director Jeon season, we meet a complex set of adulterous characters in this cross-cultural, transnational love story. In ‘From Seoul to Varanasi’ (2011) Young-wu is married to Ji-young, Young-wu has a mistress and Ji-young has her lovers, however when Ji-young begins an affair with Ke-rim events begin to escalate out of control. Ji-young follows her new boyfriend Ke-rim to India leaving her husband, Youngwu, believing that his wife is visiting friends and family in Korea. Although Director Jeon’s most accessible film to date, ‘From Seoul to Varanasi’ still retains his trademark style in what is another powerful drama by one of Korea’s leading storytellers.
Synopsis
Young-wu, who has led an uneventful married life with Ji-young for more than 10 years, is having an affair with Su-yeon, a writer who has a contract with his publishing company. After an accident Ji-young meets Ke-rim, a young Muslim, and the two embark on a dangerous love affair. Ke-rim has to leave the country suddenly and Ji-young desperately missing him, leaves home on her birthday to look for him in Varanasi. After making love to his lover Su-yeon, Young-wu arrives home with a birthday gift for his wife only to find a note from Ji-young saying that shes gone to visit her family in another city. A few days later, Young-wu happens to see Ji-young on the TV news, covered in ash, coming out of a restaurant that has been bombed by terrorists in Varanasi. Young-wu starts to investigate his wife’s whereabouts, suspects that she’s having an affair with Ke-rim, and sets off to look for her in Varanasi.
