Kim Hong-joon’s talk dovetails nicely with the Early Korean Cinema season at the BFI. Plus, he’s always an interesting speaker, so this event should not be missed.
Kim Hong-joon Presents Short Essay Films on Korean Classic Cinema
Thursday 14 February 2019, 19:00 – 22:00 GMT
Korean Cultural Centre | Grand Buildings | 1 – 3 Strand | London WC2N 5BW | www.kccuk.org.uk
Register via EventBrite
Filmmaker, film critic and festival programmer Kim Hong-joon (La Vie en Rose, My Korean Cinema) returns to the KCCUK this February to once again offer unique insight into Korean cinema history via his signature essay film work. At this special event the director will present two of his essay films, both of which act as a tribute to, and reflection on, classic Korean cinema and the two iconic figures that they attempt to capture.
The first film is a short ‘homage’ to revered director Kim Ki-young (The Housemaid), a subject all too familiar to Kim Hong-joon: the filmmaker has edited books, researched scripts and made an essay documentary on this subject, and even visited the KCCUK last year for a talk on ‘Two or Three Things I Know About Kim Ki-young’. This latest homage work was made for the Korean Archive’s Kim Ki-young Retrospective, and our London screening proves timely as the year 2019 marks the centennial of both Kim Ki-young’s birth (1919-1998) and of Korean cinema itself.
The second film is titled ‘Reflection on Kim Ku’ and it traces the cinematic representation of Kim Ku, the leader of the Korean independence movement against Japanese colonial rule. Using excerpts from narrative films directed by Han Hyung-mo and Jeon Chang-geun as well as rare newsreel footage featuring Kim Ku himself, it will open up discussion on the interplay between politics and cinematic representation in the context of post-colonial Korean history.
