The final screening in the current Home Truths season is Shin Sang-ok’s classic weepie My Mother and her Guest. We loved it when it screened at the LKFF twelve years ago. My Mother and her Guest (사랑방 손님과 어머니) Director: Shin Sang-ok (1961, 102mins) Cast: Choi Eun-hee, Jeon Young-sun, Kim Jin-gyu, Han Eun-jin, Do Kum-bong […]
Directors: Shin Sang-ok
A new year gift from the Korean Film Archive
Those nice people at the Korean Film Archive have given us a new year gift, in the form of twenty-one English subtitled classic movies newly uploaded to their YouTube channel. At least two of these have been available on subtitled DVD before (Come, Come, Come Upward and Gingko Bed) but I’m assuming these are new, […]
Shin Sang-ok’s It’s not her sin screens at the KCC
The first movie in the KCC’s new “Patchworks: Unwrapping My Korean Cinema” season is a classic Shin Sang-ok film from 1959: It’s not her sin (그 여자의 죄가 아니다) Director: Shin Sang-ok (1959) 104 mins Event Date: 20 July, 7:00pm Location: KCCUK Booking: Free admission, booking essential. To reserve your place, please RSVP to info@kccuk.org.uk […]
Another take on Shin Sang-ok
The Korea Times has a nicely-timed memoir of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee covering their time in America immediately after their redefection in 1986. At over 4,000 words it’s a meaty article, and well worth the read, in particular touching on Shin’s impossible dream of a film about Genghis Khan. Thanks to Michael Duffy for […]
Film review: The Lovers and the Despot
The way you watch Ross Adam’s and Robert Cannan’s The Lovers and the Despot is likely to depend on whether you know the story or not. To those who are coming to it afresh, this is an extraordinary tale which is another example of the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction: one of South […]
Event news: Shin Sang-ok double bill at the Regent Street Cinema
If you missed the UK premiere of the documentary about Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee, The Lovers and the Despot, and would rather watch it on the big screen as opposed to via the various online options, you have another chance this month courtesy of the Regent Street Cinema. An LKL review is coming soon, but […]
The Lovers and the Despot comes online and to theatres 23 Sept
It’s been very tantalising knowing that this film has been in the making. LKL met with the directors of this project back in early 2012 and made a few introductions which may or may not have been of assistance. It sounded like an interesting angle on a familiar topic – the sojourn of Shin Sang-ok […]
Double book review: two takes on Shin Sang-ok
Paul Fischer: A Kim Jong-il Production Penguin / Viking 2015, 353pp Steven Chung: Split Screen Korea – Shin Sang-ok and Postwar Cinema University of Minnesota Press 2014, 262pp The story of actress Choi Eun-hee and Shin Sang-ok combines elements of both romance and thriller as well as representing important phases in the history of film […]
I suppose I’ve got to read this, but what a tacky cover!
Oh dear. The story of Shin Sang-ok’s and Choi Eun-hee’s sojourn in North Korea is a compelling one, regardless of whether you think there was compulsion involved. And a book covering film in North Korea is welcome, though Johannes Schönherr has already covered the ground. But do you have to make the book look so […]
Shin Sang-ok’s Bound By Chastity: this weeks Women on Screen film at the KCC
This Thursday is rather too busy: a Shin Sang-ok film, a concert at the Royal Asiatic Society, the opening night of Terracotta, and a couple of private views of Korean art exhibitions. Via Alualuna, here’s a synopsis of the film, which will be screened at 7pm on 6 June. Registering in advance (via the KCC […]
Kim Jong-il’s Pulgasari: political metaphor or just a bad monster movie?
LKL reports from the Asian Movie Meetup at the Roxy in Borough High Street on 16 January: Pulgasari (1985). Director: Shin Sang-ok; Producer: Kim Jong-il. The snowy peak of Mount Baekdu in the background and a winged Chollima horse in the foreground is the ident which announces the start of Pulgasari. The two icons of […]
The Shin Sang-ok Pulgasari meet-up
Back home after a great movie meetup to see Pulgasari with @miniminimovies @HangulCelluloid and @cinemasia_nl. Well, the meetup was good anyway. Says HangulCelluloid: “I’ve got some rice to mould into a monster and I may drip blood on it later”
Brief Encounter with Chopin – Shin Sang-ok’s My Mother and Her Guest
Shin Sang-ok: My Mother and Her Guest (1961) It was a shame to see two of the most interesting films in the London Korean Film Festival — My Mother and Her Guest and Madame Freedom — so sparsely attended. The Barbican had generously allocated its largest screen (capacity 286) in anticipation of enthusiastic interest — […]
London Korean Film Festival 2007 programme details
Here’s the running order. Some commentary to follow tomorrow. Breath (숨) (12A) (2007) Dir Kim Ki-duk (김기덕) 84 min / Opening Gala Special Preview 19:30 / Introduced by special guest Ambassador Dr. Cho Yoon-Je of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea 2 Nov 07 / 19:30 / Cinema 1 The latest film from the […]