Chorok Mulgoki
South Korea,
1997, 111 min
Shown in 1998
CREDITS
- dir
-
Lee Chang-dong
- prod
-
Yeo Kyun-dong, Myung Kye-nam
- scr
-
Lee Chang-dong
- cam
-
Yoo Young-kil
- editor
-
Kim Hyun
- cast
-
Han Suk-kyu, Shim Hye-jin, Moon Sung-keun, Myung Kye-nam, Kim Yong-man
- prod co
-
East Film Co., Ltd.
- source
-
East Film Company, 2nd Floor, Ida Bldg, Dongsoong-dong, Chongro-ku,Seoul, South Korea. FAX: 82-2-763-0850
-
COMMENTS
Eligible for the Skyy Prize. Lee Chang-dong in person.
OTHER
Set in two locales emblematic of South Korea at a moment in its headlong rush for economic development—a country town that’s turning into a new city and a sleazy suburb of Seoul over which gangs fight for control—Green Fish is the most highly regarded movie of the year in Korea (it received the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema at the 1997 Vancouver Film Festival). It’s the directorial debut of novelist Lee Chang-dong, who came into films by writing the scripts for Park Kwang-su’s last two features. Finely balanced between violent action, intense emotion and thoughtful reflection, Green Fish gives dream parts to its stars Moon Sung-kuen and Shim Hye-jin and establishes its young lead, Han Suk-kyu, as the most exciting new actor in Korean cinema. Makdong, a 26-year-old fresh out of military service, is drawn by chance into the orbit of gang boss Bae and his mistress Miae. Bae seems like the kind of father he always wanted, and Miae seems interested in becoming the girlfriend he’s never had. Only gradually does Makdong grasp that Bae’s relationship with Miae is sadomasochistic, and by then he’s already out of his depth. In trying to make himself indispensable to both of them, he risks bringing disaster on himself.
—Tony Rayns, Vancouver Film Festival
FACTOID #171
When Festival Executive Director Claude Jarman addressed journalists at the 1977 Festival press conference, he announced that the SFIFF was launching an ’important experiment’ by screening films at the Castro Theatre (at the urging of Mayor George Moscone to take the Festival to the neighborhoods) The experiment must have worked, as the Festival still has screenings at the Castro to this day, in addition to many other satellite venues.
