The omnibus film The Killers (2023) was released in Korea in October after screening at festivals in Europe, North America and Asia. It was invited to Fantasia International Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival after premiering at the 23rd New York Asian Film Festival in July.

The genre anthology features four short films directed by established filmmakers Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deok, Chang Hang-jun and Lee Myung-se. Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s short story that has been adapted into films before, the four different films Metamorphosis (Kim), Contractors (Roh), Waiting for the Man (Chang) and Silent Cinema (Lee) offer varying interpretations of the classic. It features Shim Eun-kyung in all four films in different roles, while the cast also includes Yeon Woo-jin, Hong Sa-bin, Oh Yeon-ah and Ko Chang-seok.

The film is especially notable for Lee Myung-se marking his return to the big screen in Korea. The idiosyncratic filmmaker famous for his films My Love, My Bride (1990), Nowhere to Hide (1999), Duelist (2005) hasn’t had a film on theatrical release since M in 2007.  

Anthology films in Korea are not uncommon reflecting the diverse range of styles and themes the industry has to offer. Sometimes it gives filmmakers opportunities to collaborate together, while directors have also made films featuring different stories adopting the omnibus format like Min Kyu-dong with his debut All for Love (2005) or Jung Sik and Jung Bum-shik’s Epitaph (2007).

Korea’s first anthology film was 7 Reasons why Beer is Better than a Lover (1996) directed by seven filmmakers including Kang Woo-suk and Park Chul-soo. Other examples have included the If You Were Me films that consists of seven anthologies, while the Horror Stories series and Mad Sad Bad (2014) have also brought different directors together.

This week we will profile some of these titles starting with 7 Reasons why Beer is Better than a Lover before delving into All for Love (2005), Epitaph (2007), Five Senses of Eros (2009), the Horror Stories series (2012-2016), and Mad Sad Bad (2014).

7 Reasons why Beer is Better than a Lover

Featuring seven parts helmed by Kim Yu-jin, Jang Hyun-soo, Chung Ji-young, Park Chul-soo, Park Jong-won, Jang Gil-su and Kang Woo-suk it centers on a man, Jonathan (Han Jae-suk) who returns to Korea from America. Each episode – the first titled “Beer is Not Jealous even if I Drink Beer” and the final part “There is No Obligation to Drink Beer for the Rest of Your Life”– sees Jonathan date various women with beer, alcohol, and sex being a running theme throughout much of the shorts.

In the first part, for instance, helmed by Kim Yu-jin (Wild Card (2003), Jonathan meets a female CEO of a record company while in the final episode that is directed by Kang Woo-suk, Jonathan is pursued by a wig designer played by Bang Eun-jin after he turns to Soju instead of beer. The anthology also stars Kim Ye-rin, Im Sang-hyo and Moon Soo-jin.

Although significant for being Korea’s first anthology and it also sold 90,000 tickets in Seoul during the lunar new year season, it was criticized by some in the industry and by viewers for its themes, and for how it depicts women.

All for Love

In Min Kyu-dong’s first feature as a solo director (he made the horror film Memento Mori (1999) with Kim Tae-yong), All for Love, he adopts an omnibus structure as it tells the different stories of people living in Seoul over a course of a week – a newlywed couple (Im Chang-jung, Seo Young-hee), a divorced father (Chun Ho-jin), his ex-wife (Uhm Jung-hwa), an elderly women (Oh Mi-hee), a K-pop singer (Jung Kyung-ho), a cop (Hwang Jung-min) and a debt collector (Kim Su-ro).

Akin to Love Actually (2003) that has a passionate following in Korea often re-released during the Christmas season, All for Love similarly draws audiences into these endearing stories as the characters deal with different challenges in life; from debt and broken families to illness.

Its touching stories connected with audiences selling 2.5 million tickets making it the tenth most popular film of 2005.

Epitaph

Directed by the Jung brothers (Jung Sik and Jung Bum-shik), Epitaph tells three different stories as part of a wider narrative. Beginning in the late 1970s, we see a doctor who learns that a hospital is being demolished and then recollects his time at a hospital in 1942 where he worked as an intern. The young doctor Jeong-nam (Jin Goo) falls for a young and beautiful dead woman who is lying in the morgue, while also in the hospital is the sole survivor, Asako, (Ko Joo-yeon) of a car cash that serves as the second part. The third story is focused on a couple who work as surgeons at the hospital and get embroiled in a series of killings of Japanese soldiers.

While each story is distinct from each other, it is also cleverly formed as a feature film making it one of the most significant horror films of the period. Richly stylistic and genuinely frightening through its superb production design and direction, it is also unique for the way it portrays the Japanese colonial era capturing the complexities of the period.

The film, released in the summer of 2007 – a popular time for horror films in Korea as a way to cool off and beat the oppressive humidity – it was invited to various film festivals including Seattle International Film Festival, Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and Fantasia Film Festival.  

Five Senses of Eros

Five directors who all graduated from the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA) came together to make different shorts for the omnibus Five Senses of Eros. Each with his own style, tackles the themes of romance and desire in different ways.

Byun-hyuk’s His Concern centers on a man (Jang Hyuk) who meets a woman (Cha Hyun-jung) on a KTX train on his way to Busan. Hur Jin-ho’s I’m Right Here follows a couple played by Kim Kang-woo and Cha Soo-yeon dealing with ill-health.  Yu Young-sik’s 33^rd Man takes place on a film set and centers on two actresses (Bae Jong-ok and Kim Gyu-ri) and their director (Kim Soo-ro). Min Kyu-dong’s In My End is My Beginning features Uhm Jung-hwa and Hwang Jung-min as a married couple. The wife discovers that her husband was having an affair with her high school friend after he is killed in a car crash. Oh Ki-hwan’s Believe in the Moment follows three couples who are close friends, and they decide to exchange partners for a day.

Much like the other shorts, it features high profile actors including Song Joong-ki, Kim Dong-wook and Lee Si-young. Short films also do give directors more of an opportunity to experiment with styles and themes and this is evident here.

Min Kyu-dong’s In My End is My Beginning was turned into a feature film and was released in 2013.

Horror Stories

Min Kyu-dong was also a central figure in the Horror Stories series having been involved in all three omnibuses. The first, Horror Stories, starts with Beginning directed by Min Kyu-dong about a serial killer who kidnaps a high school student and she tells him about scary stories that are the subsequent shorts: Don’t Answer the Door by Jung Sik based on a Korean folktale The Sun and the Moon, Endless Flight by Lim Dae-woong that is set on plane, Secret Recipe by Hong Ji-yeong that draws its story of the lust between two stepsisters from the folktale Kongjwi and Patjwi, and Ambulance on the Death Zone by Kim Gok and Kim Sun that centers on an ambulance fleeing a zombie outbreak.

The film, which opened the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival (BIFAN) in 2012, led to a sequel, Horror Stories II, the following year with two of the directors returning: Min Kyu-dong and Jung Bum-shik who helmed the first (444) and last films (The Escape), respectively. Kim Sung-ho (The Cliff) and Kim Hwi (The Accident) also were part of the project with their shorts.

It also screened at BIFAN, while also being invited to the Sitges Film Festival and the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival where it won the Silver Raven Prize in the international competition.  

A third film was released in 2016 titled Horror Stories III featuring four films: A Girl from Mars by Min Kyu-dong, The Fox Valley by Baek Seung-bin, Road Rage by Kim Sun and Ghost in the Machine by Kim Gok.

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Mad Sad Bad

Action maestro Ryoo Seung-wan joined directors Han Ji-seung and Kim Tae-yong for the omnibus 3D project Mad Sad Bad (2014) produced by the Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA) that opened the 15^th Jeonju International Film Festival in 2014.

 Ryoo Seung-wan’s Ghost is more of a character-driven story than many of his action-packed features as it centers on a student who teams up with another teenager to kill the boyfriend of a gamer. Han Ji-seung’s I Saw You blends melodrama and K-zombies when a zombie falls for a factory manager after breakthroughs in science have enabled humans to cure and exploit zombies by segregating them. Kim Tae-yong’s elegant Picnic is about an 8-year-old girl who lives with her seamstress mother and autistic brother.

While 3D never really took off as a premium format – at least compared to IMAX, Screen X and 4DX – Mad Sad Bad is an example how Korean directors have successfully utilized the medium of 3D. 

Written by Jason Bechervaise

Editted by Shim Eun-ha