JUNG Woo-sung and KANG Je-gyu Shorts Also Invited
A total of five Korean films have been invited to the upcoming 38th Hong Kong International Film Festival, which will take place from March 24th to April 7th. Following their screenings in Berlin earlier this month, the independent features 10 Minutes and Night Flight will screen at HKIFF, along with a new, black and white version of Bong Joon Ho’s Mother (2009) and new shorts by directors KANG Je-kyu and JUNG Woo-sung, which will feature in pan-Asian omnibuses.
LEE Yong-seung’s 10 Minutes is a debut film that premiered in the New Currents competition of last year’s Busan International Film Festival, where it picked up the KNN Movie Award and FIPRESCI Prize. LEE’s film deals with a young employee’s rocky immersion into Korea’s difficult and hierarchical office culture. The film has been praised for its understated and relatable examination of Korea’s work life.
Night Flight, which premiered at the 64th Berlinale, is the fourth feature by LEESONG Hee-il, Korea’s top queer filmmaker. His 2012 feature White Night and mid-length films Going South and Suddenly, Last Summer, packaged under the name One Night and Two Days, all screened at last year’s HKIFF. LEESONG’s new film, with focuses on the changing currents in the relationships of three students in a Seoul high school, is his most ambitious work yet.
Bong Joon Ho’s film Mother will have a special screening of a new black and white print supervised by the director and the film’s cinematographer HONG Kyung-pyo, which was initially presented at last year’s Mar Del Plata International Film Festival in Argentina and recently appeared on Blu-ray in Korea.
The Beautiful omnibus project, an annual commissioned series of shorts from HKIFF, returns for its 2014 edition with new shorts by Christopher Doyle, ZHANG Yuan, SHU Kei and KANG Je-kyu, the Korean filmamker behind the war blockbusters TaeGukGi: Brotherhood of War (2004) and My Way (2011). Actor JUNG Woo-sung (Cold Eyes) will also be presenting a short in the omnibus feature Three Charmed Lives, alongside works by Asian actors Francis NG and CHANG Chen. Both omnibuses will be having their world premieres at the 38th HKIFF.