Certain persons may feel joyful about the fact, that today I watched a lesbian manhwa. (Fun fact I just learned from a Korean variety show: Koreans call both anime and manga manhwa…) Also, I really did not conciously choose to watch that many Korean movies, at least not because of them being Korean.
Jagadangchak: shidaejeongshin kwa hyeonshilchamyeo (Self Referential Traverse: Zeitgeist and Engagement, ????: ???? ? ????)
South Korea 2011, Kim Sun, 73?
Korean police mascot Podori needs a pair of legs and will do everything to achieve his goal. A tale of sex, violence, rats and wet women. Screening precluded by Great Korean News of 2010!
People left in droves. This was the wildest, craziest piece of film I have seen at the Berlinale. IT HAD A BURNING PENIS ON A GIRL IN A POLICE UNIFORM! And rats, cryptocommunist rats. Also, Podori’s own dialogue consisted purely of samples from Korean, Japanese, Chinese or English movies, TV shows, or music. I will not be ashamed to admit, that I most probably didn’t get more than one third of the cultural and political references, but that’s fine really. The fact that almost nothing beyond the superficial craziness was accessible to the foreign audience was to be expected. Other than that it was an untamed display of craftiness and despite the cheap production it seemed like the work of a real professional. The structure of faux propaganda up front (a parody on the fact, that both the last dictator of South Korea and the hated-by-the-director democratically-elected president have used mandatory “news” shorts before film screenings), trailer next (a trailer to a movie the director and his buddies wanted to make but never got the possibility) and main feature after that was also quite handsomely done.
Chang-Pi-Hae (Ashamed, ???)
South Korea 2010, Kim Soo-Hyun, 129?
I will shamelessly copy from the official Berlinale materials, I am somehow unable to come up with a proper description for this one:
Three women talk about love. Jung is preparing an art exhibition. After teaching an art class her attention is drawn to some nude drawings by one of her female students, the somewhat recal citrant Hee-jin. Yoon, the young woman depicted in the drawing, is not only extremely beautiful, there is also something mysterious about her, and one senses, in her presence, that she harbours a story. Jung asks Yoon to pose in the nude for her exhibition project; she agrees and shortly afterwards Jung, Yoon and Hee-jin set off to do some video filming at the beach. And so, by fate or coincidence, three women who couldn’t be more different from each other find themselves brought together on this particular evening. They sit by sea; they drink and they listen to Yoon, who tells them of her lost love. Two women encounter love. Fed up with her dreary, utterly boring life, Yoon decides one night to pretend to commit suicide. As luck would have it, she meets Kang, a young woman who drifts through life earning a living as a pickpocket. Yoon and Kang’s love story begins when the two women are handcuffed to each other. The women manage to escape and, once they have shaken off the police, they kiss for the first time. Shortly afterwards the women move in together and begin to enjoy a carefree life. But their blissful existence is not to last. Kang’s depressing lack of prospects and Yoon’s growing expectations prove too much of a burden for their relationship. Listening to Yoon, Jung and Hee-jin learn a completely different side of love.
Can the setup get even more manhwa? An elusive free-spirited woman roaming through other people’s lives? Long talks about love and stuff in beautifully framed shots? Even short blackouts only showing a novel/speech bubble-like line of text? Straight out of a Josei-manga, totally. That is a compliment, if you’re not sure.
On a technical note, I was thoroughly impressed by the digital equipment the movie was shot on and projected. While I generally like film grain (and dislike the unnatural-though-familiar effect of 24 frames per second), the absolute clarity, sharpness and color on the ridiculously big screen really blew me away. D-Cinema definitely is the future; I do not mourn 35mm if this is its successor.