10th London Korean Film Festival

Despite a hectic work and social life this November, I had to do all in my power to watch at least one film from this year’s London Korean Film Festival – the tenth that has now been held in this there city of fair London. But, in fact, I was able to go one better, quite literally, fitting two, count them, films in. This year’s schedule was quite a long one, with films shown only the once over numerous different strands. I missed some ones that I would have very much liked to have observed, and was unable to make any of the late-night, bag-o-snacks screenings that were on offer for midnight popcorn fodder.

So, what does the celebration of ten years of Korean cinema in London have to offer?

The Royal Tailor

This is quite a strange one for me. I have watched Korean period dramas in the past, and while I can appreciate the production qualities, they do not quite hit the spot for me. That said, I ended up in the cinema watching this one. And it was a little different from what I was expecting.

Making an ass of myself with my assumptions, I anticipated quite a slow piece, living up to costume dramas the world over. But this is a drama about costumes with a great deal of comedy thrown in for good measure, never getting too heavy, but with enough seriousness to steer it away from an all-out, knockabout comedy.

Dol-seok is the royal tailor: he is tasked with making all the formal clothes for the King, a man who seems less than content in his life and his sex-less marriage to his young Queen. Outside of the royal court, a young tailor is making a name for himself among the woman-folk, and soon he is brought to the King. Successful in his endeavours, Kong-jin finds himself under Dol-seok’s tutelage, but soon his more masterful skills become both a blessing and a curse, bringing scandal in his designing for the Queen and jealousy from Dol-seok, costing him dear.

Director Won-suk Lee starts off fairly light with this film, using comedy in his catwalk-style montages of Kong-jin’s ‘daring’ new designs being sported about town. The film then becomes a character piece, charting Kong-jin’s relationships: in passion with Dol-seok; and unspoken romance with the Queen. All is well and good in the lives of the three leads, with the tailors happily learning from each other, while Kong-jin builds the virgin Queen’s confidence.

  

However, as the King becomes more involved, the film moves to a darker tone, with loyalties tested, and inevitably the new, young tailor being put in his place, feeling the wrath of his superiors.

An incredibly high percentage of the budget for this film was spent on the costumes – the majority, even. For a period drama, it is perhaps not unusual for this to be the case, though this stands out in ‘Royal Tailor’, with countless numbers of costumes throughout. But, is this at the expense of other areas? Thankfully not. The acting between the leads is strong, necessary for a story built on relationships, and the look and style of the film are in keeping with the wardrobe budget.

Perhaps the links to the true story on the film’s conclusion feel a little unnecessary and detract a little, but for something that’s not my usual style, this is  a well-cut piece.

Romance Joe

A film by any other name, would not be as much of a draw as ‘Romance Joe’. With a name like that, you just simply have to watch it, don’t you?! The debut feature by Hong Sang-soo protégé, Kwang-kuk Lee, his mentor’s influence is laced throughout this non-linear, post-modern piece, that could prove an editor’s – and indeed a viewer’s – nightmare.

‘Romance Joe’ is a film of stories within stories, though by the film’s conclusion, we realise that these are all in fact part of one greater story that doesn’t care much for chronology. Someone is missing and his parents come to his flat to look for clues, accompanied by one of his friends. We then switch to a struggling film director, staying in a small town motel to get ‘inspired’ to write a new script. Ordering ‘coffee’, the extra cream delivery girl begins to tell the story of ‘Romance Joe’ – another struggling film director that was distracted from his suicide attempt when she accidentally bought him some ‘coffee.’

Along the way, and in no particular order, the story of ‘Romance Joe’, the ‘coffee’ girl and teenagers in love play out for us, switching between narratives, though gradually pulling themselves together by the end so that the viewer can piece together the story that they think they have just watched. Confused? Yes, as are many of the lead characters.

A love story full of twists and turns, this could easily have been made by Hong Sang-soo himself, feeling very similar to many of his films. However, made in 2011, this comes before many of Hong’s more recent unconventional rom-coms, and so Lee must be given some credit for his attempts at originality. Like all films structured –or not structured – in this way, ‘Romance Joe’ can take a little while to get a grasp of. However, once you’re in, you’re in, and you find yourself engrossed in the story as more and more unfolds and is revealed, or at least I did.

Films like this aren’t for everyone, and I know more than a few that have got confused, bored or both by Tarantino’s work, including myself. But if you don’t try to make it too epic and make too much of the switching of narrative, it can be a nice way to keep the audience interested and paying attention.

Beyond Da-wit Lee of ‘Pluto’ fame as a young Romance Joe, there are no established actors with long CVs to draw people in. Instead, Lee’s debut feature is a simple complicated film about some confused individuals.

Prior to ‘Romance Joe’ being screened, the good people of The London Korean Film Festival treated us to Kwang-kuk Lee’s short ‘Hard to Say’. This is a strange tale of a girl who tries to impress a boy by learning to play the guitar badly. She then dreams of the roles being reversed and the boy intrigued by her, before waking from her slumber. Like ‘Romance Joe’ and the films of Hong Sang-soo, ‘Hard to Say’ is simply confusing.

Recent film festivals and talks from Japanese directors have shown a gulf in Japanese cinema between the haves and the have-nots. Films are either mega-budget, idol-laced movies to eat popcorn by; or low-budget, having to work creatively shorted films that are perhaps restricted in quality by lack of proper funds. As a result the Japanese film industry is struggling.

At the last couple of BFI London Film Festivals, stand out works for me have been Hong Sang-soo’s ‘Hill of Freedom’ and documentary ‘My Love, Don’t Cross that River’. Both Korean films among a mix of global offerings show that Korean cinema is healthy, thriving from government funds and international film festival screenings. The fact that a thing such as the London Korean Film Festival exists – and has done for a decade – is testament to this.

With Third Window’s Adam Torel comparing the way Korean cinema is run versus Japanese, we can see that Korean cinema is a thriving, well-run industry, and the number of strong low to medium budget films making their way to the UK only confirms this. For me, Korea is one of the leading lights in cinema, and should serve as a blueprint for how the art form should be handles. 

London Korean Film Festival 2013

The annual London Korean Film Festival always brings with it the anticipation of which colour bag will be given out free when attending the films in London's ever-annoying West End. For this year's offerings, I decided to choose a theme of silly comedy, based partly on mood and partly on being too hungover to make a more serious screening. This year, I was content to merely squeeze two films in the week's packed schedule, making do with the chance to walk down the red carpet at a Leicester Square during the Closing Gala. And yes, my girlfriend won the sweepstake: the bag this year was blue.

Third Window are a London-based distribution company, largely specialising in a certain genre of Asian cinema: light-hearted, Japanese and Korean comedies. It's no coincidence that the two films I ended up seeing equate to the two that Third Window Films will in future be releasing on DVD in these British Isles, being that their logo features often along my pathetically numerous DVD shelves.

The first film - a last-minute choice - 'How to Use Guys with Secret Tips' fits almost perfectly into my favourite ever film genre: the Korean saucy comedy. Out-of-luck Assistant Director at an advertising company, Choi Bona, assesses her current situation, finding both her career and her love life stationary. Ever trying to be assertive, she is easily led into buying a good, ol' VHS video series of titular self-help guides. Hilariously working her way through them, she gradually puts the secret tips into practise, seeing improvements in her fortunes, welcome or not. With her luck improving, she finds that life proves even harder, as she struggles to deal with her new success.

Like many comedy films, this starts off well enough, with the tone of joke set early on. As the films progress and plot needs to come into it, sometimes, more often than not, they become a bit tedious and end with a horrific romp towards the inevitable happy ending. 'How to Use Guys with Secret Tips' is probably a film that goes the way of the majority, but doesn't become a complete bore towards the middle. The self-aware self-help guide is the real comedy here, with standard comedy Korean man-in-suit and the highly selective white couple featuring in them. The 'real world' is a bit more of a standard rom-com, that has its moments, but is fairly run-of-the-mill. But entertainment is the key here, and with a title such as this, the film delivers what it promises: an almost Korean saucy comedy.

The Closing Gala closed the Festival with the most likely hit shown during the week: 'Boomerang Family'. Another comedy, this features a more well-known cast and mainstream appeal , focusing on a dysfunctional family that have to put their differences to one side in order to overcome adversity.

With two, ever-bickering brothers - a failed film director and a low-level gangster - and a sister that can't keep her knickers up for long, the mother of the family goes about her business with dignity, trying to keep the family structure together, despite the constant problems surrounding her. Again, this isn't anything that hasn't been done before, with the characters quite stereotypical within family-orientated films: the black sheep; the favoured, yet flawed son; the easy sister.

Where 'Boomerang Family' is a little different is in its slightly more intense violence, though still not going as far as others; and some at times interesting slow motion shots while chaos is all around. With cast and crew on offer to take questions, it was clear that a lot of alcohol was consumed during the making of this film. This is clearly a film that was fun for them to make, and in the end, it's fun to watch.

Comedy is never a guarantee of a good film; generally it's a sign of poor quality. With two comedies viewed, neither were films that will break and grounds, smash any records, or destroy and pre-conceptions, but being that these were both watched when the mood at the start was never the best, the mood by the end was somewhat improved. 

London Korean Film Festival 2012

Recently, Korea has been put on the map – in a pop culture-sense, of course; Korea has been on the map in a cartography-sense now for some millennia – by a tubby man jumping around like an idiot. But no, not that one with the huge DVD collection and very good golf handicap; but by one demonstrating his favoured sexual position in the medium of dance.

So, now everyone loves everything Korean, let’s have a film festival. The annual London Korean Film Festival is now in its seventh year and is great as you get a free man-bag with every viewing. I’ve been to the festival in previous years – unable to recall what I saw – and again this year went to some of the one-off screenings at various cinemas around London in what is quite an extensive bill put on by the Korean Cultural Centre this outing.

Starting off with some K-animation, I saw ‘The King of Pigs’: a film with the character design of Bevis and Butthead and the animation of Thunderbirds. At their school, Jong-suk and Kyung-min were subject of a hierarchical system that keeps them with the lowest of the low, while those up high keep tormenting them on a daily basis. Around two decades later, the pair of school friends meet up for the first time in years to discuss their old classmate Chul who had stood up for the pair all those years ago. Fighting back, the enraged Chul wants to ensure that those in power will not look back on their school days with fond memories.

As stated, there is something very Mike Judge about the look and feel of the characters, though this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Also, the digital animation tries to create realistic actions in the characters, but instead leaves them bouncing along like odd puppets on a string. This creates some laughs to start, but quickly fades into the background as the film progresses.

There is little original in the storyline: films reminiscing over life-defining moments at school are common place and the characters are quite typical of bullying drama. But the ‘King od Pigs’, by director is Yeun Sang-ho is an entertaining enough social commentary about the haves and the have-nots and the places it leads us. Though do ignore the last line of the film – a meal should end with cheese, not a piece of art.

Next up and finally is ‘As One, Korea’, the story of the 1991 World Table Tennis Championship in which North and South Korea set aside their differences for a game of table tennis. Tired of always losing to those pesky Chinese, the two nations decide to make a once-in-a-generation decision to reunite the two countries divided by the 38^th Parallel.

Cue an opening half hour of cultural differences with hilarious consequences, leaving the actresses lumped with playing the roles of our friends in the North to have less fashionable haircuts, including everybody’s favourite electrocuted-until-she-pisses-herself actress, Bae Doo-na. Starting off as a comedy depicting the straight-edge and regimented North having to stand beside their wilder, Southern cousins, it then turns into a sports film, complete with musical montages as the two groups of players learn to get along and start winning some table tennis matches. Then, of course, the politics in thrown in with the North Korean players scolded for their drinking of alcohol and reading of jazz pamphlets, before it all gets a little bit too sentimental towards the end.

How much of all this actually took place, I don’t know. The end result did actually occur, though (spoiler alert!) France finished with the bronze medal, not Britain, as the film suggests (this is the LONDON Korean Film Festival, after all), though the story of how we got there is no doubt exaggerated in places. Though the unification of nations for sporting reasons will naturally bring with it dispute – imagine if England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland decided to unify for a football team at say, the Olympic Games. The result would be disastrous.  

But politics and reality aside, ‘As One, Korea’ is a good and entertaining film that – sentimentality aside – doesn’t get bogged down too much in one focus, and is for all to enjoy, Capitalists and Communists alike…though probably not the Communists.

Happy with my free bag, other commitments meant I did not get to see anywhere near as many of the films as I would have liked, though with around thirty films shown in little over a week, I’d be mad to want to sit in a darkened room that much.