Discoveries from South Korea World Cinema

On the last night of his grandmother’s funeral, a young boy named Kang falls into a pit dug as a burial site. There, he encounters a giant serpent.

Sumin avoids the holidays by staying at her divorced brother Sangchul's house. Unexpectedly, their mother Soonja arrives, announcing her plans to live independently. Soon after, Sangchul's ex-wife Hyunsook also shows up. With these unexpected guests, tensions rise as they awkwardly spend the holiday together.

withal our bodies we are is a work combining text and the moving image of body movements. In the text, the speaker feels awkward and nervous at a club and meets ’Jiwon‘, visiting different places and sharing communal movements and affect. Based on the senses emerging from the text - nervousness, self-consciousness, relaxedness, awkwardness, and etc. - Sunghyun who performed for this piece choreographed movements with me. In this work, Sunghyun presents texts that are printed in reverse on the mirror and performs movements that are sometimes related, not related, or maybe extended from the text. By putting text and movements together, we think about how our bodies move and what it is about to move together with others.

It is the day after President Park's death. Four children are left at home alone while their parents visit relatives in the country. A small dose of responsibility turns into an abuse of power as the older sisters start bossing their younger brothers around. The boys attempt to entertain themselves, and keep from starving, until their parents return.

At night it’s raining outside. Mom, Dad and Ji-soo are watching TV with anxious. The news report the fire at the kindergarten, where the little daughter goes to. Her name is on the dead list. The family moans about her death… then the girl appears at the door.

Three brothers of Jang-Su, Man-Su, and Jong-Su, and Bo-Ki, Su-Ni, and Jang-Su's wife Sam-Ok live together. A group of bandits kidnap Sam-Ok and demands that Jang-Su bring the skin of the white fox. Three brothers succeed in killing the white fox, but the evil spirit of the white fox begins to haunt them. The dead white fox gets incarnated as Sam-Ok, who is killed by three brothers, and Jin-Jin, an incarnated female white fox, marries Man-Su. Jin-Jin kills Bo-Ki who knew she is a fox, and kills also Man-Su and Jong-Su. Su-Ni succeeds in killing the evil fox which tried to kill her, also.

The appearance of a French palace decorated with numerous lights unfolds. The time is 1784. In the middle of a splendid palace, among the aristocrats adorned with all kinds of jewels, Marie Antoinette appears overwhelmingly.

Freedom fighter Sam-po learns that his location has been discovered by the Japanese police so he flees in the night but not before leaving his girlfriend, Ahn Ak, behind as collateral on his gambling debts. Ahn Ak is uneducated and has no job skills, so the debtor forces her to work as a prostitute if she wants to earn her freedom.

The director, who herself comes from a family near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South, explores an issue largely forgotten between the Korean War and current tensions: In the 1960s, North Korean refugees were settled here in houses provided by the Park Chung-hee dictatorship for propaganda purposes. For decades now, they have lived along the line of confrontation. The most personal border zone runs through their houses, where individual history and collective memory meet.

An experimental installation inspired by the shot and reverse shot, one of the basics methodologies of cinema. The audiences follow the path designed by Jang to see the images, and simultaneously they are also recorded by a hidden camera in the reverse angle. This embodies the concept “gaze of gaze.” The film was shot in three different places to capture the atmosphere of DMZ. The installation consists of two-channel projections, CCTV cameras, and objects representing the DMZ.

The watch tower is an unattractively battered piece of lighthouse-looking architecture standing on a Yaksa-dong hilltop in Chuncheon. No one knows when, who and why it was built, but the tower which was rumored to have been raised as a fire watch during the Japanese Imperialist times, was used as a surveillance point for the Chuncheon Penitentiary and now a broadcasting tower where sirens are played during Civil Defense Drills.

Nine warriors travel to Tsushima Island to rescue Korean captives kidnapped by Japanese pirates.

Biographical film about guerrilla resistance leader An Jung-geun, who assassinated former Japanese resident general Ito Hirobumi (signer of the "Treaty of the Protectorate of Japan over Korea", 1905) in Harbin on October 29, 1909.

Jo Yong-pil establishes a band and receives a lot of local support. His girlfriend helps him produce an album and distributes it to dj's across the nation to help Yong-pil achieve stardom.

Two professors secretly met at the back of the school with a cup of coffee. The battle of cutting water with a knife begins.

The life of Lee Seung-man, a freedom fighter who struggled to liberate Korea from Japanese rule.

On Christmas Eve in Busan, Jae-ha and his friends kidnap Seon-hie and are about to rape her when Jae-ha has a change of heart and lets her go. The two continue to meet by chance and genuine feelings of love begin to develop.

1. On his first day of work, Omar was notified of the delay saying his job is yet to be confirmed. He tries to find work for his family who is in desperate need to make ends meet. 2. Adnan is cast in an indie film with an excellent opportunity. He will be playing the role of a child who has never met a Middle Eastern man. 3. It's the day of the 'Refugee Kickboxer' Aska's first match in Korea. Is he one step closer to his dream? Will there be a bright future waiting for him if he win's the match? Can he live well in Korea? A precious day for three Yemeni refugee applicants in Jeju, perhaps even trivial.

At 24, Hae-jin is caring for her mother, Jung-woon, who is in a coma—and finds herself wanting to run away dozens of times a day. One day, an aunt she has never met, Jung-hye, suddenly appears, holding an old childhood photo of Hae-jin. But Hae-jin remains wary of her. After moving her mother into a nursing facility, Hae-jin lives with a growing sense of guilt. Then, while cleaning out her mother's house one day, she finds the very same photo her aunt had shown her. That discovery leads her to the past Jung-woon once ran away from—and toward a new beginning of her own.

The names of the two ‘fathers’ encapsulate Korea's contemporary history. The older priest is known as ‘Father Gang’, symbolizing his fight against corrupt authority. The younger priest, on the other hand, is known as ‘Father Red’ for his advocacy of Korean reunification and for crossing the armistice line. These two figures were pivotal in challenging Park Chunghee's authoritarian regime, participating in the pro-democracy movement against military rule, advocating Lim Sukyung's visit to North Korea, protesting against U.S. military bases, addressing the Yongsan disaster, and standing up against the Jeju Gangjeong village incident. Their church provided solace to the vulnerable and marginalized.

The story revolves around an elderly farmer tending her fields on the border between the two Koreas. Living on the other side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), she struggles to reclaim the land that was taken from her by the local government. The aged protagonist has already experienced the heartache of losing her homeland to the ravages of war. A poignant memory from seventy years ago resurfaces - during the Korean War, American soldiers suddenly entered her village. The subsequent division of the Korean peninsula and the course of development took away everything she held dear.

In 2009, a group of young people quit their jobs and founded an alternative fashion company, Orgdot, in the hopes of creating an ethical fashion brand. In contrast to the bloodsucking practices found in the current fashion industry and its status quo, Orgdot’s goal was to establish a win-win platform for both the producer and the consumer. is about the dream of those who chose to bring such a challenging endeavor into their lives and the inevitable anxiety and conflict they faced because of it. However, the film is not about Millennials, the so-called anxiety generation, and its general fears, but about this one small group’s anxiety surrounding a chosen goal, one that lacks the security found in the accepted norm. The film is the second part of director Min Hwan-ki’s exploration of a generation’s place and latent power. sets out to chase down and analyze the struggle that follows the anxiety and, of course, express support for those choices.

While visiting Korea from Australia, Woori seeks to borrow money from her older brother, her only remaining family. But first, he takes her to a place where memories from over twenty years ago still linger.

A eunuch gains favor with the queen and can do no wrong in her eyes. He commits all kinds of heinous acts in his quest for wealth. A daughter of one of his victims learns swordplay so she can avenge her master who was killed by the eunuch.

Trailer Film for IDID's Single Album [FLY!]

In 2022, Jean-Marie Straub passed away, reuniting with her creative partner and lover, Danièle Huillet, who had died in 2006. Inspired by their films, I embarked on a climb up a hill near my neighborhood. Though it's a trail I walk daily, it somehow echoes the spaces in their works. While this act isn’t enough to truly know them, it's better than giving up entirely.

The female protagonist was originally an ordinary female teacher. In order to share some of the burden of family life with her husband, she did tutoring and tutoring for others. At first, she really enjoyed this kind of life until she found out that the person she tutored started plotting against her!

In order to participate in the photo contest, Su-yeon and Hyun-sung, a senior member of the photo club, go out to a shantytown. The two of them travel around the town together, but Su-yeon feels a little uncomfortable with Hyun-sung, who keeps taking pictures of herself.

Underground and Sungmin are a couple who have lived together for a long time. Unlike the well-to-do underground, Sung-min cannot show her talents as a writer and is stressed. Ji-ha, disappointed with her boyfriend, makes another boyfriend named Cheol-gyu, and to break up with Seong-min naturally, Ji-ha introduces In-ae to Seong-min...

Min-ah finds herself on a stranger's bed when she wakes up. She's handcuffed. Stranger Nam-gyu was next to her. I want to let you go but my heart wants you to stay... I know it might be tough but stay here with me... What's your name stranger? Sorry but I love you

22nd Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival Trailer

23 Cents Soldier is shaped around the memories of four Turkish and three Korean war veterans. The interviews begin with the lives of the veterans before the beginning of the war and continue with memories of the war and post-war era.

A film constructed like a music piece. A girl and a boy walk in the streets of their city. They both look lonely. The streets are almost devoid of people. What are the two looking for? They continue walking and it looks like they must somehow or somewhere cross each other’s paths.

Mizuho, who lost her husband in an accident for two years. For her young widow, her father-in-law, Honma, asks her to find a good person, but she is worried that when she leaves, only she, her second son Cozy, and a man remain. The day Cozie brought home his girlfriend Hitomi, Mizuho, who was attracted by the groans in his room to peek into the sex of the two. Eventually, she begins to seduce her master and father-in-law to let go of the bond of reason.

"Do not leave the house. Take medicine and go to bed when the sun goes down. Do not touch locked doors." Jae-jun, who had always followed his father's rules throughout his life, begins to break them one by one as he enters puberty.

There are two guys are sitting face to face in a basement; Kyung-sin who was caught from intervention in student movement, and a police officer, Joo-joong who’s in charge of torture. The student doesn’t confess what he did and who else involved in the movement and the officer keeps on torturing him. By the way, the police officer spoke out how he’s been working as an informal worker at a police office, which he must work over time without any special bonus and any insurance from work. He’s consoled by the one who he’d arrested.

In-young (18), who suffers from a congenital respiratory disease, is haunted by nightmares following her mother"s death. To cope with the pain, she steals other people"s belongings, eventually ending up in a juvenile detention center. After her release, In-young transfers to a school in the countryside and moves in with her aunt. There, she meets Eun-ha (18) and feels a subtle, magnetic attraction toward her.

Newlyweds Do-yul and Ji-hye lose their life savings to a "jeonse" rental scam. Amidst the ruins, they learn a baby is on the way. When their landlord suggests passing the lease to another victim to recover their money, the couple faces a brutal choice: remain ruined, or survive by ruining an innocent stranger.

Eunyu, a high school library captain, loses the book in which she kept the donations. Shortly after, Baekji, a member of the library club, returns the book that Eunyu had lost, but the money has disappeared. Coincidentally, Eunyu had witnessed Baekji shoplifting at a supermarket, and Eunyu's suspicion of Baekji begins to grow.

A rich man from the capital comes to the village, where he seduces young Ok-bon, which he takes with him to Seoul. However, Ok-bon already had a fiancé named Gil-yeon, a young man from the same village who intends to fight for his love.

One day, Brad visits Marie and me to buy Marijuana. While they are very close to a deal, Brad goes to the toilet, finds detergent there. He thinks it is cocaine and snorts some without hesitation. Marie and I find Brad and start to think about how they can overcome this situation.

One of Han Ok-hee’s renowned pieces called The Hole uses the flicker, oblique angles, the cross-cutting of reality and fantasy to express inner entrapment and the desire for liberation. Han Ok-hee’s The Hole, The Rope and Untitled not only experimented with cinematic forms of expression, but also played an important role in the protest against forms of expression in experimental films and the artistic protest against the social suppression and censorship in 1970s Korea. (Art Cinema OFFoff)

Jaegi, who has lived the life of a disabled person due to a traffic accident, is judged as Level 5 at the first grade screening. Jaegi strives to become a severely disabled person, but the situation is getting more difficult.

The experiences of five free-spirited individuals trying to break free from societal norms. Each narrative discusses creativity, mental health, labor activism and gender politics.

When my daughter, Jihoo, was 1 year old, I took her to a doctor and heard something unexpected. "She might have cerebral palsy." Now that she is seven years old, she still walks on her toes. This film is a self-reflection story of a person, as she tries to dig into the waves of honest and sometimes intolerable feelings brought by her daughter´s toe walking.

A pictogram of a woman in a toilet comes out to the outside world and reproduces herself. She tries to enter all male-oriented pictograms such as exit signs, elevator signboards and traffic lights.

As Haku and Kaho prepare for their wedding, Kaho finds a picture book titled "The Little Bird," written by Haku's ex-lover, So. After reading it aloud, Haku recalls that his diploma is still at So's place. And Haku and Kaho head to there together.

Kang ho who is a worker at Samjin was diagnosed with a ringing in the ears. The reason was stress. His boss told him if he became the top among the team members he will definitely get a promotion. Kang ho is actually really bad at sales. That's why he got a lot of stress on sales achievements. He borrowed money from friends and even he took out a private loan for the promotion. Those things only made matters worse.

A momentary act of revenge transformed the lives of two young Indian women forever. After surviving an acid attack, while carrying scars of human brutality on their faces, both Ritu and Faraha learn daily to redefine their lives through a sea of odd currents.

A man walks into a foreign neighborhood to look for a house. Then, the drastic summarization of the story and time will confuse the audience at first, but it brings suspense and a deeply lingering impression to the story. There is more that is unseen than visible. This intentional void prompts various emotional interpretations. During that time, what sort of moments and stories did the man and the house share? Since the guessing is left to the audience, we are left to remember, not the man’s, but our own personal memories. Hanyang villa or whatever else, that’s what houses do – they are where our memories dwell.

304 people drowned as the car ferry sank. Four fathers recall their memories of their children; high school students who were on their field trip. Professors, lawyers, journalists, an activist, a diver, and a politician explain why the system ultimately allowed the tragedy to occur. What is stopping the next tragedy? The world has turned upside down.

Documentary filmmaker Kim Myung-yoon, a former member of the Dokdo Police Security Detachment, relocates with his wife and son, Noah, to Kumi, a remote village in Japan’s Oki Islands. A UNESCO Global Geopark, the Oki Islands boast majestic natural beauty, but also serve as a politically charged symbol, with Japan asserting territorial claims over Dokdo, calling it, “Takeshima.” As Kim builds relationships with local residents and engages with their perspectives, he explores the histories, ecologies, and memories surrounding Dokdo and the Oki Islands.