Korean cinema in the world : LEE CHANG DONG

 

 

 

Korean cinema in the world 

한국영화의 침투

 

 

LEE CHANG DONG

 

Teacher – journalist - writer

Script-writer  (and assistant) for Park Kwang-su (first Korean cinema New Wave) : “A Single Spark” 1995, “To the Starry Island” 1993

 A celebrated academic and novelist prior to his directing career, Lee Chang-dong came to filmmaking relatively late in life, making his first feature in his forties. What unites all of his films is their extensive portraits of characters often at the mercy of circumstances beyond their control, be they societal and historical developments in his native South Korea, debilitating illnesses, or some omnipresent force that seems out to get them. As evidenced in his brilliant latest, Burning, Lee is unafraid to confront the ugliness of human nature. To celebrate the film’s release, we’ve put together a handy primer of his previous directorial efforts.

• Green Fish - 1997
• Peppermint Candy – 1999
• Oasis - 2002
• Secret Sunshine - 2007
• Poetry - 2010
• Burning – 2018

Producer (often with his brother  : “Never forever” 2007, “A Brand New Life” 2009; “Hwayi : A Monster Boy” 2013; “A Girl At My Door” 2014; “Collective Invention” 2015; “The Worl of Us” 2016; “Birthday” 2019

1. 리얼리스트 이창동

이창동 감독의 영화 <박하사탕>, <오아시스>, <밀양>을 보았습니다. 이창동 감독, 그의 영화를 그림에 비유하자면은 영화의 밑바탕으로 쓰고 있는 캔버스는 ‘리얼리즘(사실주의)’ 이다.

<박하사탕>, <오아시스>, <밀양>에서 보여 지는 주인공들은 대부분 소외된 우리 일상에서의 사람들이나 자신만의 아픔을 간직한 그런 인물들이 항상 등장합니다. 감독은 이러한 인물에 사실적이고 현실적인 스토리를 심어 놓아 그의 영화를 보는 관객들로 하여금 점점 그 만의 세상에 발을 내딛게 합니다.

박하사탕 주인공의 몰락과 죽음을 통해 한국현대사를 비판에서의 격동의 70년대말~90년대까지의 한 남자의 인생사,
오아시스 소외받은 주변인을 통해 한국 사회의 위선과 억압을 예리하게 들춰냄

인물들이 겪는 사건, 일들이 마치 바로 지금 내 옆의 사람이 겪는 것만 같은 그런 리얼리티를 추구하는 성향이 두드러지게 보여집니다. 감독은 이러한 인물에 사실적이고 현실적인 스토리를 심어 놓아 그의 영화를 보는 관객들로 하여금 점점 그 만의 세상에 발을 내딛게 합니다.

90년대 이후의 한국영화 문제작들이 수많은 캐릭터를 생산해냈지만 그 인물들 가운데 대다수는 그야말로 트렌드로 왔다가 트렌드를 타고 사라졌다. 그런데 유독 이창동의 인물들은 다들 주민등록번호와 주소가 정확히 찍힌 주민등록증 하나씩 지갑 안에 넣고 우리 주위에 섞여서 살아가고 있다는 느낌이다. ㅡ 씨네 21 前편집장 조선희

이 말이 가장 이창동 감독의 영화를 잘 표현하는 말인 것 같습니다. 이창동 감독의 영화들의 캐릭터들은 저마다 대한민국 어딘가에서 조용히 살아가고 있다고 느껴집니다.

이번 영화 <버닝>도 마찬가지로 대한민국에 존재하는 것 같습니다. 유통알바생인 종수(유아인)도, 미스테리한 인물인 벤(스티븐 연), 그리고 해미(전종서)도 모두 저마다 고군분투하며 살아가는 것처럼 느껴집니다.

 

 

Green Fish (1997)

Although his confident gangster movie debut leans heavily on familiar genre beats, Green Fish sees Lee concentrate on notions of family and his lead’s erratic mental negotiations more than explosions of violence. Rather than being lured by greed, lead Makdong (Han Suk-kyu), a naive young man desperate for patriarchal acceptance, finds his way into a life of crime after mandatory military service leads to no prospects upon his return home. Things inevitably go awry, but the exact nature of the film’s final gut-punch sequence comes as a surprise; the first example of Lee’s willingness to toy with viewers’ emotions.

 

Peppermint Candy (1999)

Lee’s epic second feature remains his most ambitious to date in terms of storytelling scope. Opening with a man’s suicide on a railway bridge, the film jumps back in time across 20 years, showing what brought Yong-ho (Sol Kyung-gu) to this point of desperation. Charting in reverse his development from idealistic student to military service to brutal police officer to abusive married businessman, Lee doesn’t seek to redeem Yong-ho or explain away his personal responsibility in some of his destruction, but instead demonstrate how external forces in South Korea’s history – including the massacre in the Gwangju Uprising of 1980 – play their part in the gradual corruption of citizens. A raw work that’s like diving into a festering wound. In a good way.

 

Oasis (2002)

It’s rare to find a film where almost no scene plays out like you’re expecting it to, but such is the case with Oasis, in which Lee skates fearlessly between sentimental humanism and provocation. Hong Jong-du (Sol Kyung-gu again), an irresponsible young man with a suggested though never clarified mental illness, attempts to visit the widow of the man he killed drunk-diving, only to meet her daughter, Han Gong-ju (Moon So-Ri in a Venice prize-winning performance), who has cerebral palsy.

This is arguably Lee’s most challenging work as he doesn’t sanitise uncomfortable elements of the love story, and the emotional highs have dark undertones. That said, it’s possibly the hardest of his films to shake off, and with flourishes of magical realism – Han Gong-ju seems to imagine herself without her disorders; Moon switching gears in the same sustained shot – it’s also a stylistic outlier in Lee’s career.

 

Secret Sunshine (2007)

 

As with Burning and Haruki Murakami, Secret Sunshine sees Lee adapt an author (Chong-jun Yi) rather than present a screenplay entirely of his own creation. The first of two Lee films fully centred on a female protagonist, this harrowing melodrama follows Lee Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon, winner of Best Actress at Cannes in 2007) as she relocates her life to the town where her dead husband was born, with her very young son in tow. As she struggles to adjust, another tragedy strikes, sending her into an emotional tailspin in a saga that probes questions of faith, forgiveness and reconciliation. Jeon’s wrenching performance has earned deserved comparisons to Gena Rowlands in A Woman Under the Influence.

 

 

Poetry (2010)

Pre-Burning, this was Lee’s biggest success in English-language markets, following a 60-something woman (Yun Jeong-hie) coping with early stages Alzheimer’s disease and the discovery of a horrific family crime. Beautifully measured, it’s another example of Lee’s skill with balancing quiet indignation at societal injustices alongside a tender, nuanced character study.

 

 

Burning (2018)