Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

[Tommaso]

I watched the Korean disc of "The aimless bullet" aka "Stray Bullet" last night. Quite a fantastic film I must say, and one that makes you easily forget about the quality of the print. Too bad the many extras of the Korean edition (audiocommentary and a 30 minute interview) seem not have been ported over to the new US edition (and of course they are not subbed on the Korean disc).

The film is historically interesting, as it focuses on soldiers, post-Korean War, finding it difficult to reintegrate into society. The film is mostly a melodrama of a poor family disintegrating. Some of the acting and scripting is a bit sketchy, and the female characters are mostly after-thoughts.
It's not exactly subtle, but mostly held my interest.

Yes, but it shows nicely WHY the family is disintegrating in the post-war climate. This isn't a 'private' film, but one which almost didactically makes its point about the post-war society. I was very, very much reminded of late 40s Kurosawa in this respect, though of course it isn't as spectacular visually and dramatically. But it's consistently well made and its hopelessness is actually quite gripping, with the part of the deranged mother calling out like a nemesis being especially impressive.

Are there any other films by its director, Hyun Mok Yoo, that are out on disc and worth seeing?

[htdm]

The Past Unearthed Volume 3: Dear Soldier
The Past Unearthed Volume 4: Moving Images From Gosfilmofond
Both look like slight downgrades compared to the previous 2 installments, being only 1 disc and very little in terms of extras

Yes, they certainly could have put both of these together in one set. That being said, however, there wasn't that much more discovered in the Chinese and Russian archives beyond newsreels that the KFA hasn't already released. In addition to these four releases, we can likely expect at least one more feature film at some point in the future, the 1934 silent Turning Point of the Youngsters. The entire film was discovered but unfortunately one entire reel was unable to be saved.

[Michael Kerpan]

I agree that Aimless Bullet is a very effective and interesting film. I'm glad one copy survived -- but wish that auch copy had survived in a bit better shape.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Are there any other films by its director, Hyun Mok Yoo, that are out on disc and worth seeing?

There was an English-subbed release of School Excursion, but it's OOP and seems to be unavailable even from Korean e-tailers. Darcy Paquet wrote rather favorably about it. A couple of others (Once Upon a Time, Daughters of Pharmacist Kim) have been released, but all sources indicate no English subs on those.

[Tommaso]

Thanks for the link to the Paquet article, sounds very interesting; definitely a director whose works seem worth exploring (if they were available with English subs).

I agree that the copy of "Aimless Bullet" is in bad shape; I've never seen such an amount of (nitrate?) decomposition with a film that young; in places it feels like you're watching a not too well preserved silent film rather than a film made in 1961. But that shouldn't stop one from enjoying it, really.

[manicsounds]

Kim Ki Young's "Housemaid" 2 Disc Edition, Finally.

edit: actually, only 1 disc.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Kim Ki Young's "Housemaid" 2 Disc Edition, Finally.

Oh saints alive, we can only hope that when Criterion gets around to releasing this through the Scorsese deal (knock on wood) they'll license that BONG Joon-ho commentary as well.

[manicsounds]

twitch review of Housemaid

I just got this in the mail today from http://www.seoulselection.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, great site at better prices.
The remastering looks miles ahead of other works from that era from Korea.

I also got the Past Unearthed 3 and 4.

The distributor changed, to a company called "Blue Kino", as opposed to Taewon, who distributed the KOFA titles before.

[fiddlesticks]

I just got this in the mail today from http://www.seoulselection.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, great site at better prices.

...and a couple of packs of postcards with every purchase! (Actually, I like that, even though I keep getting the same pack--Insadong--every time.)

[htdm]

For those interested, yesterday I uploaded several caps in the screen caps thread.

[zedz]

For those interested, yesterday I uploaded several caps in the screen caps thread.

The quality of these is stunning. If this is the standard we can expect from the Scorsese titles I'm more impatient than ever to see A Brighter Summer Day and The Night of Counting the Years.

[htdm]

Beaver.

[Tutut]

The quality of these is stunning.

Let's say the overall quality, beaver didn't show any pictures from the bad sequences.





I also ordered Under the Sky of Seoul, but didn't have the time to watch it yet.

[Michael Kerpan]

Wow -- Housemaid is truly a delirious film (in story content and visuals). Highly recommended.

[Wu.Qinghua]

The Korean Film Archive will most likely release their Yoo Hyeon-Mok Collection at the end of this month. The box set is up for preorder at Yesasia:
"Korean director Yoo Hyeon Mok, who passed away on June 28, 2009 at the age of 83, is one of the most legendary names in Korean Cinema. His debut film, Obaltan, is widely regarded as the best Korean film of all time by local film critics today. Yoo was honored with Best Director prizes at the Daejong Film Awards and Blue Dragon Films Awards throughout the sixties. Much of his films revolve around themes of ideological and religious conflicts. This 4-DVD Yoo Hyeon Mok Collection boxset comes with a booklet and four of his most classic films: Forever With You (1958), Pharmacist Kim's Daughters (1963), The Guests of the Last Train (1967), and Rainy Days (1979). "

[Matt]

Memories of Murder on Blu-ray

[perkizitore]

Mother on blu-ray

[Wu.Qinghua]

While I am still waiting for the Yoo Collection to arrive there appeared another Kofa release on the horizon.
Lee Man-Hee's "The Road to Sampo" is up for pre-order at Yesasia's and will allegedly be available on 12/29/2009. I doubt that this is a box with 4 discs as is stated on that website as the film is said to last about 95 min. Can anybody comment on the movie?

Edit: Y's corrected the details. It's just one disc.

[manicsounds]

Got the Yoo Hyeon Mok set, and although the packaging is just as nice as their previous directors' sets, the extras are of a lower scale. There is a photo gallery on each disc, and 1 documentary at 50 minutes on the director. No commentaries, no featurettes....

[fiddlesticks]

Got the Yoo Hyeon Mok set, and although the packaging is just as nice as their previous directors' sets, the extras are of a lower scale. There is a photo gallery on each disc, and 1 documentary at 50 minutes on the director. No commentaries, no featurettes....

...and the films? I'd love to hear your thoughts on them.

[Wu.Qinghua]

Shall I start a Yoo Hyeon-Mok thread?

I have seen one movie and the documentary yet.

The DOCUMENTARY isn't great but if you haven't seen '"Aimless/Stray Bullet" you may like to watch the first 20 minutes, as this movie is dealt with in some length, including lots of outtakes (and spoilers) - having seen that you may want to see "Aimless/Stray Bullet" in any case. It's a pity that Kofa hasn't re-released it with a subtitled commentary as part of this box. The rest of the documentary isn't that interesting and, as there are no comments at all on the movies gathered in this box, it won't contribute much to an understanding of them. It's kind of an uncritical puff piece on Yoo. Its makers call on present directors to pay more attention to content (d'accord) and try to break down his filmmaking career in two phases: Accordingly, in phase one Yoo was mainly concerned with (postwar) social problems filming "despair and a divided county's [sic] pain through the frame of social realism", whereas in phase two, that was starting with the economic stabilisation and growing prosperity, he began to focus on the "inner side of human being", that is inner conflicts and religious matters.

The problem with this periodization is, that "FOREVER WITH YOU" (1958), the first movie in the box, which seems to be the oldest of Yoo's films still existing, already is some kind of a catholic neorealist crime melodrama.
To start with a storyline without spoilers: "Forever With You looks at the lives of three young men who are petty criminals. One day they try a bigger heist than just picking pockets and attempt to rob a US Army warehouse. They are interrupted and one of them is captured. Escaping briefly to meet his girlfriend who now works in a bar to make ends meet, he is recaptured and sentenced to ten years in prison. When his sentence is up [that is, after 30-40 minutes], he and his old friends meet again and sparks fly."

I like the first part (about 30-40 minutes) quite a lot, but then the movie becomes preachy. It's dealing with some working-class youth earning their money as pickpockets (in case of the 3 boys) or with working in battered bars (in case of the girl) and is set in Seoul in the aftermath of the Korean war. But I wasn't impressed by the rest of the film. It's like that: The main character gets released from jail and has to find his place in society. One of his buddies miraculously became a catholic priest; he reminds me of a nonviolent b/w version of that bunch of buddhist monks in "Touch of Zen". And then there's the third guy who got wealthy by crime ... The motto of the story is: You have to control your emotions to become somebody. Ho ho ho ...

Don't get me wrong, I don't consider the movie to be bad. But it's losing its realist throng pretty soon and becomes some kind of neat noirish didactic play, which is mostly set in bars and closed rooms. And, I can't help, I don't like movies featuring catholic priests as shining stars; this is one of the reasons why I strongly dislike 'On the Waterfront'.

Btw, the transfer is neither pristine nor bad. Lot's of scratches and stuff, but it actually looks very good for a film of this age. And the subtitles are, though being far from faultless, rather good - for an Asian DVD. But I am no native English speaker, as you might have realized ...

[Wu.Qinghua]

Some short and tentative comments on "The Daughters of Kim's Pharmacy" (sic!) aka "(Pharmacist) Kim's Daughters" (1963), the second movie in that Yoo Hyeon-Mok Collection.

KD is a more interesting, but also a more demanding movie, which may require repeated viewings and maybe some reading, too. This is partly due to it being a filmic adaptation of a longer novel which has been published by Park Kyong-Ni in 1962, which in the end results in a somewhat shaky narrative. KD is a period piece, which is dealing with the breakdown of a middle-class family, whose mostly female members are struggling with premodern values in a transforming society in the first half of the 20th century.

This seems to be a good summary:
"This strikingly political and engrossing family drama focuses on the four, very different, daughters of Kim Yak-guk (Kim Dong-won), a pharmacist trying to save his dwindling business and successfully marry off his children. Plans to wed his wilful third daughter Yong-ran (Choi Ji-hee) go awry when it is discovered she is having an affair with the house servant.
Yu contrasts her modern sexual liberation with the dutiful obedience of her older sister Yong-bin (Um Aing-ran), who fulfils the role of male heir for her father. Exploring the different lifestyles open to women since Korea’s modernisation and the conflict with patriarchal traditions, Yu perfectly captures the struggles of modern Korean’s to adapt."
For more information, you can consult this Kofa webpage.

Although I had some problems to follow the unfamiliar narrative, I found the film to be beautifully crafted, with moving cameras, great compositions and some brilliant scenes, which all in all counterbalances the again distinctly conservative tendency and finale of the movie.

I am a bit hesitant to comment on the technical side of this disc. Concerning age and origin of the film, the transfer is quite good overall, but again there are some reels which look more battered and worn-out than most others. I am also a bit doubtful about the accuracy of the English subtitles, but as I was watching the movie, which is rather dialogue-driven, slightly muddle-headed, I can't make any definitive statements here. In any case, it's a very nice DVD, which I will definitively revisit in the nearer future.

[Wu.Qinghua]

Some more tentative comments, this time on the third disc of the Yoo Hyeon-Mok Collection.

I had some problems to relate to "The Guests of the Last Train" (1967), partly because of the presumably poor subtitles (I'd really be happy if someone could drop some words of affirmation or contradiction), partly because of the supposably misogynist tendency of the film. But in the end, I have to admit, that "Guests" is not only another literary adaptation, but again a rather interesting and demanding movie, dealing with alienated and desparate young people in industrializing 60s Korea.

Unfortunately, there's only very sparse information to be found on that movie on the internet. I've already started thinking about buying the anthology on Yoo that Kofic has released last year as I can't find any detailed information on Yoo's life and work on the internet or in the established books on Korean cinema. Can anyone tip me off? Anyway, you find a short synopsis with some minor spoilers here and a very vague comment written by Darcy Pacquet here.

Though I am very cautious in praising Yoo in regard to narrative and content, I agree with Pacquet in regard to form. "Guests" is another beautifully crafted film, with nice compositions and montages etc. and, apart from that, features also a beautiful sound track.

I am again hesitant to comment on the disc, but I can't hide that I was a bit disappointed with the presentation of this film. The disc features a somewhat soft transfer and shows some damage, but, well, it is not really bad and quite enjoyable. But I guess that, as I have already hinted at, the English subtitles are rather poor and consider this to be the major flaw of the disc. But, as pointed out earlier, I am no native English speaker and may be wrong here.

[Wu.Qinghua]

I had a look at the last disc in the Yoo Hyeon-Mok Collection.

Because of the forthcoming 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War, Yoo's "Rainy Days" (1979) was the one movie in the box, I was most interested in. Like other South Korean movies, which have been released by Kofa etc. in the last years (Piagol, Hand of Fate, Last Witness, Nambugun), it's dealing with communist partisans in the Mt. Shiri region. It's a rather interesting, well-crafted and rather intelligent anti-communist movie, as it's not focusing on guerilla warfare and counterinsurgency (I don't remember any skirmishes), but again on the conflicts within a South Korean family, as some members of the family sympathize with a communist relative, who had joined the guerilla, while other members, coming from urban settings, favour the Southern military forces. A synopsis and a short commentary can be found here. In he end, I thought the movie to be embarrassing and militantly anticommunist, so I was rather surprised to read on that Kofa webpage, that it could be "regarded as a historically progressive movie." Funny thing. I am somewhat familiar with global labour history, but I don't know much about Korean history and I am rather new in Korean cinema, so I will have to check this. I'd appreciate any other comments on the movie.

Btw, the disc itself was a pleasant surprise. The transfer is far from flawless, as I spotted numerous scratches and dirt etc., but I won't complain. All in all, it's rather good and I guess, that the subtitles were also very good; "Rainy Days" supposedly features the best subtitles of the whole set.

[Wu.Qinghua]

I just had a look at another Kofa release from 2009, which wasn't mentioned here before and which imho can be higly recommended to anyone with interests in Korean cinema, Korean history and filming under a dictatorship.

LEE DOO-YONG's "THE LAST WITNESS" (1980) is a very fine thriller dealing with a police officer's investigation in some murder cases around 1980 which again are connected with Communist guerilla activities in the Mt Shiri region in the early 50s. More information on the film is to be found here, but I also consider this to be a good and spoilerless synopsis:

"While investigating the murder of brewery owner Yang Dal-su, detective Oh Byung-ho comes across Yang Dal-su’s concubine Son Ji-hye, Son Ji-hye’s husband Hwang Ba-wu, and former communist guerilla unit leader Kang Man-ho. As detective Oh gets deeper into the investigation, he begins to uncover the tangled web of mystery and tragedy that surrounds these characters. Each of them is mentally scarred by the Korean War, particularly the conflict between North Korean communist guerrillas and the South Korean army. Through their tales, the film delves into the biggest tragedy of modern Korean history: the Korean War. This film is not only famous for its heavy subject matter, but also for all the complications surrounding its release. In 1980, after the censors butchered over 50 minutes, it was originally released as a 100 minute version. The 1987 video release was an even shorter 90 minutes. The restored 154 minute version finally became available in 2002. And it boldly depicts a tragic and painful moment in Korean history through dark and grainy images. Throughout the film, detective Oh, wearing a dusty overcoat, is in constant search of the last witness. We see him wander the wilderness, dead-set on finding the last witness. In him, we see the director’s quest to uncover the idden and forgotten memories of the tragic past. By doing so, the director was ultimately standing up against the tragedies of his own era: the 80’s."

It's a great movie, which is to be found on a decent DVD. The picture shows quite a lot of scratches, damages etc. It's also a bit dark (but this may be due to the design of the film), soft and reddish, but "Last Witness" is a great movie and I doubt that anyone else will release another DVD/BR with a better transfer in the nearer future. The subtitles, though again far from flawless, are pretty good, that is, I had no problems in following the dialogues. The DVD comes with a small booklet (40 pages in Korean and English) and two audio commentaries, one by director Lee and film critic Kim, another by another director and a journalist. I haven't listened to any of them, but I'll definitively will, as of are coming with optional English and Japanese subtitles. I guess this might be a movie which will especially find the interest of those of you who could find some kind of interest in Bong's "Memories of Murder", but as I don't like that one that much it might appeal to others as well.

Btw, I forgot to give a short resumé on the YOO HYEON-MOK Collection . Let's put it this way: I was quite happy with the box set, but I guess that it won't be everybody's cup of coffee. I won't argue whether the movies can be characterized as masterpieces (I guess not), but I found them to be as interesting as demanding, that is, it's not easy to get the dominant meaning without any knowledge of Korean history and film history. Apart from that, I presume that the discs were produced in something like a rush after Yoo's death in 2009. This may partly explain the sometimes poor subtitles and the missing extras. But in my opinion, Kofa's extras do always look better than they actually are.