A young woman meets the spirits of decaying buildings in THE HOUSE
KOREAN MOVIE NIGHT: THE HOUSE (JIB) (Ban Joo-young, Lee Hyun-jin, Lee Jae-ho-I, Park Eun-young-I, and Park Mi-sun, 2011)
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
Tuesday, February 12, free, 7:00
212-759-9550
www.koreanculture.org
www.tribecacinemas.com
The Korean Academy of Film Arts takes on urban renewal in their annual collaboration, The House. Ban Joo-young, Lee Hyun-jin, Lee Jae-ho-I, Park Eun-young-I, and Park Mi-sun team up to tell the story of a young woman, Ga-young (voiced by Kim Kkobbi), struggling to get by in modern-day Korea. With no money and no real job, she moves into a ramshackle apartment with Hee-ju (Ha Jae-sook) while dreaming of winning the lottery and being able to move into a nearby wealthy complex. But when she finds a magic bracelet, she suddenly can see the spirits of the old houses, who would die if their buildings were torn down by the city, changing Ga-yong’s attitude about just what home means. The filmmakers combine CGI and real photographs with the drawing style of Yoshitoro Nara and the look and sensibility of Hayao Miyazaki’s classic Spirited Away in The House, an admirable if ultimately unsatisfying story that has too many holes and lacks nuance. It ends up feeling overly derivative and unsentimentally political, even if it is based on some real circumstances, as evidenced by the pictures that accompany the closing credits. Also featuring the voices of Choi Jeong-ho, Choi Ha-na, Kim Hee-jin, and Oh In-sil as multiple characters, The House is screening for free February 12 at 7:00 at Tribeca Cinemas as part of the latest biweekly Korean Movie Night series, “Drawn into Film: Korean Animation!,” which continues February 26 with Yuen Sang-ho’s debut, The Window.