16
Nov/12

KOREAN CINEMA SHOWCASE: CHOKED

16
Nov/12

Kwon Youn-ho (Um Tae-goo) seems disinterested in life in Kim Joon-hyun’s CHOKED

FILMMAKERS OF THE FUTURE: CHOKED (KASHI) (Kim Joong-hyun, 2011)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Sunday, November 18, free with museum admission, 5:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

After his mother’s (Kil Hae-yeon) get-rich-quick scheme doesn’t quite work out as planned, she disappears, leaving her laconic son, Kwon Youn-ho (Um Tae-goo), to continually fight off her ever-more-crazed business partner, Seo-hee (Park Se-jin), a divorced mother desperate to get back the money she claims she is owed. Meanwhile, Youn-ho is trying to make a life for himself and his fiancée, Se-kyung (Yoon Che-yong), but her mother doesn’t approve of his job in reconstruction — he convinces people to leave their homes with small payments so that buildings can be knocked down and fancier residences put up in their place. But neither Youn-ho nor Seo-hee is evil; both have been cast in difficult situations that lead to extreme measures that they regret as they try to put their lives back together. Kim Joon-hyun’s first feature film is a patiently paced drama that subtly examines how the global financial crisis affects families in both large and small ways. Everyone in the film is seeking to maintain or renew a relationship with a loved one, be it a parent, a child, a sibling, or a lover, but money complicates their situations. Um is excellent as Youn-ho, a young man seemingly disinterested in his own existence, letting life just happen to him, a fine counterpart to Park’s Seo-hee, a woman willing to do just about anything to prevent her life from getting completely away from her. Choked is screening November 18 at 5:00 as part of the Museum of the Moving Image series Korean Cinema Showcase: Filmmakers of the Future, which highlights the work of three young, independent Korean directors: Kim, Lee Han, whose Punch was shown in October, and Lee Sang-woo’s Barbie, which is playing December 16 at 5:00.