Yoo Da-in is mesmerizing in Min Yong-geun’s wonderful RE-ENCOUNTER
THE HIDDEN GEMS OF INDIE CINEMA: RE-ENCOUNTER (Min Yong-geun, 2010)
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
Tuesday, May 10, free, 6:30
Series runs every other Tuesday through June 21
212-759-9550
www.subwaycinema.com
www.tribecacinemas.com
The popular — and free — Korean Movie Night returns to Tribeca Cinemas this month with the start of Subway Cinema’s new Tuesday-night series, “The Hidden Gems of Indie Cinema,” focusing on smaller, independent films from South Korea. First up is the North American premiere of writer-director Min Yong-geun’s wonderful Re-Encounter, winner of a number of international festival awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress. Yoo Da-in stars as Hye-hwa, a charming young woman who works in a veterinary hospital, rescues stray dogs from the evil dogcatcher, and helps take care of her widowed boss’s (Park Hyeok-Kwon) son. But when her high school boyfriend, Han-soo (Yoo Yeon-seok), suddenly shows up after a stint in the military, her life is turned upside down, as he convinces her that their baby, the result of a teen pregnancy five years earlier, is living nearby, having been adopted by a local professor and his wife. Re-Encounter is a moving, intimate film about motherhood, family, and adoption, filled with plot twists that echo Hye-hwa’s complex emotional state; at one moment, she can be playing “mom” to a young boy, while the next she clips her fingernails and adds them to her growing collection. While she relates well to canines, her human relationships are far more difficult. Min never gives straight answers, instead keeping things just mysterious enough to keep the audience riveted without getting frustrated. Yoo is outstanding in the lead role; you won’t be able to take your eyes off her. The series continues May 24 with the North American premiere of Lee Seo’s Missing Person, June 7 with Lim Woo-seong’s Vegetarian, and June 21 with Jeong Seong-il’s Café Noir.
While most free Korean Movie Nights at Tribeca Cinemas focus on newer films, this week it reaches back to 2000 to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Korean War. Park Chan-wook’s (the Vengeance Trilogy) drama takes place at the DMZ Joint Security Area known as Panmunjeom, the dividing line between North and South Korea and where soldiers from each country actually face one another directly. Major Sophie Jean of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (Lee Young-Ae) has arrived to investigate the violent murder of two North Korean officers but discovers during her inquiry that key facts are missing involving South Korean hero Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok’s (Lee Byung-hun) relationship to injured North Korean Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil (Song Kang-ho). Told in a series of flashbacks, the gripping story deals with duty, honor, courage, and brotherhood — as well as the absurdity that war and politics inject into individual behavior and common human decency. As always, Song Kang-ho’s (THE HOST, THIRST) big, round face dominates the screen, his hulking figure at the center of the controversy.
Named Best Debut Feature at the 2009 New York Asian Film Festival and winner of a Tiger Award at Rotterdam, Yang Ik-june’s BREATHLESS is an involving portrait of family hidden beneath a veil of blood and violence. Yang, who wrote, directed, and produced the film, also stars as Sang-hoon, a local gangster who goes out every day and does whatever is necessary to collect for his loan-shark boss, Man-sik (Jeong Man-sik). Dour, angry, and full of rage, Yang curses at and strikes his coworkers, cops, and strangers as well as the people who owe Man-sik money. Not one to make friends, he is soon hanging around with a high school girl, Yeon-hee (Kim Kkot-bi), who has taken a liking to him and his young nephew, Hyeong-in (Kim Hee-soo). Although they don’t know it, Yeon-hee and Sang-hoon are drawn to each other because of their difficult relationships with their fathers, both of whom are struggling to deal with different kinds of tragedy. Although Yang does try to pull at the heartstrings with some over-the-top melodrama near the end, BREATHLESS is well-paced study of family and friendship, following a bloody path to show the importance of blood. The free screening at Tribeca Cinemas will be followed by a Q&A with Yang, who mortgaged his house to make this low-budget picture.
