Previously at the ICA - Seasons

Im Kwon-taek: Run Far, Fly High

19 Oct 20122 Nov 2012

Im Kwon-taek, winner of the Best Director prize at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the Berlin Bear Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival, came from a humble film background as a prop assistant to a lighting assistant. Yet since 1962 he has directed more than one hundred films in his native South Korea.

Critics contend that after his early films of the 60s and 70smainly historical dramas and war moviesIm found his true artistic voice in the 1980s and onward, through his subtly subversive manner of portraying South Korea's urgent and pressing social issues during a time when the country's film industry was highly censored. Critic Tony Rayns writes that the true pleasure which one experiences watching Im's films is found in their 'rounded characters, humour and unsentimental pathos.'

The ICA is delighted to screen seven of Im Kwon-taek's films, as well as host a special Q&A with the director after the screening of his 2000 work, Chunhyang.

The film season is being run in collaboration with the BFI Southbank, which is screening fifteen more of Im Kwon-taek's films.

For more information, please see the BFI's press release [PDF]

  • Village in the Mist: Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 1982.

    Im Kwon-taek: Village in the Mist

    19 Oct 2012

    When Kae-chul and Su-ok’s paths meet, two unwanted souls find solace in this portrait of unconventional lust.

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  • Festival: Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 1996.

    Im Kwon-taek: Festival

    20 Oct 2012

    Festival is both rich in its poignant wisdom in the face of death and in the melancholy which so often accompanies family reunion.

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  • The General's Son: Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 1990.

    Im Kwon-taek: The General's Son

    21 Oct 2012

    The General’s Son follows the course of Kim Doo-han’s rise through the Korean street gangs which, through unconventional means, protect the same streets Doo-han’s father once fought to protect.

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  • Ticket: Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 1986.

    Im Kwon-taek: Ticket

    26 Oct 2012

    In between love and despair, four women face jealousy and mental breakdown at the hands of the men who claim to love them.

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  • Chunhyang: Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 2000.

    Im Kwon-taek: Chunhyang + Q&A

    27 Oct 2012

    Based on the Pansori folk song of the same title, Chunhyang tells the tale of two-star crossed lovers, Mongryong, the son of a nobleman, and Chungyang, the daughter of a retired kisaeng.

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  • Hanji: Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 2011.

    Im Kwon-taek: Hanji

    31 Oct 2012

    Hanji, the name for traditional handmade Korean paper, unites the two storylines in one of Im Kwon-taek’s most well-known features.

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  • A Low Life: Im Kwon-taek, South Korea, 2004.

    Im Kwon-taek: A Low Life

    2 Nov 2012

    A Low Life offers a gritty look at the interplay of violence and protest echoing political unrest during the transitory time between the end of Rhee Syng-man’s rule and democratic elections in Seoul in the second half of twentieth-century.

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When

E.g., 30-07-2021
E.g., 30-07-2021