The Poetry of Lee Chang-Dong: Four Films
Filmmaker, playwright and novelist Lee Chang-dong is one of South Korea’s most celebrated artists as well as one of its harshest critics. Newly restored in 4K, this collection of four of his early works reveals the poetic origins of a cinematic career that is uniquely “marked by a fascination with pain and longing” (IndieWire).
In his directorial debut, GREEN FISH (1997), Lee uses the conventions of film noir to explore the story of a young man who becomes ensnared in a dangerous love triangle with the girlfriend of his employer, a local mob boss. Opening on a shocking scene of implied suicide, Lee’s sophomore feature PEPPERMINT CANDY (1999) proceeds to move backward in time, revealing the unhappiness of its protagonist in reverse chronology. In OASIS (2002), two societal outcasts become unlikely soulmates when an irresponsible ex-con befriends a woman with severe cerebral palsy. Following a matriarch who finds her capacity as a caregiver threatened by Alzheimer’s disease, POETRY (2010) features a Cannes award-winning screenplay by Lee and an achingly vulnernable performance by legendary actress Yun Jung-hee in a role he specifically penned for her.
- "Critic's Pick! The remarkable ... ''Oasis'' strips away much of the sentimentality and goody-two-shoes attitudes that the movies traditionally display toward disabled people. At the same time, it coolly indicts an indifferent world that treats its misfits as inconvenient, half-witted children who are easily exploited and abused. The film's extraordinary lead performers refuse to soft-pedal the severity of the characters' afflictions."
- "[Oasis] is a brave film in the way it shows two people who find any relationship almost impossible, and yet find a way to make theirs work."
- "It’s a scathing critique of an entire generation of Korean men, as well as of the country’s institutional default settings as it transformed itself into a democracy, but because it’s Lee’s film, it is Peppermint Candy’s ineluctable shape and pounding melancholy that leaves an ax gash on your memory"
- "Peppermint Candy is a compelling and powerful work and necessary to any introduction to the Korean New Wave. "
- "[Green Fish], an impressive debut, more fully brings into light Lee’s career-long preoccupations––how a character is impacted by anger and isolation, the dichotomy between rural and urban landscapes, and their particular socio-political context."
- "A strong narrative drive, powerful visuals and a mind-blowing central performance make Green Fish a superb watch..."
- "Poetry is daring in the ways only quiet, unhurried but finally haunting films have the courage to be."
- "[Poetry] has the breadth and moral weight of a great contemporary novel...."