Australian Simon Barker, considered one of the best drummers of contemporary jazz, embarks on the search for mythical Kim Seok-chul, the South Korean witchdoctor whose elaborate improvised percussion sets have inspired his art and greatly influenced his ideas about music. The task isn’t easy: even though the Government has awarded him the distinction of “Intangible Asset” (a distinction this Asian country awards its cultural treasures), old Kim doesn’t participate in mundane affairs, and shuts himself away while officiating his intricate liturgy for the communion between the living and the dead. In this way, Barker´s journey becomes a mystical rather than a detective-like investigation; an initiation rite in which he must win the respect of the elusive master and run a race against time to finally find him a few days before his death. A journey through a stunning landscape of mountains, fields and small villages of the Korean rural areas, and a musical tale (that also includes other elements, like when Barker´s guide talks about the difficult times of the military regime) so amazing and different from Western stories, as to contain characters that have lived behind a waterfall for seven years learning to sing.
Me-Sook (Kong Hyo-Jin) is probably not the finest teacher that the South Korean educational system has to offer. A paranoid, ruddy-faced stick of dynamite, she lives in the faculty lounge, teaches middle school English without knowing the language, and has been in love with colleague Mr. Seo (Lee Jong-Hyeok) since she was his student. Mr. Seo has a family now, but as far as Me-Sook is concerned, they’re just temporary obstacles. When she learns that dizzy colleague Lee Yu-Ri (Hwangwoo Seul-Hye) has been carrying on an affair with Seo, Me-Sook goes thermonuclear, forming an unholy alliance with a student who's a born loser, just like her: Mr. Seo’s daughter. Imagine a movie based on a team-up by Glenn Close from Fatal Attraction and Reese Witherspoon from Election, and you’re just starting to understand the pathology on display here.
"People like us must work harder than everyone else," Me-Sook warns Jong-Hee, Mr. Seo’s daughter, at the start of their mission. And they do. In between rehearsals for their ill-advised performance of Waiting for Godot at the school talent festival, the girls spend their nights posing as Mr. Seo on the Net, luring the virginal Yu-Ri into cybersex trysts, but to their dismay, the more perverse the chats become the more aroused Yu-Ri gets. As their scheme expands and begins to collapse, comedy becomes dramedy, laying bare the fragile bonds not only between outcasts but between women. When Mrs. Seo (a magnificent Bang Eun-Jin) puts it all together, it's time to put on your headphones in the language lab, and choose your future through guided meditation and soul-shattering confessions.
Crush and Blush is helmed by first-time female director, Lee Kyeong-Mi, who splices thriller, satire and, yes, chick flick DNA to create a gorgeous monster. Upending all the tired "female stalker" cinema tropes, she places you in the headspace of the supposed “psychos” while the prey remains at a distance. Co-written and produced by Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy)—who cameos in the film along with Bong Joon-Ho (director of The Host)—the film took home "Best New Director" and "Best Screenplay" at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. Kong Hyo-Jin won "Best Actress" at the Korean Film Awards for her tour de force as the unstoppable Me-Sook, whom she transforms from an object of derision to one of shocking identification. These characters do horrible things, but for profoundly human reasons, and unlike Fatal Attraction, nobody gets stabbed, shot, or boils a bunny. Catharsis, when it comes, is both hysterical and heartbreaking. Crush and Blush is a subversion of the stalker picture, a love letter to the world's losers. "No one cares about people like us," Me-Sook tells Jong-hee late in the picture. "But I care," Jong-Hee replies. By the end of this film, so will you.
Showtimes: Wed June 24, 9:15pm at the IFC Center (with actress Kong Hyo-jin in attendance) Thu June 25, 5:00pm at the IFC center (with actress Kong Hyo-jin in attendance)
Seoul, 1975. Jinhee is 9. Her father has placed her in an orphanage run by Catholic nuns. The little girl has to deal with the ordeal of separation and the long wait for a new family. As the seasons pass, the departures of adopted children allow her to glimpse the dream that awaits her but shatter the friendships that she has just formed. Jinhee resists because she knows that the promise of a brand-new life will separate her for good from those she loves.
The adults in Treeless Mountain do not appear purposefully cruel, though they often appear as cold, remote and mysterious as the stars in the sky. The film, the second feature from the Brooklyn-based writer and director So Yong Kim, tells a quiet, carefully observed story about two young girls — 6-year-old Jin and her 4-year old sister, Bin — who become orphans of a kind after their mother leaves them with relatives. Shot in South Korea, where Ms. Kim was born (her family immigrated to America when she was 12), it has the tang of real life, though this is realism that has been filtered through 60 or so years of world art cinema. — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
The full New York Times review is here, and they ran an article about her and her husband last week.
As you may know, the percentage of women directors hovers around 9%, which is a ridiculous statistic in 2009 (or ever). It's not (just) that Hollywood is sexist—-if female directors brought in the big bucks on opening weekend, studio heads would certainly sit up and take notice, as might Oscar voters. But how to find out when these films are showing? Well... come here! (Update: Hmm, the same year I start this blog, the Academy nominates TWO female-directed movies for Best Picture! Coincidence?)
