A Korean Master Rediscovered

While YU Hyun-mok, SHIN Sang-ok and KIM Ki-young are among the most venerated directors of the Golden Age of Korean cinema (mid 1950’s to late ‘60’s), new retrospectives and restoration projects are adding the names of other worthy directors to the pantheon. The 2005 Pusan International Film Festival showcased the films of LEE Man-hee, bringing him to the fore as a major Korean cinematic artist. This year’s Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) presented four singular features by another talented artist in Korean film, director LEE Bong-rae.

The retrospective program, entitled LEE Bong Rae: Journal of the Ordinary, selected four representative films from the over 30 features LEE directed during the span of his career. Included was his most famous work, A Petty Middle Manager, produced in 1961. It is LEE’s first comedy, after establishing himself and fine-tuning his craft directing polished melodramas. The film gained popular success and critical acclaim for its biting social satire. While it belonged to a typical genre of the time, which featured the travails of a lower-middle-class family, the film stands out for its wit and humor, along with a mature sense of cinematic staging and composition. His portrayal of a father who is ‘pitiable’, yet warm and liberal rather than overbearing, brings laughter and energy to the family dynamics. LEE also takes insightful jabs into corrupt bureaucracy and the hypocrisy and weakness of hierarchical management.

Another standout film in the program is LEE’s The Door of the Body (1965), which depicts the daily lives of massage parlor girls. Rather than delving into the seediness associated with the occupation or the excessive sentimentality evident in films of the period that portrayed women leading desperate lives, LEE is sensitive to the everyday concerns of his characters. The film tells the tale of two sisters from the countryside who come to Seoul seeking a living but end up working as prostitutes. Their differing characters and relations with men provide insightful though ultimately tragic views into an often corrupt but weak patriarchal society.

The two other films included in this retrospective were A Salaryman and New Wife, both produced in 1962. Director LEE was born in 1922 and studied in Japan, working as a writer and journalist before returning to Korea when the Korean War had ended. He became known as a critic and screenwriter, who while an intellectual with modernist predilections, was committed to showing the lives of ordinary people. A leader in the cultural movements of the 50’s and 60’s, LEE produced a wide range of films, among which his comedies are highly regarded for reflecting the pulse and emotions of life in that era.

Nigel D’Sa (KOFIC)

Source : http://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/