Myung Kye-Nam Movies

Following up on his hallucinatory meditation on sex, death, and fish hooks in The Isle, Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk spins this brutal exploration on the lingering anger and exploitation of America's occupation of South Korea. Even though all her letters are returned stamped "Address Unknown," a middle-aged woman nevertheless compulsively writes letter after letter to the American soldier with whom she bore an African-American/Korean child. Her son, named Chang-guk, is the object of societal scorn and rejection and can only get a job as a dog butcher, a job he executes with a certain amount of grim pleasure. He finds himself attracted to a high school girl with a degenerative eye condition who is trapped in an abusive relationship with an American G.I. His love for the girl and his free-floating rage against society fuels a violent outburst that changes everyone's lives. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This documentary tackles the emotional battle to protect South Korea's national film industry against the corporate juggernaut of the MPAA (which is backed by the U.S. government). From a high profile hunger strike by Korean directors in the summer of 1998 to the current stalemate after the issue was separated from general trade talks, the film focuses on Korea's use of screen quotas for local flicks (currently standing at 106, but this is bound to be reduced). While the MPAA sees Korea as a key market in its attempts to dominate all of Asia, Korean filmmakers regard local productions as central to Korea's sense of national identity. This film was screened at the 1999 Pusan Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Screenwriter turned director Lee Chang-dong, who scripted the acclaimed A Single Spark, creates this tale of personal evolution and national history. Told backwards, the film opens in the spring of 1999 where a family outing is spoiled by a raggedy old man, Yeong-ho, who threatens to throw himself in front of a train. Rewind to three days earlier, Yeong-ho is seen buying a gun to off himself. Recently ruined by bad stock deals, terrorized by loan sharks, and dumped by his adulterous wife, Yeong-ho is a typical victim of the Asian financial meltdown. He pays his dying ex-girlfriend a visit in the hospital and, though she is unconscious, he gives her the same peppermint candy that she used to send him. Rewind further to the summer of 1994, Yeong-ho hires a detective to tail his philandering wife, though he is involved with a pretty office assistant. Rewind to 1987, which reveals Heong-ho as a thuggish policeman known for dispensing horrific amounts of brutality. This film was a critical favorite at the 1999 Pusan Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

The protagonist of this Korean drama is a composite of three union activists from the 1970s, the era in which the primary story is set. It is a three-fold tale that shows the parallel courses of two activists from different eras framed by documentary-like footage at the film's beginning and end. Activist and law school graduate Kim is being persecuted by the mid-'70s Park regime for trying to write a book about Jeon Tae-il (a real person), a union activist who immolated himself at age 22 to protest government hypocrisy. Kim hides himself from authorities in the apartment of his pregnant girl friend Jung-soon and continues his research, secretly visiting Jeon's old hangouts. The sequences dealing with Jeon's life are filmed in black and white. While he researches and wrestles with the consequences of his book, Jung-soon must deal with authoritarian harassment. Eventually she is arrested and in seeing her bravely go off to meet her fate, Kim fines the strength to complete his task. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide