Park Shin-yang Movies

A petty criminal finds a reason to clean up his act when he discovers he has a daughter in this comedy-drama from South Korea. Woo Jong-dae (Park Shin-yang) is a small-time gambler who lives in a shack near a junkyard when he isn't doing time in jail. After Woo is convicted of running a crooked three-card monte game, he receives a visit from Sun-young (Ye Ji-won), a schoolteacher who has some surprising news. It seems Woo fathered a child he's never met some seven years before, and the girl, who is soon to be adopted, wants to meet her biological dad. Woo is wary, but when Sun-young offers to pay him to spend a week or so with his daughter, he agrees and returns home to look after young Joon (Seo Sin-ae). Despite his qualms, Woo quickly bonds with Joon and finds himself enjoying the responsibilities of fatherhood, but his joy is short-lived when he discovers Joon is seriously ill and has only a short time to live. Nunbushin Nal-ae (aka Meet Mr. Daddy) was screened at the 2007 Rome Film Festival, where it was honored as the best film for young people. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jung-won (Park Shin-yang) falls asleep on the subway one evening. He wakes up to find the train at the end of the line. He bolts off before the doors close, then turns back and sees two little girls still on the train as it pulls off to the railway yard. We learn that Jung-won is an interior designer. His rather controlling fiancée, Hee-eun (Yu Seon), gets a very modern table for his apartment with spotlights over each of the four chairs. The next day, Jung-won learns that the two little girls he spotted were later found dead on the train, apparently poisoned by their mother. Jung-won's dismay only increases when he sees the two girls again, this time slumped over his new kitchen table. Terrified, he begins spending his nights at the home of his father, a pastor at a church. Jung-won goes to see a psychiatrist about renovating his office and runs into one of his patients, Yon (Jeon Ji-hyeon of My Sassy Girl). He feels strangely drawn to the withdrawn young woman. He soon learns that she suffers from narcolepsy, and when she faints in his presence, he takes her to his apartment, where he's shocked to find that Yon can also see the ghosts of the two girls. Yon separated from her husband after the death of their young child, and she is testifying in the trial of the woman responsible for that gruesome death. Jung-won finds himself getting more and more obsessed with Yon, and learns that she has a strange and dangerous power. The Uninvited was the feature debut of writer/director Lee Soo-youn. The film was shown at the 2004 New York Korean Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Room 407 in a Seoul "love hotel" is rented by the night or by the hour. Four sequences take place inside Room 407: a young man awaits his girlfriend so they can celebrate her birthday; a college student plans to complete a video necessary for his filmmaking class, but his female lead is delayed by a TV news crew; and the young woman from the first sequence drunkenly returns to make love with a different man. In the concluding segment, a man phones a former girlfriend and invites her to room 407 -- an encounter that leads to some unpleasant memories. Shown at 1997 film festivals (Vancouver, Sundance). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide