Wednesday, July 01 9pm
Walter Reade Theatre
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 165 W 65th St, New York, NY 10023
With his 102nd feature, legendary 78-year-old Korean filmmaker Im Kwon-taek (Sopyonje,
Chihwaseon: Painted Fire) delivers a powerful and vital film about the indignities of old age and the inferno of suppressed desire stirred by the proximity of death. Based on a prize-winning short story by former journalist Kim Hun, the film also serves as a silent critique of the vanity of contemporary urban life. Veteran actor Ahn Sung-gi (Nowhere to Hide) delivers a masterfully subdued performance as Oh Sang-moo, an ordinary businessman at the top of the corporate food chain who works at a major cosmetics company. Fully consumed by the simple act getting on with his life, he stoically fulfills his corporate duties while his wife, Jin-kyung (Kim Ho-jung), is suffering the agonies of brain cancer at the hospital. During this rather difficult moment, in comes the stunning Choo Eun-joo (Kim Qyu-ri), the company’s new hire. Young, elegant, sophisticated, she’s a like a sexual fantasy conjured from deep within the man’s grief. Going between the office and the hospital, he tries to balance the demands of the job with the moral obligation to his wife, while also dealing with his own aging body and grief and the pangs of forbidden desire.
For tickets and information visit: subwaycinema.com