Tale of Cinema (2005)
"Geuk jang jeon" (original title)

In Seoul, the paths of two men and one woman intersect and move apart from one another, centering around their love for cinema. A suicidal student meets a young woman who decides to follow ... See full summary »

Director:

Sang-soo Hong

Writer:

Sang-soo Hong

Stars:

Sang-kyung Kim, Ji-won Uhm, Ki-woo Lee

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Sang-kyung Kim	...	Kim Dong-soo
Ji-won Uhm	...	Choi Young-shil
Ki-woo Lee	...	Jeon Sang-won
Kyung-jin Lee
Myoeng-su Kim
Han-Cheol Jo
Seung-ah Lee
Moo-Seong Choi
Bo-Kwang Choi
Joong-hyeon Bang
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Moonsu Bang
Seong-Yong Kye

Storyline

In Seoul, the paths of two men and one woman intersect and move apart from one another, centering around their love for cinema. A suicidal student meets a young woman who decides to follow him in his fatal gesture. Coming out of a cinema, Tongsu, an unsuccessful filmmaker, spots a beautiful young woman, and recognizes her : she is the main actress in the film he has just seen. The life of this wavering and distressed young man strangely echoes the one of the young man from the beginning...

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Plot Keywords:

actress | neon signs | university student | sleeping pills | rooftop | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [kr]

Country:

France South Korea

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

27 May 2005 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Conte de cinéma

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Company Credits

Production Co:

Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), Eonwonsa, Kofic

Technical Specs

Runtime:

89 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

References Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

User Reviews

A delicate introspectiveness

Hong Sang-soo: Tale of Cinema/keuk jang jeon (South Korea/France/MK2 2005). 90 minutes. No US distributer. Shown at the New York Film Festival, Lincoln Center, October 1 and 2, 2005.

Hong was back for the third time at the New York Film Festival with this appealing self-reflexive look at ineffectual young men who happen to be filmmakers. The first segment is a film about such a man (Lee Kiwoo), who is tall and handsome but directionless. He meets an old girlfriend (Uhm Jiwon) and eventually talks her into committing suicide with him, though the attempt ends comically.

Ten years later, the star, who was also the director, is now famous and ill. His co-star, the girl, is a successful actress. She encounters a classmate of the filmmaker, also handsome, now down on his luck, who claims his story was appropriated in the film, and it seems like it is going to repeat itself as he gloms onto her and they spend a drunken night together.

What's interesting is the way Hong slides from glamorous ennui to comical mediocrity in his meandering New Wave-ish sequences in a brightly lit but tacky urban Korea. Is Seoul really anything like Paris? Perhaps not. But Hong's sweetly melancholy film with its gentle convolutions lingers pleasantly in the mind -- despite the slightly too-easy irony of its finale with the once "suicidal" director now whimpering that he doesn't want to die.

Hong was born in Korea but got a BFA at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and an MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago.