- Title: GERMANY: South Korea enters Berlinale with 'Bam Gua Nat'
- Date: 14th February 2008
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (FEBRUARY 12, 2008) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) PARK EUNHYE, ACTRESS, SAYING "Originally I hoped, that after watching this movie men would say, oh, I will not behave this way and not hurt women like that. But asking men now after watching, they never thought that anything was wrong with this man doing what he did, they actually understood the man. Listening to Mr. Kim he seemed to me like all the other man. I did not like the man in the movie at all." JOURNALISTS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) KIM YOUNGHO, ACTOR, SAYING "I am sure even the emperor Cesar, after he conquered the world, thought that had not had enough women. The source of a man's power is the woman. The world needs women in order to go on existing. Women are pretty, I mean, everybody likes women."
- Embargoed: 6th March 2008 04:18
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA6IWB7292UI5ET99OC794TW6KH
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: South Korea enters this year's Berlin film festival with a movie by renowned director Hong Sangsoo, who is not famous for big commercial success, but rather for his subtle and often intellectual variations on the subject of men being afraid in their everyday life. On Tuesday (February 12), Hong's "Bam Gua Nat" (Night and Day) premiered in Berlin, entering the competition.
Sung-nam is a successful married painter of around forty years of age.
He is now standing at the airport in Paris with a huge suitcase - for Sung-nam is on the run from a jail sentence in Korea because he was caught smoking marijuana, and drunk, at a casual get together.
Sung-nam finds a place to stay at a rundown hostel in the 14th Arrondissement; the hotel belongs to a Korean man. He spends his time wandering aimlessly about the streets of the city on the Seine, or meandering through the park - for there's little else for him to do here. By chance he runs into his ex-girlfriend Min-sun, but the unexpected encounter leaves him cold.
Sung-nam loves his wife and his thoughts are constantly with the woman he had to leave behind on her own in Korea.
But then he meets Hyun-ju, a young Korean woman who is studying art in Paris and her flat-mate, Yu-jeong. Sung-nam falls head over heels in love in this pretty and mysterious young woman. He also falls in love with Paris. What sound like a romantic movie, has a much darker side to it. "Originally I hoped, that after watching this movie men would say, oh, I will not behave this way and not hurt women like that" Park Eunhye, who plays Yu-jeong.
"But asking men now after watching, they never thought that anything was wrong with this man doing what he did, they actually understood the man."
Asked about his personal view on the standpoint the movie reveals about women, actor Kim Youngho, who plays adulterous Sung-nam, told reporters: "I am sure even the emperor Cesar, after he conquered the world, thought that had not had enough women. The source of a man's power is the woman. The world needs women in order to go on existing. Women are pretty, I mean, everybody likes women."
Director Hong was born in Seoul in 1960. After studying film at Chungang University he continued his studies in the USA. He spent several months at the Cin����math����que Fran����aise before returning to Korea, where he made his first feature film in 1996. At last year's Berlinale, his film "Woman on the beach" was featured in the Panorama section.
Asked about his work, he described the process of film-making as follows: "I don't start start making a film by having a certain message or some point of identification about Korean people. I don't have such a thing in the beginning, I have a form and I have my interest in certain things, for making something. And I have a process. And I go through the process, I try to make something and I try to finish it and it's up to you how you feel."
The idea for the title "Bam Gua Nat" or "Night and Day", came when he was in New York talking to his wife in Korea, said Hong. While it was late at night in the states, his wife was shopping in a supermarket, Hong said. "It was a dreamlike, surreal feeling", the director added. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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