Korean Short Film Madness

The NYAFF is proud to present five short films all the way from the Land of the Morning Calm. Calm? These shorts are anything but. Headlined by Park Chan-Wook’s Night Fishing, the rest taken from the 10th Mise en Scène Short Film Festival, these movies represent some of the best genre filmmaking in Korea. The Mise en Scène Short Film Festival, established by some of Korea’s biggest filmmakers (including Bong Joon-Ho and Park Chan-Wook), is a talent farm that has turned out Kim Ji-Woon’s cinematographer and Yeun Sang-Ho, director of The King of Pigs.

Night Fishing/Paranmanjang
Park Chan-Wook & Park Chan-Kyong | 2011 | South Korea | 30m
This 30-minute film by Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy) and his brother (Park Chan-Kyong) was originally shot for the iPhone, but travelled much further. A performance by a rowdy folk-punk band kicks off the story of a fisherman who finds a dead woman tangled in his line. Only, she’s not quite dead yet. Swerving from oversaturated colors to grimy black-and-white, it’s a crafty little slice of occult unease.

The Hideout
Lee Chang-Hee | 2011 | South Korea | 30m
A journalist is filing her story from an internet cafe late on a snowy night when she notices that the only other people there are three strange men…and one of them is wearing an ankle monitor. She’s going to have to use all her wits to survive the night.

Heart
Erick Oh | 2010 | South Korea/USA | 9m
An animated film about bizarre creatures in a bleak landscape battling over a heart. As their fight rages on, they begin a strange metamorphosis. Striking, fluid, and weird enough to stick in your mind long after you see it.

The Lucky Gumboy
Choi Shin-choon | 2011 | South Korea | 18m
A strange kid arrives in Luck Town and makes friends with the class loser. The stranger has the ability to blow huge bubbles and he becomes a school hero as everyone becomes obsessed with gum chewing, but can the friendship between the two kids survive all that Bubbilicious Gum?

Finis Operis/Bul-Myul-Ui-Sa-Na-Ie
Moon Byoung-gon | 2011 | South Korea | 7m
A depressed man builds a mysterious device on a rainy day, but nothing we see is exactly what it seems. A brilliantly shot dark comedy, cut with a streak of hope.