Mourning
Winner of the top prize at the 2011 Busan International Film Festival, Morteza Farshbaf’s debut feature is unique in a number of ways—not the least of which is that the two main characters are deaf and communicate almost entirely in sign language. As the characters bicker during a road trip, the audience learns tantalizing pieces of information about their passenger, a young relative whose parents disappeared in the middle of the night. A protégé of Abbas Kiarostami, Farshbaf “fashions a consistently surprising and blackly comic road trip that may herald the arrival of a major new Iranian talent” (Institute of Contemporary Art, London). (Dir.: Morteza Farshbaf, Iran, 2011, 84 min. Persian and sign language with English subtitles, video).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, February 12, 2012, 2:00 PM.
Noodles and a Movie at the Freer!
To introduce Taiwan's food culture and celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office collaborates with the Freer and Sackler in welcoming foodies and cinema lovers to savor a free film and feast.
One of Taiwan's top culinary artists, chef Hou Chun-sheng, winner of the 2011 Taipei Beef Noodle Soup Competition, serves his special beef noodles during a reception at the Freer, followed by a screening of Eat Drink Man Woman. Chef Hou's beef noodles are a must-eat for international gourmets and the perfect dish to prepare viewers for Eat Drink Man Woman—Taiwan-born director Ang Lee's food-centered film about an elderly chef and his family as they experience the trials and joys of life in modern Taiwan. Settle in and enjoy an evening of homestyle Taiwan food culture! Free and open to the public.
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012, 6:00 PM.
Here without Me
Bahram Tavakoli’s adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie is a brilliantly acted restaging of the original’s themes within the cultural confines of contemporary Iran. As in Williams’ play, the story is told from the point of view of a cinema-haunting young man. His shy, disabled sister takes refuge in her collection of glass animals while their overbearing mother, played with motor-mouthed aplomb by Montreal Film Festival award-winner Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, works desperately to match her with a marriageable man—which she thinks she may have found in her son’s best friend. (Dir.: Bahram Tavakoli, Iran, 2011, 97 min. Persian with English subtitles).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Friday, February 17, 2012, 7:00 PM.
Here without Me
Bahram Tavakoli’s adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play The Glass Menagerie is a brilliantly acted restaging of the original’s themes within the cultural confines of contemporary Iran. As in Williams’ play, the story is told from the point of view of a cinema-haunting young man. His shy, disabled sister takes refuge in her collection of glass animals while their overbearing mother, played with motor-mouthed aplomb by Montreal Film Festival award-winner Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, works desperately to match her with a marriageable man—which she thinks she may have found in her son’s best friend. (Dir.: Bahram Tavakoli, Iran, 2011, 97 min. Persian with English subtitles).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, February 19, 2012, 2:00 PM.
Foxy Festival
When the police announce an effort to rid their precinct of sleaze, they run into a problem: It seems every citizen has a skeleton in the closet—or, more accurately, a blowup doll or set of handcuffs. Lee Jae-young’s bawdy comedy is a lighthearted romp that reveals the naughty underbelly of a well-mannered Seoul neighborhood. The film’s frank yet good-humored take on everything from sex toys to bondage caused a sensation in Korea, and its immensely talented cast of comedic performers delivers an uplifting message of self-acceptance with wit and verve. Intended for mature audiences. (Dir.: Lee Hae-young, 2010, 110 min. Korean with English subtitles).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, March 11, 2012, 2:00 PM.
Moving Perspectives: Minouk Lim
The series begins with Minouk Lim, whose work is also on view in Perspectives: Minouk Lim (through March 18, Sackler Pavilion). Two of her recent works, SOS Adoptive Dissensus (2009) and Firecliff 2_Seoul (2011), explore the enduring power of physical spaces and modern history in the collective memory of contemporary Korea.
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Thursday, March 15, 2012 – Saturday, March 17, 2012.
Anyang, Paradise City
Photographer and video artist Park Chan-kyong’s first feature-length film blends documentary and fictional elements to create a portrait of Anyang, South Korea. It is a journey through the layers of history that have shaped the city and its environment, from a tragic fire that killed 22 female workers during the 1988 Olympics to the painstaking excavation of a thousand-year-old temple, and from the search for a legendary 500-year-old “grandmother tree” to an investigation into the ways Buddhism is interwoven into the region’s history. Presented in conjunction with the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital. (Dir.: Park Chan-kyong, 2011, 102 min. Korean with English subtitles, video).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Friday, March 16, 2012, 7:00 PM.
Cyrano Agency
Looking for Mr. or Ms. Right but lack the charm to make your beloved notice you? Hire the Cyrano Agency! In Kim Hyun-seok’s crowd-pleasing comedy, a troupe of poor actors takes inspiration from Cyrano de Bergerac and starts a business to help the lovelorn via meticulous surveillance, extreme makeovers, and elaborately stage-managed “chance meetings” with the objects of their desire. Mixing plenty of whimsy with a bit of suspense and a dash of melodrama, this is Korean romantic comedy at its finest. (Dir.: Kim Hyun-seok, 2010, 117 min. Korean with English subtitles).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, March 18, 2012, 2:00 PM.
My Dear Desperado
She’s a recent college graduate from the country; he’s a grouchy gangster who’s not very good at his job. As she struggles to find work and he considers getting out of the crime game, these neighbors in a crummy Seoul apartment building become an adorably odd couple. This sophisticated and very modern romantic comedy from first-time director Kim Kwang-sik is a sterling example of a genre that has become a Korean specialty. The chemistry sizzles between charismatic stars Park Joong-hoon (Radio Star; Nowhere to Hide) and Jeong Yu-mi (Like You Know it All; A Bittersweet Life), and the film’s dry humor and focus on the economically downtrodden lend a fresh twist to a familiar theme. (Dir.: Kim Kwang-sik, Korea, 2010, 105 min. video, Korean with English subtitles).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, March 25, 2012, 2:00 PM.
Moving Perspectives: Hyunjhin Baik
Baik’s The End (2009) assembles well-known characters in Korean cinema into experimental, fragmented scenes that play with formal cinematic devices and narrative progression. While the various possible plots remain enigmatic, the resulting work is a visual and psychological portrait of four individuals and the ultimate inscrutability of life.
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Thursday, March 29, 2012 – Saturday, March 31, 2012.
Invasion of Alien Bikini
In this ingenious, micro-budget sci-fi movie, Young-gun, a self-appointed urban hero with a fake moustache, rescues a damsel in distress. She turns out to be a space alien on a mission to be impregnated by an earthling, by any means necessary. Unfortunately for her, Young-gun has taken a vow of chastity and would rather play Jenga than bed a comely ET. Produced for less than $5,000, this gem is yet another example of the creativity of Korea’s independent filmmakers. It delivers action, comedy, martial arts, a splash of gore, and surprising shifts in tone that take the film beyond the exploitative nature that its title implies. Intended for mature audiences. (Dir.: Oh Young-doo, 2011, 75 min. Korean with English subtitles, video).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, April 1, 2012, 1:00 PM.
Red Vacance, Black Wedding
Veteran directors Kim Tai-sik (Driving with My Wife’s Lover) and Park Cheol-su (301, 302) joined forces for this tag-team project, with each contributing a short narrative about infidelity. In Kim’s ribald slapstick comedy XX Vacance, a married man’s vacation with his mistress goes wildly awry when his wife turns up to exact punishment for his cheating. In Park’s XX Wedding, a divorced professor is surprised when a former student and lover shows up at a restaurant they used to frequent instead of going on her honeymoon, leading them down the memory lane of their passionate affair. Jo Seon-muk’s performances as the leading man in both films are remarkable for their striking differences. Other films are as bold in their depiction of sexuality, but few are as honest and mature as these in their depiction of raw desire and its implications. Intended for mature audiences. (Dirs.: Kim Tai-sik and Park Cheol-su, 2011, 90 min. Korean with English subtitles, video).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, April 1, 2012, 3:00 PM.
End of Animal
Soon-young, a pregnant teenager on a taxi ride to the country, is joined by a mysterious passenger who begins a countdown to the moment when “the angels will descend.” After a blinding flash of light, Soon-young wakes up alone in the cab with a dead cell phone and a note telling her to stay put. Instead she ventures out into the barren landscape. Is this the apocalypse, is someone playing a trick on her, or is she going mad? “Cinematic clues that you’re in one genre will steer you wrong time and again, as this gripping and deeply unsettling debut by newcomer Jo Sung-hee unwinds its small, personal tale of apocalypse with menace and dark humor” (Frako Loden, San Francisco International Film Festival). (Jo Sung-hee, 2010, 110 min. Korean with English subtitles, video).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, April 8, 2012, 2:00 PM.
Ponyo
“There is a word to describe Ponyo,” writes Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, “and that word is magical. This poetic, visually breathtaking work by the greatest of all animators has such deep charm that adults and children will both be touched.” A young boy meets Ponyo, a strange sea creature—part fish, part human—who has escaped from the underwater lair of an evil scientist. Ponyo’s love for her protector inspires her to use magic powers to become human, while larger magic forces threaten to upset the balance of nature. Features the voices of Matt Damon, Tina Fey, and Liam Neeson. (Dir.: Hayao Miyazaki, 2008, 101 min. English).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, April 15, 2012, 11:00 AM.
Porco Rosso
The title character of this “enthralling, endearing and mesmerising piece of animation cinema” (Tom Mes, Midnight Eye) is a swashbuckling, tough-guy aviator who just happens to be a pig. Taking off from his island hideaway, he pilots his bright red plane to do battle with pirates and other evildoers. In this eccentric adventure set in 1920s Italy, Miyazaki gives free reign to his well-known obsession with airplanes by creating numerous amazing scenes of aerial derring-do. (Dir.: Hayao Miyazaki, 1992, 94 min. English).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, April 15, 2012, 1:30 PM.
Princess Mononoke
This epic fable on ecology and spirituality set a new benchmark in philosophical and artistic sophistication for anime and catapulted Miyazaki to international renown. Humans, gods, and demons battle over the fate of an unspoiled forest, patrolled by a pack of wolves that in turn is ruled by a human “princess” who will stop at nothing to protect their habitat. “A landmark feat of Japanese animation from the acknowledged master of the genre” (Janet Maslin, New York Times). (Dir.: Hayao Miyazaki, 1997, 134 min. Japanese with English subtitles).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, April 15, 2012, 4:00 PM.
Spirited Away
Teeming in mythical beasts and complex characters alike, Miyazaki’s masterpiece won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and it remains the highest-grossing film in Japan’s history. It tells the engrossing tale of a young girl who stumbles into a mysterious spirit world populated by a host of creatures from the depths of Japanese mythology. “An out-and-out charmer. It's almost impossible to do justice in words either to the visual richness of the movie … or to the character-filled storyline” (Derek Elley, Variety). (Dir.: Hayao Miyazaki, 2001, 125 min. Japanese with English subtitles).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, April 15, 2012, 7:00 PM.
Moving Perspectives: Jeon Joonho
Jeon Joonho uses digital animation to question and subvert the visual icons of contemporary culture. Often starting with symbolically charged imagery, Jeon manipulates minute details that progressively alter our views of the surface imagery and subsequently challenge our assumptions about society today.
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Thursday, April 19, 2012 – Saturday, April 21, 2012.
The Chaser
In Person: Na Hong-jin
“The Chaser is an expert serial-killer film,” raves Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times, “and a poster child for what a well-made thriller looked like in the classic days. … This is drama, and it is interesting.” When one of cop-turned-pimp Jung-ho’s girls goes missing, he thinks it’s a rival moving in on his territory, but the truth turns out to be much more sinister. Full of suspense, inventive action scenes, rich characters, and charismatic performances, The Chaser is a thrill ride directed “with muscle and verve” (Variety). Intended for mature audiences. (Dir.: Na Hong-jin, 2008, 125 min. Korean with English subtitles).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Friday, April 20, 2012, 7:00 PM.
The Yellow Sea
In Person: Na Hong-jin
Na Hong-jin followed up the success of The Chaser with another suspenseful yarn full of plot twists, jaw-dropping action, and top-notch acting. Ha Jung-woo plays Gu-nam, a taxi driver in the no-man’s-land where the borders of North Korea, China, and Russia meet. Broke and distraught that he hasn’t heard from his wife since she traveled to Seoul for a job, he agrees to commit a contract murder to get out of his debts. When his plans go awry, a bloody war erupts between ruthless rival gang bosses. It’s “one of the smartest and most inventive action films this year. … A refreshingly original story, with a darkly funny, demented and memorable baddie, crackling tension and exciting, unpredictable action” (Kevin Jagernauth, indiewire.com). Intended for mature audiences. (Dir.: Na Hong-jin, 2010, 157 min. Korean with English subtitles).
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Sunday, April 22, 2012, 2:00 PM.
Moving Perspectives: Kyungwon Moon
Spaces accumulate layers of memories and experiences over time. Kyungwon Moon “excavates” these memories using digital imaging and performance. By reimagining particular sites in Seoul, she contemplates the differences between official history and individual memory, fact, and imagination.
Categories: Films. Venue: Freer Gallery. Event Location: Meyer Auditorium. Cost: Free; walk-in.
Thursday, April 26, 2012 – Saturday, April 28, 2012.