Further to my last post, and to my Collections report on the Alexander McQueen show, I thought it was worth sharing an excerpt from an email I just wrote to thank the McQueen team for inviting me to this evening's presentations:

Lots of people in fashion feel they are 'entitled' to... [more]

Before the Korean New Wave (represented by such international film festival faves as Lee Chang-dong, Hong Sang-soo and Kim Ki-duk) and long before homegrown productions like Shiri, Oldboy, and The Host began dominating the Seoul box office, there was a "Golden Age" of South Korean cinema, and the landmark that started that cine-luminous era was the late Kim Ki-young's The Housemaid (1960, a/k/a Hanyo). Bay Area audiences will finally have a chance to view this classic in the type of venue it was meant to be screened in, The Castro Theatre, on March 14, as part of the 28th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Thanks to the committed restoration efforts of the Korean Film Archives, with support from the World Cinema Foundation, we will get to see it in a print closer to the state of its initial premiere screening. 　

Kim Ki-young's directorial debut, The Box of Death (1955), was the first Korean film to both use a Mitchell camera and to be filmed in synchronous sound. Kim built the set and directed most of the lighting, an independent, low-budget focus that he carried with him throughout most of his career. An anti-Communist film made under the auspices of the United States Information Service, its title is a metaphor for a time bomb. The Box of Death was seen by some critics of the time as anti-Communist in name only, as if more interested in currying favor with what was deemed the less reputable sentiments to be entertained. Still, it had contemporary defenders, such as writer Oh Young-jin, who advocated that the film was a "new type of anti-Communist film," hinting at how Kim would later push genres beyond their borders. 　

]]> by Adam Hartzell

Before the Korean New Wave (represented by such international film festival faves as Lee Chang-dong, Hong Sang-soo and Kim Ki-duk) and long before homegrown productions like Shiri, Oldboy, and The Host began dominating the Seoul box office, there was a "Golden Age" of South Korean cinema, and the landmark that started that cine-luminous era was the late Kim Ki-young's The Housemaid (1960, a/k/a Hanyo). Bay Area audiences will finally have a chance to view this classic in the type of venue it was meant to be screened in, The Castro Theatre, on March 14, as part of the 28th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Thanks to the committed restoration efforts of the Korean Film Archives, with support from the World Cinema Foundation, we will get to see it in a print closer to the state of its initial premiere screening. 　

Kim Ki-young's directorial debut, The Box of Death (1955), was the first Korean film to both use a Mitchell camera and to be filmed in synchronous sound. Kim built the set and directed most of the lighting, an independent, low-budget focus that he carried with him throughout most of his career. An anti-Communist film made under the auspices of the United States Information Service, its title is a metaphor for a time bomb. The Box of Death was seen by some critics of the time as anti-Communist in name only, as if more interested in currying favor with what was deemed the less reputable sentiments to be entertained. Still, it had contemporary defenders, such as writer Oh Young-jin, who advocated that the film was a "new type of anti-Communist film," hinting at how Kim would later push genres beyond their borders. 　

Continued reading SFIAAFF '10: The Housemaid...

Comments (0)

Comments on this Entry:

So, The Rhizome Team is getting together for our weekly staff meeting around 3ish tomorrow. (Our staff meetings are catered by the fine folks at Le Cirque and sometimes start fifteen minutes late to allow the wine to breathe and the caviar to chill)* One of the things on the agenda tomorrow is to decide which of the fabulous favicons that you have created to pick as the winner of the FAVICONTEST. This means you have around 24 hours left to contribute your own design for our new favicon. Even if you don't have the urge to submit your own creation you should definitely take a look at what folks have been able to come up with so far. Thanks again to everyone that has submitted, and keep em coming!

*PSYCHE, we are lucky to have 3 banana flavored laffy taffys to split