Hey NYC! Kim Jee-woon Retrospective starts Feb. 25th at BAM!

Over the last year or so there's been a whole lot of coverage in these here parts for Kim Jee-woon's latest blend of crackling genre goodness I Saw The Devil.

And for those living in the NYC area, from Feb. 25th to March 2nd, the Brooklyn Academy of Music's BAMcinematek will be rolling out all six of his films - from A Tale Of Two Sisters to The Good, The Bad, The Weird, with the man himself in person for a Q&A after his latest. Sounds superb.

Full details and links below.

BAMcinématek presents Severely Damaged:
The Cinema of Kim Jee-woon, a retrospective of the rising Korean director. Feb 25--Mar 2

Severely Damaged: The Cinema of Kim Jee-woon schedule

Friday, Feb 25
7pm: I Saw the Devil
Q&A with Kim

Saturday, Feb 26
6:50, 9:30pm: A Bittersweet Life

Sunday, Feb 27
2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm: A Tale of Two Sisters

Monday, Feb 28
4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm: The Quiet Family

Tuesday, Mar 1
4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm: The Foul King

Wednesday, Mar 2
6, 9pm: The Good, the Bad, the Weird


Brooklyn, NY/Jan 31, 2011--From Friday, February 25 through Wednesday, March 2
BAMcinématek explores the career of one of South Korea's most promising and prolific
talents in Severely Damaged: The Cinema of Kim Jee-woon, presented in collaboration
with The Korea Society and Magnolia Pictures. With his newest bloodbath, I Saw the Devil
(2010--screening Feb 25), Kim lays claim to the title of most provocative director from the
peninsula that has produced some of the world's most shocking cinema of the last decade,
from Park Chan-wook's grisly vengeance-seekers to Bong Joon-ho's monstrous murderers.
Initially banned in his home country due to Korean authorities' claim that scenes from the
film "severely damage the dignity of human values," I Saw the Devil has become one of the
most anticipated movies of the new year, and will finally be distributed stateside by
Magnolia Pictures on March 4. With six films under his belt, Kim has proven himself to be
more than just a maestro of the macabre--he's a virtuoso director of multiple genres--
comedy, noir, horror, and even western. BAMcinématek is thrilled to host Kim Jee-woon in
person for a Q&A along with this retrospective.

Early last decade, Kim entered the history books with the horror fable A Tale of Two
Sisters (2003--Feb 27), which became the highest-grossing horror film in Korea and the
first ever to receive distribution in the US. "One of the best, and most heartbreaking, weirdgirl
horror movies ever made," according to Terrence Rafferty of The New York Times, A
Tale of Two Sisters "is so cunningly constructed--it's as tricky, in its way, as Alain Resnais'
Last Year at Marienbad." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times likened this story of a
dysfunctional family to "Shakespearean tragedy," and Tony Rayns of Time Out London
celebrated its "Caligari-esque twists." Two Sisters was not the first time Kim exploded the
nuclear family. His feature film debut, The Quiet Family (1998--Feb 28),--his first
collaboration with Korean superstar actor Song Kang-ho (The Host) is an experimental,
pitch-black comedy about a family whose guests keep mysteriously perishing. The Quiet
Family was remade by Japanese shock-auteur Takashi Miike in The Happiness of the
Katakuris (2001).

"I want to work with a wide range of genres because it gives each film a different cinematic
energy," Kim has said. In between his horror efforts, Kim has peppered his resume with
films that run the gamut, while still spattering a bit of blood along the way. The Foul King
(2000--Mar 1), starring Song as a bank clerk-turned-professional-wrestler, is an "amusing,
oddly delicate film," with a "welcome and unassuming humanity" (A.O. Scott, The New York
Times). A Bittersweet Life (2005--Feb 26), Kim's look into the violent world of the Korean
mob, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, is a "gorgeously lensed, tightly wound coil of brutality, serenity and unctuous character turns, each succumbing to justly earned and spectacularly poetic ends" (Nigel Floyd, Time Out London). The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008--Mar 2), again stars Song, this time alongside an all-star cast of Korean talent, showing how preeminent Kim has become in Korea. An explicitly Korean take on the spaghetti western, it first screened at BAM in last year's Focus on IFC Films. "This pomo oater gets within chaw-spitting distance of action-flick   greatness" (David Fear, Time Out New York.)
Kim is currently working on his first project made outside his native country, Last Stand, with Liam Neeson. In anticipation of the release of his newest thrill ride, I Saw the Devil, as well as his arrival as a major new talent in English-language cinema, BAMcinématek welcomes Kim to Brooklyn to celebrate his work to date.

All films in Korean with English subtitles.

A Bittersweet Life (Dalkomhan insaeng) (2005) 120 min.

With Lee Byung-hun, Hwang Jeong-min, Jeong Yu-mi.

Kim's follow-up to A Tale of Two Sisters is a stylish and riveting gangster picture about a calculating, stone-faced mobster (Lee) who, in an uncharacteristic moment of weakness, defies his boss' orders-- an act that instigates a chain of violence and revenge. A Bittersweet Life is a gripping showcase for Kim's inventive direction (which cleverly nods towards the greats: Woo, Tarantino, Scorsese), precisely choreographed action set pieces, and the bravura star performance by Lee, whose "psychological gear-changes from an at-rest persona which mixes Zen inscrutability with Melvilleesque taciturnity to whirlwind killer are a template for the film's own narrative dynamics" (Wally Hammond, Time Out London).

Sat, Feb 26 at 6:50, 9:30pm

The Foul King (Banchikwang) (2000) 112 min.

With Song Kang-ho, Go Ho-kyung, Jang Hang-seon.

Korean superstar Kang-ho Song (Memories of Murder, The Host) is Dae-Ho, a down-on-his luck bank clerk whose daily humiliations by his supervisor (often ending in a headlock) lead him to a local wrestling trainer to learn how to defend himself. Through his new hobby, Dae-Ho gains confidence and a second job as the Foul King, a professional wrestling villain/cheater who antagonizes his opponents with cooking utensils, rubber bands, and other contraband. Song's star-making performance deftly balances over-the-top farce and pathos.

Tue, Mar 1 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm

The Good, the Bad, the Weird (Joheun nom nabbeun nom isanghan nom) (2008) 130 min.

With Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, Jung Woo-sung.

Kim Jee-woon makes his case as one of Korea's most entertaining filmmakers with this spectacular Korean spaghetti western. Visually audacious and with a heart attack-inducing pace, Kim's film needs to be seen on the big screen for its beautiful widescreen visuals and stylish action set pieces. This tale about three Korean desperados in 1940s Manchuria out to steal a treasure map while on the run from the Japanese army and Chinese gangsters is possibly the most fun you'll ever have watching a movie.

Wed, Mar 2 at 6, 9pm

I Saw the Devil (2010) 143 min.

With Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-sik, Jeon Gook-hwan.

This demented masterpiece was denied release for its graphic, "severely damaging" scenes of
bloodletting and vengeance gone wild. When his beautiful fiancée is savagely dismembered by crazed killer Kyung-chul (Oldboy's Choi), devastated government agent Soo-hyun (A Bittersweet Life's Lee) snaps, apprehending the killer and torturing him, but letting him escape with a tracker embedded in his skin. Uninterested in mere vengeance by homicide, Soo-hyun sets off a brutal game of cat and mouse, repeatedly capturing his prey to inflict pain and then releasing him. Graphic and gory, but damn gorgeous, too, Kim's latest is one of the most well-shot and stylish thrillers of the year--a trenchant examination of revenge and the price it exacts on one's soul.

Fri, Feb 25 at 7pm
Q&A with Kim

The Quiet Family (Joyonghan Gajok) (1998) 98 min.

With Song Kang-ho, Choi Min-sik, Park In-hwan.

Kim's debut feature is an experimental, comedy about a family who relocates to a remote cabin in the Korean countryside and set up a lodge for passing hikers. Unfortunately, their hopes for an idyllic life away from the city don't go quite according to plan when, one by one, their guests die off. Gripped by paranoia and fear of persecution, the family unravels. This viciously funny, perverse attack on conservative Korean family values was loosely remade by Takashi Miike as The Happiness of the Katakuris.

Mon, Feb 28 at 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm

A Tale of Two Sisters (Janghwa, Hongryeon) (2003) 115 min.

With Moon Geun-young, Kim Kap-su, Yum Jung-ah.

A wicked stepmother. A slain pet bird. Mysterious bruises. Based on a traditional Korean folktale, Kim's A Tale of Two Sisters, which Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called "a triumph of stylish, darkly absurdist horror that even manages to strike a chord of Shakespearean tragedy" is chock-full of brutal Grimm-like imagery. The titular siblings band together in bloody fear of their stepmother and longing for their dead mother. This groundbreaking motion-picture fable is the highest grossing Korean horror film in Korea and the first to gain theatrical distribution in the US.

Sun, Feb 27 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm

About BAMcinématek The four-screen BAM Rose Cinemas (BRC) opened in 1998 to offer Brooklyn audiences alternative and independent films that might not play in the borough otherwise, making BAM the only performing arts center in the country with two mainstage theaters and a multiplex cinema. In July 1999, beginning with a series celebrating the work of Spike Lee, BAMcinématek was born as Brooklyn's only daily, year-round repertory film program. BAMcinématek presents new and rarely seen contemporary films, classics from cinema history, work by local artists, and festivals of films from around the world, often with special appearances by directors, actors, and other guests. BAMcinématek has not only presented major retrospectives by well-known filmmakers such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Shohei Imamura, Manoel de Oliveira, and Luchino Visconti, but it has also introduced New York audiences to contemporary artists such as Pedro Costa and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In addition BAMcinématek programmed the first US retrospectives of directors Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Arnaud Desplechin, and Hong Sang-soo. Recently BAMcinématek co-curated a three-year summer collaboration of new feature/documentary/short films with the Sundance Institute, from 2006 to 2008. BAMcinématek launched the first BAMcinemaFEST in June 2009, a 16-day festival of new independent films and repertory favorites; a second BAMcinemaFEST ran in June 2010. From March 3 to 9, 2010, BAMcinématek and International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) presented films nominated for the 2010 VPRO Tiger Awards at the 39th IFFR in public and industry screenings.Credits The Wall Street Journal is the presenting sponsor for BAMcinématek and BAM Rose Cinemas.
Severely Damaged: The Cinema of Kim Jee-woon, presented in collaboration with The Korea Society and Magnolia Pictures.

BAM Rose Cinemas are named in recognition of a major gift in honor of Jonathan F.P. and Diana Calthorpe Rose. BAM Rose Cinemas would also like to acknowledge the generous support of The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Estate of Richard B. Fisher, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Bloomberg, and Time Warner Inc. Additional support for BAMcinématek is provided by The Cultural Heritage Preservation Fund, The Grodzins Fund, and The Liman Foundation.

Special thanks to Tom Quinn, Matt Cowal & Neal Block/Magnolia, Yuni Cho/The Korea Society, Debbi Berlin/Palisades, Justin DiPetrio/IFC.

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