By Tatiana Ho
The New York Korean Film Festival, hosted at the Museum of Moving Image on November 7th, presented a pair of two movies under the subtitle “Love Hurts”. The small selection of movies followed the theme well, presenting different aspects of a love-gone-wrong in each segment. The first movie, titled “Trap”, touched on the traditional romantic love that eventually went sour, while the second movie, “Confession”, touched on friendships between three men. Each showed precisely how love can hurt through the worst case scenarios in each movie. After the movies were shown the director for “Confession”, Lee Do-Yun, was welcomed on stage to speak about his inspiration for the film.
The movie “Trap” presents itself as a love story between a lost movie script writer and a minor from the country house he ends up staying in for a few days. It all begins when main character Jeong-min is disappointed with the outcome of a movie he has written for due to the lack of creative freedom. This disappointment forces Jeong-min, played by actor Yoo Han-joon, to get away from the city life and stay a few days on the countryside. While there, the main character meets the room renters daughter, Yumi, who seems to be the lust of the town. After days of avoidance by the Jeong-min he eventually gives into the temptress. What happens after is a series of unfortunate events for both Yumi and the main character as the story unfolds.
“Confession” touches on the turbulent relationship between three childhood friends with a traumatic past. Jumping into adulthood, the movie shows the three friends and their completely different paths in life. Somehow, they still remained extremely close through out their lives up until tragedy strikes one of the characters’ families. Full of deceit, “Confession” asks the question, “How far would you go for your friend?” Director Lee Do-Yun stated, “The story is about how every person can have many different faces. Some, not all, are innocent”
The New York Korean Film Festival ran through November 6 to November 11, 2015. The film festival takes pride in being able to present Korea’s media internationally. From crime thrillers, romantic fantasies, and even erotica, the film festival only hosts the best of the countries cinematography. This is the Museum of Moving Image’s first Korean Film Festival although it was presents with the fluidity of experience. The New York Korean Film Festival is a testament to previous collaborations with The Korean Society and Subway Cinema.
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