The Korean Cultural Centre in London is hosting another series of free film screenings and this one is called, Patchworks: Unwrapping My Korean Cinema. It is the final season of 2017’s Korean Film Nights and just like the last season, there are films being screened for free at the Korean Cultural Centre every Thursday.
The previous screening was It’s Not Her Sin, a black and white film from the ’50s. This week is Shorts Night: “Women Now” and this is totally up-to-date in terms of the representation of Korea and Koreans on screen. Audiences will have the chance to see six short films looking at the experiences of females in Korea from childhood to old age. They have been made by men and women, Koreans and expats, international co-productions and an animation made in Britain and they offer a huge range of stories
Here’s information on the first film in this season as pulled from the website:
Like A B1
Hangul: 중급불어
Running Time: 15 mins.
Director: Yann Kerloc’h
This is the one that has caught my attention out of all of the films especially because I have worked as a language teacher.
Synopsis: In Seoul, a Korean girl is passing the French oral exam DELF. Yet the examiner’s questions lead her to speak unexpectedly about her difficult family story. With the stress, her low level of French gets worse, then unconsciously, she starts to express herself with gestures.
Sea Child
Hangul: 바다아이
Running Time: 07 mins.
Director: Minha Kim
Synopsis: A poetic, almost silent hand-drawn animation, Sea Child follows Sora, a young girl on the verge of coming-of-age in downtown Seoul. Woken by a nightmare, the young Sora decides to follow a group of men into the city, in the hope of finding her mother. This moving and atmospheric short powerfully argues that notions of femininity and sexuality are learnt qualities, passed down from generation to generation.
Momo
Hangul: 모모
Running Time: 15 mins.
Director: Yun Joo Chang
Synopsis: In this refreshing take on millennial relationships, Sohee meets up with her ex-girlfriend Areum who is about to set off to live abroad in Germany. Given custody of Momo, the cat they once shared, Sohee brings the pet home to her current girlfriend Yujin and it becomes a reminder of her former relationship. This film is testament to how feelings of love and loss have not changed over the years.
Mrs Young
Hangul: 영희씨
Running Time: 26 mins.
Director: Bang Woo-ri
Synopsis: Mrs. Young-hee is a middle-aged woman who runs a corner shop with the help of her son. Her life is irreversibly changed when a young man who looks just like her first love walks in, bearing bad news. In this delicate tale director Bang Woo-ri paints a rounded picture of womanhood shaped by past experiences and real emotions.
Son’s
Hangul: 아들의 것
Running Time: 18 mins.
Director: Lee Su-jin
Synopsis: A gentle meditation on the role of aging women in society, Son’s follows the life of an older mother in rural Korea. Living alone by a mudflat, she waits for her son to visit. Echoing her isolation in the quiet, routine life she leads, director Lee Su-jin’s film is a love letter to forgotten women, redressing the imbalance of older women not seen on the big screen.
Plastic Girls
Hangul: 플라스틱 걸즈
Running Time: 7 mins.
Director: Nils Clauss
Synopsis: An aesthetically experimental journey, sitting somewhere between Wong Kar Wai and Gaspar Noe, director Nils Clauss’ short personifies the erotic ‘plastic girls’: sexually suggestive mannequins that greet shoppers at the entrance of commercial establishments. The film also reads as a quiet protest, suggesting that society still has some way to go before women are no longer signifiers of sexual desire.
The event takes place on July 27th and starts at 19:00. Booking is free and so to reserve your place, please use this site. The location is:
Korean Cultural Centre UK
1-3 Strand
London
WC2N 5BW
United Kingdom
