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| Amen (Kim Ki-duk); San Sebastian Festival In Comp | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 23 2011, 03:54 AM (406 Views) | |
| Hitman-Reloaded | Aug 23 2011, 03:54 AM Post #1 |
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Black Belt 10th Dan
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![]() AMEN, the new work from the South Korean moviemaker Kim Ki-duk, will have its world premiere in San Sebastian Film Festival. The film, integrally shot in Europe, narrates the mysterious voyage of a young Korean girl and her encounters with a man on her trail. Kim Ki-duk (Bonghwa, 1960) is one of the South Korean directors to enjoy greatest international prestige, particularly since his film Seom (The Isle, 2000) competed at the Venice Festival. Bi-mong (Dream, 2008) was selected for the Official Selection of San Sebastian Festival’s 56th edition, and Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring, 2003) bagged the Audience Award when it was presented in the Zabaltegi-Pearls section at the Festival’s 51st edition. He landed the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Festival for Samaria (Samaritan Girl, 2004), and, at the last Cannes Festival, won the “Un Certain Regard” Award for Arirang (2011). Other important movies on his filmography are Suchwiin bulmyeong (Address Unknown, 2001), Nabbeun namja (Bad Guy, 2002), Hae anseon (The Coastguard, 2002) and Bin-jip (3-Iron, 2004). http://www.sansebastianfestival.com/ |
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| Hitman-Reloaded | Sep 9 2011, 01:10 PM Post #2 |
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Black Belt 10th Dan
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![]() A woman goes to France in search for a man who she lost contact with, only to find that he has moved on to Venice. On her way to Venice, she faces a horrible incident in the train which makes her painfully question herself about life and relationships. And when she makes a frightening conclusion, the question becomes the share of the audiences. |
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| Hitman-Reloaded | Sep 9 2011, 01:15 PM Post #3 |
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Black Belt 10th Dan
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![]() Edited by Hitman-Reloaded, Sep 9 2011, 01:25 PM.
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| Hitman-Reloaded | Sep 9 2011, 01:26 PM Post #4 |
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Black Belt 10th Dan
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| Hitman-Reloaded | Sep 20 2011, 12:50 PM Post #5 |
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Black Belt 10th Dan
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Amen By Fionnuala Halligan Dir/scr: Kim Ki-duk. South Korea. 2011. 72 mins Apparently inspired by a trip he took around Europe during his youth, Amen often comes across like something Kim Ki-duk threw together during his school holidays. As per Arirang, Kim’s self-reflective documentary that won the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes this year, Amen marks a dramatically pared-back change of direction for the director of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…And Spring. There are only two credits here, Kim and his actress Kim Ye-na. Hopefully this will turn out to be a small detour in Kim’s ongoing cinematic journey. Amen is a highly conceptual shot-on-the-fly piece about an un-named alienated Korean girl who shuttles around Europe looking for an absent artist boyfriend whose name she shouts at various destinations (“Lee Myong-soo!”), marking the only real dialogue in this 72-minute film. She is raped on a train from Paris to Venice one night by a man in a gas mask who steals her bag and shoes and begins to pursue her. Kim Ki-duk has helpfully stated that the gas-masked rapist (which he himself plays) doesn’t actually exist and is a manifestation of the girl’s fears, just in case anyone might be tempted to take Amen on face value. While this makes sequences where she takes a pregnancy test or discovers baby shoes that he has left for her something of a puzzle, Amen is first and foremost a conceptual piece of work and viewers will either hop on or off Kim’s train - small matters of logic or continuity won’t matter to those who want to take the trip. These will probably be few enough, as Kim illustrates his un-named protagonist’s alienation through the familiar cinematic shortcuts of jerky hand-held camera and agressive ambient sound, and Finecut can probably expect festival exposure for this determinedly low-budget affair, with France a potential small-scale theatrical sell. Tech credits are lower-drawer. Distinguishing the film is talented young Korean actress Kim Ye-na whose watchable, irregular, face draws you into Kim’s obsessions. Her eyes carry a delicate weight throughout repetitive, circling sequences on trains, park benches, and even as she eats a bag of five bananas. Production company: Kim Ki-duk Film International sales: Finecut Films, www.finecutfilms.com Producer/cinematography/editor: Kim Ki-duk Cast: Kim Ye-na, Kim Ki-duk http://www.screendaily.com |
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| Hitman-Reloaded | Sep 22 2011, 12:03 PM Post #6 |
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Black Belt 10th Dan
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Amen by Deborah Young The Bottom Line A girl is stalked by a man in a gas mask as she searches Europe for her missing lover in Kim Ke-duk’s offbeat, unconvincing low-budgeter. A slight and often irritating low-budgeter produced by the director Kim Ki-duk himself, who also handled camerawork and editing. A Korean girl zigzags around Europe looking for her lost boyfriend, while being stalked by a thief in a gas mask, in the slight and often irritating Amen from Korean art house king Kim Ki-duk. Far from being terrifying, the story has an almost comic book feeling of unreality, yet comes alive through the entrancing face and sober determination of newcomer Kim Ye-na in the main role. Though the Paris, Venice and Avignon locations give it a touristic Euro coprod look, this low-low-budgeter is actually a one-man show produced by the director himself, who also handled camerawork and editing. It will be a hard sell outside of festivals, though the abundant Christian symbolism may have some appeal for religious filmgoers. Kim drew knowingly on Eastern religion for the spiritual underpinnings of his award-winning Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter…and Spring, but there is none of that film’s poetry and stylistic beauty here in the nervous hand-held HD camerawork, or the utterly modern setting on trains, subways and park benches. Nor does the use of the Western religious tradition substantially enrich the story of a lovelorn girl’s inner struggle. The parallels to the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception, culminating in a long scene in a cathedral in front of a statute of the Mother and Child, are facile to say the least, although the extreme close-ups of the nameless, nearly mute heroine somehow do bridge over to French filmmaker Robert Bresson and his Catholic themes. Stepping off a plane in Paris with a rucksack for luggage, a waif-like young woman makes a phone call, only to find the number has been disconnected. This starts off a terrible day in a strange city, searching for a man to whom she’s obviously very attached. She finds his house, but a voice over the intercom says he’s gone to Venice. On the overnight train to Italy, where she is all alone in a sleeper car, a masked man makes his first appearance. The modern army-style gas mask he wears gives him a creepy B-film look, albeit justified by the need to spray the girl’s compartment with gas to knock her out prior to robbing her. While she’s unconscious, he takes a few extra minutes to rape her. The scene is brief and the violence takes place off-camera, but is still quite a shock. Waking up the next morning, she finds her leggings pulled down and her backpack and shoes missing. It’s a strong set-up that generates total sympathy for the fragile-looking girl – who seems to speak nothing but Korean, but then again, she doesn’t really talk in the film. Weeping statues in the Pere Lachaise cemetery mime her inner despair, while now and then she illogically cries out her lover’s name over the rooftops. In Venice she’s told he’s just left for Avignon, and her search begins again. The story veers into an uneasy mix of horror and symbolism when the masked man reappears and starts stalking the girl, redoubling his unwanted attentions when he discovers she’s pregnant with his baby. Though it mainly comes off as an over-extended horror film device, the anonymous gaze that stares at her from behind the gas mask is clearly intended to stand in for the voyeurism of the film camera and the audience. Since actress Kim Ye-na shares camera credit with the director, one can imagine the two passing the HD cam back and forth during scenes -- if those strands of graying hair sticking out around the mask belong to the director, as one suspects. Or possibly this is all part of an elaborate cinema game to draw the viewer into the filmmaking process. As the stoic girl who never breathes a word about her troubles to the police, her embassy or a passing Korean tourist, the sad-eyed Kim Ye-na manages to rise above the script’s inconsistencies and leave her personal mark. Venue: San Sebastian Film Festival (competing), Sept. 17, 2011. Production company: Kim Ki-duk Film Cast: Kim Ye-na Director: Kim Ki-duk Screenwriter: Kim Ki-duk Producer: Kim Ki-duk Director of photography: Kim Ki-duk, Kim Ye-na Editor: Kim Ki-duk Sales Agent: Finecut No rating, 72 minutes. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ |
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| Hitman-Reloaded | Sep 27 2011, 06:03 PM Post #7 |
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Black Belt 10th Dan
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TEASER/ TRAILER |
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