Joe Kim, founder of the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, is curating a Korean Film Series at the Philadelphia Museum of Art that runs each Wednesday in April at 6pm. The film series features a mix of contemporary Korean films, documentaries, and classics and showcases traditional and modern Korean culture with themes explored in the museum's Treasures from Korea exhibition. Films are screened in the museum's Van Pelt Auditorium and are $8 for general audiences, $5 for museum members and FREE for students with valid ID. (Does not include museum admission, which is Pay What You Wish on Wednesdays after 5pm).
For trailers and images, visit
http://koreanfilmseries.tumblr.com/ APRIL 2: Chi-hwa-seon (Painted Fire)
Chi-hwa-seon is a vivid portrait of the life of one of Korea's greatest artists, renowned painter Jang Seung-eop. Celebrated filmmaker Im Kwon-Taek won the Cannes Film Festival Best Director prize for this film, which follows Jang's struggles with his artistic identity during turbulent political revolutions in late-ninetenth-century Korea. The screening is followed by a conversation with Hyunsoo Woo, the Museum's Maxine and Howard Lewis Associate Curator of Korean Art; and Eugene Y. Park, Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History and Director, James Joo-Jin Kim Program in Korean Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
(Includes strong sexual content and some gore)
APRIL 9: Sunny
Sunny is a film about a middle-aged woman who tries to fulfill her friend's dying wish of reuniting their group of high school friends. The film alternates between the present day where the women are middle-aged, and the 1980s when they were in high school. Featuring a soundtrack of 80s pop hits, this heartwarming film will alternately make you laugh and cry as these long-lost friends discover they can still change one another's lives.
Feel free to come dressed in your 80's best!
APRIL 16: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring
From the brash actions of youth, through the dawn of adolescence, to the fullness of adulthood, one man's life lessons are learned as seasons pass, his emotional inner life changing with the landscape around him. Award-winning Korean writer/director/editor Kim Ki-duk has crafted a lushly exotic, yet universal story about the human spirit and its evolution, from innocence to love, evil to enlightenment, and ultimately to rebirth. This screening is followed by a discussion with Aaron Mannino (multimedia artist, film programmer, writer), Donald Fredericksen (professor of film and Religious and Visual Studies at Cornell) and Rev. Sanghyeon Cheon (chair of Won Buddhist Studies program at the Won Institute).
APRIL 23: Planet B-Boy
Korean-American filmmaker Benson Lee (who grew up in Philadelphia) sought to answer the question of how South Korea became the epicenter of the global phenomenon known as breakdancing, which originated in the Bronx in the 1970s. Weaving between the vivid backdrops of Osaka, Paris, Las Vegas, and Seoul, unforgettable images frame the intimate stories of international teams of dancers who struggle to fulfill their dreams. This screening is followed by a filmmaker discussion and a b-boy demonstration.
APRIL 30: The Yellow Sea
Desperate to pay off mounting debts, a Korean man living in China (a joseonjok) agrees to carry out an assassination in South Korea. But soon the man finds himself at the center of a dangerous conspiracy as he begins to uncover a vicious trap of betrayal and lies. Screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, The Yellow Sea is an impressive crime thriller from director Na Hong-jin (The Chaser).
To get tickets visit philamuseum.org or call 215-235-SHOW (7469)
