Keywords

One father finds life nearly impossible to live as he attempts to raise his nine children on a pitifully small salary.

A documentary that is at once a city portrait of an Asian capital. It accounts the recent changes of Seoul from the perspectives of both a former local dweller with many intimate memories and an expatriate traveler whose knowledge of the city can neither be contemporary nor irrelevant. FACES OF SEOUL loops its audiences through the ever-changing modern metropolis, from the Seodaemun Prison to the blooming cherry blossoms in a verdant park, from a neighborhood occupied with American soldiers to a parade of Buddhists marching through the streets. In each of these spaces, Gina Kim explores the city she so fondly remembers, reconciling the reality of her memories with the reality right in front of her. By so doing, FACES OF SEOUL reveals Korea's capital as a dynamic place where these opposing concepts--language vs. image, tradition vs. modern, native knowledge vs. exotic encounter--rub against each other without yielding a single dominant perspective.

Young-hwa Yoon, once a top, national news anchor, gets demoted to radio news. One day, a call comes in during his radio show threatening to blow up Mapo Bridge. While it is brushed off as a prank call, the bridge ends up getting blown to pieces just 10 minutes later. To get his career back on track, Yoon tries to grab an exclusive live broadcast. The terrorist demands a hefty sum in exchange and the exclusive gets aired. The terrorist reveals he is one of the construction workers of Mapo Bridge and demands the President's apology for his coworkers who died on the job. However, the government dismisses the demands, and the terrorist strikes again. While efforts to convince both the government and the terrorist go awry, Yoon realizes there is a bomb rigged on him and falls in sheer terror.

The narrator writes a letter to the ghost of his grandfather wondering if his recurring childhood nightmare of rusted metallic image is related to the family history. After running a scrap metal factory in Tokyo during World War II, his grandfather ended up in Cheonggyecheon of Seoul where rundown small scale metal workshops still exist amidst the gentrifying city. Drawing clues from fragments of dreams and myths relating to the metal, the film reveals the secret alchemy of third world modernity in Cheonggyecheon where these obsolete hand labors still survive. The film attempts to reveal how we shape the metal through techniques such as sand casting and milling machines, only to find out that metals had already shaped us into beings of an industrial society instead.

Seung-woo through his friend Jae-hyun becomes a "host," or a male gigolo who serves women customers, to make ends meet. Seung-woo's family had been financially successful but suffered bankruptcy and plunged into poverty. Most of his clients are themselves workers in the hostess or prostitution trade. Jae-hyun is a manager at the host bar Seung-woo works at. Jae-hyun is a chronic con artist who lies and cheats women, including his live-in girlfriend who is Seung-woo's sister, to get money. Trouble brews when Seung-woo starts dating one of his customers, a massage parlor girl named Ji-won, and Jae-hyun's scams finally start to catch up with him.

A gender bending tale of a Korean and Filipina set amidst the romantic landscape of Seoul.

For the first time in Korean history, the mayor of Seoul attempts a third term in office.

Dunchon Jugong Apts. at the edge of the metropolis, Seoul. It has been over 10 years since discussions of rebuilding these old apartment complexes began. The inhabitants tell us about their soon-to-be-demolished houses and apartments. Some of them have spent long spans of time here and some of them short. Some people are now raising daughters in the house they lived in since their childhood, some families came from other places and struggled to adjust. Each add their different forms of love to this space in their own way. As the long-postponed reconstruction nears reality, the day-to-day scenery of the apartment complexes and households is quietly coming to a close.

Wrongfully accused of child abduction and murder, the angelic-faced single mother, Lee Geum-ja, is released from prison after thirteen long years. Hell-bent on taking her sweet revenge on the man behind the hideous crime, Lee hatches an infallible plan of retribution with the help of her cellmates; however, planning is easier than doing. Now--as Lee Geum-ja struggles to make amends with the daughter she was forced to give up--at the same time, she finds herself torn between her insatiable thirst for vengeance and the desperate need for atonement. Can she have both?

After failing to kill himself by jumping off a bridge, the man is washed up on a deserted island in the middle of the river, but within view of the city's high-rises. He attempts to escape, but soon accepts his fate and the challenges in living on the island. A reclusive young woman, who takes close-up shots of the moon and has not left her apartment in years, spies him on the island and comes to think of him as her own alien.

A group of spies, the 5446 Corps were trained by North Korean special forces since their youth, with a goal of unifying Korea. They are ambitiously dispatched to South Korea, where each disguises himself as a fool, an aspiring singer, and a high school student. Passing boring time without receiving any orders from the North, they gradually get used to life as ordinary neighbors in a small town. Due to the events of the Second Battle of Yeonpyeong, South Korea demands the names, location, and rank of 30 North Korean spies active in South Korea, promising financial aid to the North on the condition that Pyongyang turns in their spies. To prevent the elites from falling into enemy hands, the North Korean government orders dozens of active duty spies to take their own lives. Meanwhile, their North Korean army instructor Kim Tae-won crosses the border to eliminate those who refuse to comply.

The education of a princess wrapped in a love story. A king and queen live happily until her sudden death. The king decides to marry his lovely daughter. She's willing, but the Lily Fairy serves as a social conscience, intent on thwarting incest. She instructs the princess to request a series of dresses impossible to make; however, the king's tailor succeeds. So the fairy plots the princess's escape, wearing the skin of the king's prize donkey. She's spirited away to be a scullery maid dressed in the noisome skin. A wandering prince sees her in the woods and is smitten. Can love find its course, and does the princess learn a lesson of life's hardships?

In 1993, former military officer Suk-young Park is recruited as a spy by South Korea's National Intelligence Service, and given the code name "Black Venus". He is then sent to infiltrate a group of high-ranking North Korean officials based in Beijing, with the ultimate goal of acquiring information on the North's nuclear program. After becoming close to Myong-un Ri, a key power broker, Black Venus succeeds beyond his wildest dreams of gaining the trust of North Korea's leadership. But political machinations on both sides of the border threaten to derail his accomplishments.

Stéphane, an eminent French Chef, lives a quiet life between his 2 adult sons and his ex-wife. But one day he falls in love with Soo, a mysterious Korean lady he met on Instagram. On a whim, Stéphane decides to visit her in Seoul. There, he will discover a new world and maybe rediscover himself, too.

In this sequel to "Tokyo Raiders", wisecracking, kung-fu-fighting spy/private eye Lam jets off to Seoul, South Korea with a bevy of gorgeous assistants to pursue the thief of a valuable money-counterfeiting plate. Once again, sundry chases, brawls, and double-crosses ensue against a gorgeous jetsetting urban backdrop.