Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

Discuss internationally-released DVDs and Blu-rays or other international DVD and Blu-ray-related topics.
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fiddlesticks
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#126 Post by fiddlesticks » Sun Jan 24, 2010 7:50 pm

Not being a Buddhist, I am going to find it quite difficult to describe the next film in the series, variously titled The Avatamska Sutra, Passage to Buddha, or its Anglicized Korean title, Hwaomkyung (화엄경). I imagine that a better grounding in Buddhist philosophy than I possess would enrich the viewer's experience, but even lacking that it's still an intriguing and beautiful film.

As it happens, I am currently reading a book in which the Dalai Lama explains some basic Buddhist concepts, and one of them seems quite pertinent to this film. "There can be two visions of the same thing," says His Holiness to the author Thomas Laird, "one of people who have a pure insight developed through spiritual practice and one that is purely conventional." He goes on to explain that both viewpoints can be true at the same time, even if the "uncommon viewpoint" is not verifiable by western standards.(*) All throughout this film are examples of things (mostly people) which are both as they seem and not as they seem.

On the surface, the story is about Sun Jae (Oh Tae-kyung), an 11-year old boy who, upon the death of his father, sets out to find his mother. Along the way he encounters a number of colorful characters, each of whom give him guidance in his quest. However, while Sun Jae is a young boy, at another level he is not. He seeks his mother, but who--or what--is his mother? The people, and even the cows, that he encounters are also, in the uncommon view, sattvas, placed in his path to assist him in his quest.

At the "common viewpoint" level, Sun Jae's travels illustrate director Jang Sun-woo's concern about the deteriorating state of postmodern Korean society. Sun Jae moves from construction sites to shanty towns to quarries to fishing piers, and nearly everyone he meets is poor or even entirely without possessions and living in at least some degree of squalor. Even the weather is uncomforting: wind and rain pelt him throughout the movie. Bustling modern Korea can often be seen on the horizon, but he knows, and we know, that Sun Jae will not find his "mother" there.

If this sounds like a gray, depressing, and difficult movie, it is not. (I told you it would be hard to describe!) It is beautifully photographed by You Yeong-gil, one of Korea's foremost cinematographers with a 70+ film career spanning from the late 1960s to Hur Jin-ho's Christmas in August, You's last feature before his untimely death. Even if the story (or stories) leave you befuddled, the film is worth viewing just for the images. The performances are strong throughout, most especially by young Oh Tae-kyung, who is onscreen virtually throughout the film and must cross some physically (and emotionally) difficult territory. There are a few of scenes that some viewers might find disturbing, one involving the slaughter of animals, the others involving the sexual awakening of the young boy-who-is-not-a-young-boy, so be forewarned. (This subject is covered with a little more depth in Adam Hartzell's review at koreanfilm.org, if you wish to know more.)

As with most of the other DVDs in this box, the picture is enhanced for widescreen TV from its 1.85:1 OAR, and looks lovely. The sound is a bit hissy, but that's not always out of place in a film where so many storms rage. The optional English subtitles, however, leave a lot to be desired. They're really no worse than the others in this series (Yeong-ja excepted), but in this film, the dialogue is much more crucial, and you're already expected to understand each line at two distinct levels, the "common" and "uncommon." Thus, when one encounters a subtitle like the one shown below, it can really throw you off your stride.
Image

Even with the distracting subtitles, and the dense and multi-layered storyline, 90% of which I'm probably not getting, I still can recommend this DVD as one that will provide an interesting viewing experience.

(*)Thomas Laird, The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama (Grove Press, New York, 2006, p. 5). Please excuse any formatting errors in this footnote; I lost my Strunk & White about 30 years ago!

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fiddlesticks
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#127 Post by fiddlesticks » Mon Jan 25, 2010 2:30 am

The final installment of the Korean Movie Classic Collection is 1994's My Rosy Life (or La Vie en Rose, 장미빛 인생), directed by Kim Hong-joon. It is set in Garabong, a suburb of Seoul, amid the student riots and general chaos of 1987 as the government prepared to host the 1988 Olympic Games. The story centers on a comic book shop which the proprietress (Choi Myeong-gil) uses as an illicit no-questions-asked shelter at night. Her shop is populated by a wide variety of down-and-outs, petty thieves, and others with no place to go who, for a small fee, can stretch out on the chairs, enjoy a bowl of noodles, and watch a late-night porno on the closed-circuit. In particular, three men are attracted to the shop and its "Madam:" Dong-pal (Choi Jae-sung), a small-time hood on the run from two or three different gangs; Yu-jin (Lee Ji-hyeong), a baby-faced writer whose latest work has made him an unwitting enemy of the state; and Ki-young (Cha Kwang-su), who harbors a secret that will upend all of their lives.

I really wanted to like this film. These are fairly well-thought-out characters thrown together at a very interesting place and time in modern Korean history. Unfortunately, there are just too many problems for the film to overcome.

The main problem is that the film revolves around the least interesting, most generic character, Dong-pal. Dong-pal is just a hood, like any other hood from any other Korean gangster film set in any time or place. Time spent with this character and his romance of the Madam (I'm not spoiling anything; Dong-pal and the Madam share a romantic, wistful embrace on the cover of the DVD) is basically time wasted, when one considers the potentially much more interesting stories shunted aside to make room for him. In particular, the moment that Yu-jin reveals his secret, for all practical purposes his story ends, in favor of a "Yu-jin Becomes a Man" story which is utterly without interest.

A second problem, even more damning in my eyes, is that the first act of this central romance is Dong-pal's brutal rape of the Madam. I confess that I have very little tolerance for these "love-my-abuser" stories. At first, the Madam takes no action, the point being to demonstrate to us that she's a tough cookie; and anyway, she really can't turn him in to the police as she herself is running an illegal business. Besides, this is 1987 Seoul; you don't turn to the police for help, especially from their side of the tracks. Okay; fine. But Dong-pal immediately falls in love and (for lack of a better word) begins to stalk her, and this of course wears down her resistance over time. Spare me.

There are other issues, such as several laughably out-of-place martial arts fights (with sound effects straight out of the old Batman TV series; I kept expecting to see "OOF!" or "KA-WHAM!" spiral up from someone's kicked stomach), and the combined effect of them is to sink what had been a very promising premise.

Once again, we have an anamorphic 1.85:1 presentation that is crisp and clean, and a good 2.0 soundtrack in the original Korean. Subtitles are fine; much improved over the middle five titles from this boxset. Extras here include both a director's commentary track (unsubbed) and a 15-minute curiosity entitled "My Korean Cinema, Episode 8: Garabong, again." This 2006 item is nothing more than brief scenes from the film, in chronological order, presented wordlessly with a simple music track. Each brief scene is prefaced by a title card, on which the only things I could decipher were dates--evidently shooting dates, as each are from 1994. They're not outtakes or alternate scenes; each is from the film itself. I don't know how much sense it would make if one were to watch it without having seen the film; but maybe those title cards explain it all. There's also the usual trailer/poster/photo gallery.

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Finch
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#128 Post by Finch » Tue May 11, 2010 9:53 am

I'd like to get The Housemaid but yesasia says the R3 is OOP. Anyone know any other Asian or Western retailers where this might still be available? Thanks.

academyleader
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#129 Post by academyleader » Tue May 11, 2010 10:28 am

"The Housemaid" R3 DVD is available here:

http://www.seoulselection.com/bookstore ... &Itemid=53" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Marshall Deutelbaum

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triodelover
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#130 Post by triodelover » Tue May 11, 2010 10:29 am

Mr Finch wrote:I'd like to get The Housemaid but yesasia says the R3 is OOP. Anyone know any other Asian or Western retailers where this might still be available? Thanks.

Here you go. Better prices than YesAsia and Mr Kim always includes something extra - postcards of Seoul or Korean handicrafts and the like.
Last edited by triodelover on Tue May 11, 2010 3:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Finch
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#131 Post by Finch » Tue May 11, 2010 2:26 pm

Thank you very much to both of you. This is one of the reasons that makes the forum great.

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L.A.
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#132 Post by L.A. » Sun May 16, 2010 8:04 am

Pulgasari (1985)

Is this possibly available on DVD?

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#133 Post by manicsounds » Mon May 17, 2010 10:55 am

Pulgasari was on DVD in Japan, currently out of print though. I think that was the only legitimate release of it. Without English subtitles though, only Japanese.

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L.A.
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#134 Post by L.A. » Mon May 17, 2010 12:27 pm

manicsounds wrote:Pulgasari was on DVD in Japan, currently out of print though. I think that was the only legitimate release of it. Without English subtitles though, only Japanese.
Okay, thank you for the info!

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perkizitore
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#135 Post by perkizitore » Tue May 18, 2010 7:57 pm

Has anyone bought the Kim Dong Won Collection? It looks quite interesting, but i would like to know if these are strong films with decent transfers before spending 60$.

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#136 Post by manicsounds » Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:46 am

The DMZ
Long thought to be lost, the 1965 war classic The DMZ was rediscovered in 2005 and through the efforts of the Korean Film Archive, the seminal film now comes to DVD with English subtitles. One of director Park Sang Ho's most representative films, The DMZ looks at the devastation of war through the eyes of two children left in the demilitarized zone after the Korean War.
In the summer of 1953, a young boy and girl find themselves in no man's land after the signing of the Korean War armistice. Encountering everything from landmines to a North Korean spy, they try their hardest to survive in the DMZ, but the war is far from over for these kids with nowhere left to go. Presented in semi-documentary fashion, the film was shot on location in the DMZ 12 years after the armistice, providing an emotionally harrowing and historically noteworthy account of life at the 49th parallel in the aftermath of the Korean War.

This release includes a 45-minute Park Sang Ho documentary and still gallery, plus an English-Korean booklet.
Romantic Comedy Collection of the 1950s (3 discs)

Any info on what the 3 movies are??

Sim Cheong (dir: Shin Sang Ok) 1972
unfortunately, not subtitled in English
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389021/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by manicsounds on Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

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htdm
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#137 Post by htdm » Mon Jul 05, 2010 3:30 am

The Romcom box contains:
Holiday in Seoul (1956)
The Love Marriage (1958)
Female Boss aka Female Executive (1959)

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#138 Post by manicsounds » Sun Jul 11, 2010 6:53 am

"The DMZ" comes with a 45 minute documentary on the director, plus the 62 minute feature on a single-layer DVD. I'm not sure why they crammed it on there without a dual-layer. The PQ of the film does suffer. Also, there are burned-in English subtitles on the print, with optional electronic English subtitles below the image frame (in a 2.70:1 VERY widescreen ratio), which pretty much duplicates the old burned in subs with some additional dialogue that wasn't subtitled before.

It might sound like a pain, but assuming this is the only print known, it's nowhere near as bad as the 1930s or 1940s Korean films. Most people are spoiled by the good conditions of Japanese films from the same era. It's a shame Korean films never had the recognition for preservation.....

The booklet also mentions that this transfer is from a Beta SP source, not from film elements, and this release is the 6-reel re-edited version for Asian Film Festivals and not the original 12 reel version, still lost.

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#139 Post by manicsounds » Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:41 am

So exactly 2 years ago, I purchased the Kim Ki Young set, and I finally watched "The Insect Woman" (completely different from Shohei Imamura's film) (and yes, it takes me this long to watch movies....) and that was quite an experience that is very similar in structure to "Housemaid", but with a lot more dazzling visuals in color. Too bad the print itself is in terrible condition... A theatrical print from Spain was the best they could do? Sad how badly taken care of these old Korean movies are....

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Michael Kerpan
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#140 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:56 am

> A theatrical print from Spain was the best they could do?

Probably the only surviving copy (rather like Aimless Bullet, where the only surviving print is an English-subbed theatrical print, in rather poor condition).

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#141 Post by manicsounds » Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:27 pm

Well the same with DMZ, only a truncated English subbed print, The Housemaid, the missing scenes had burned in subs (removed digitally), and many of the 30s and 40s prints have burned in Japanese subtitles.

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htdm
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#142 Post by htdm » Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:59 am

The pre-1945 films were originally released with burned in Japanese subs so those prints were not abridged versions.

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#143 Post by manicsounds » Wed Jul 21, 2010 11:26 am

There are some films, like in one of the Past Unearthed boxsets, like "Angels On The Streets" which clearly have censorship cuts by the Japanese, which the missing cuts will never be found, but the screenplay that comes with the set has it all. Unfortunately for most, the screenplay is printed in the original Japanese! (Muhaha! Not a problem for me!)

Also, in Hong Kong, all films are required to have Chinese and English subtitles on theatrical prints (which I never understood, why are Chinese subs required when they are speaking Chinese anyway??), and even the oldest Shaw Brothers films on DVD don't have subtitles on the image, very thankfully. The Shaw Brothers studios film prints are in surprisingly good condition, thankfully.

Too bad Korea just never had the resources.

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whaleallright
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#144 Post by whaleallright » Mon Aug 02, 2010 3:54 pm

Also, in Hong Kong, all films are required to have Chinese and English subtitles on theatrical prints (which I never understood, why are Chinese subs required when they are speaking Chinese anyway??)
My understanding was that the colonial gov't required English subtitles, but that the Chinese subtitles were there because of the importance of markets that may not have been fully able to understand either the Mandarin or Cantonese spoken in the films, and could use the simplified Chinese in the subtitles.

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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#145 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Fri Aug 06, 2010 11:32 am

HK prints are subtitled in traditional Chinese, not simpliflied. Both Chinese and English subtitles were required during the colonial era; subtitles are optional now, but the old practice continues anyway, with one big change -- these days it's pretty common (more common than not, from what I'm told) for HK prints of local films to directly transcribe the dialogue in Written Cantonese, which is less than helpful for non-Cantonese-speakers (since it employs Cantonese grammar, Cantonese vocabulary, Cantonese-specific characters, etc.). When the films are shown in other Chinese-speaking markets, they're redubbed in Mandarin and/or given standard (Written Mandarin) subs. HK DVD releases usually have standard subs as well, presumably to make them more exportable.

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#146 Post by manicsounds » Fri Aug 27, 2010 9:12 am

The Housemaid 2010 remake out 9/18, on 2-disc DVD only

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#147 Post by manicsounds » Tue Sep 07, 2010 3:50 am

Lee Man Hee 4 Film Collection from the Korean Film Archives, September 11, 2010 from yesasia
One of the best Korean directors in the 1960s, Lee Man Hee made 50 films between 1961 and his death in 1975. Best known for his thrillers and action films, the director's works sadly remains mostly unseen by modern audiences (Prints of his masterpiece Late Autumn is said to no longer exist). Fortunately, several Lee films were presented at the 10th annual Pusan International Film Festival in 2005. Now, the Korean Film Archive is releasing four of the director's best works in remastered form with English subtitles.

Marines Who Never Returned (1963) - During the Korean war, a group of South Korean soldiers save an orphaned young girl during a battle in a ruined city, and they come to serve as her foster father. When one of the soldiers finds his sister among the dead in the city, the young girl tells him that it was a fellow South Korean soldier that killed her. Tensions quickly rise when that soldier joins the platooon.

Black Hair (1964) - A woman is disfigured by her gang boss lover after he discovers her affair with a henchman. With nowhere to turn, the woman becomes a prostitute and meets a kind taxi driver in the process. However, the gang boss still harbor feelings for his former lover and decides to go against the rules of the gang to get her back.

Holiday (1968) - A poor young man finds out his lover is pregnant. With no money to raise a family, the man resorts to stealing his friend's money to pay for his lover's abortion. While she's in the operating room, he goes off to a bar and meets a woman at a bar, starting off a series of bad decisions that sends his life on a downward spiral.

Assassin (1969) - A North Korean assassin is sent to the south on a mission to kill a defected spy. However, when he meets the spy's daughter, the assassin grows a conscience and is unable to fulfill his mission. Instead, he turns himself in to the police and helps them round up other North Korean spies.

This box set also comes with a documentary on Lee Man Hee

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#148 Post by manicsounds » Mon Oct 04, 2010 8:37 am

Nearly a year after getting the Yoon Hyeon Mok DVD set, I finally watched 1 film (Yes, kevyip can take that long....). "Forever With You" was pretty much a film noir set in Korea. And being a noir fan, it did hit the notes for me, but there were some weak points to it. I don't know if it was censoring or not, but some scenes seemed to end abruptly.... but it had great camerawork, and good story to it too. If this were made in the United States in the 1940s, would've definitely become a classic noir film.

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manicsounds
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#149 Post by manicsounds » Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:36 pm

I got the Lee Man Hee boxset today, and KOFA upped themselves on this one! Commentaries on all films!

extras:
The Marines Who Never Returned
-Commentary by Choi Dong Hoon (Filmmaker) and Ju Sung Chil (Journalist)
-Image Gallery
Black Hair
-Commentary by Park Chan Wook (Filmmaker) and Kim Young Jim (Critic)
-Film To Digital Restoration Comparison Before and After
-Image Gallery
A Day Off
-Commentary by Chung Sung Il (Critic and Director)
-Lee Still Gallery
Assassin
-Commentary by Oh Seung Uk (Filmmaker) and Ju Sung Chul (Journalist)
-Filmmaker Documentary Series: Lee Man Hee (50 Minutes)

All films come with Dolby 2.0 Korean, with English, Korean, Japanese subtitles
Extras including commentaries all have English or Korean subtitles
64 page book, half in Korean, half in English

Film Strip (I don't know from which film yet....)

yoshimori
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Re: Korean Films on DVD and Blu-ray

#150 Post by yoshimori » Wed Dec 01, 2010 2:43 am

Anybody got a line on where one might get the "Jeonju Digital Project 2000-2008" DVD set the festival put out last year? The festival site seems not to be selling it anymore. Saw the Khoo and Ratanaruang online at asiapacificfilms.com. Great shorts.

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