Korean shorts win awards

Director Park Chan-kyong poses with his Golden Bear award of the International Short Film Jury for his film "Night Fishing", co-directed by Park Chan-wook, during the awards ceremony at the 61st Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Feb. 19.
/ Reuters-Yonhap

By Chung Ah-young

Korean film director Park Chan-wook's latest short film "Paranmanjang (Night Fishing)" in collaboration with his brother Chan-kyong, won the Gold Bear for Best Short Film at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, which wrapped up Sunday.

Shot entirely on an iPhone, the film competed with 26 other shorts. Park and his artist brother co-directed the fantasy flick starring singer-turned-actress Lee Jeong-hyeon and actor Oh Kwang-rok. "Paranmanjang" is about a man who goes fishing at night and meets a female shaman. The film portrays images of shamanistic rituals and depicts the transition between life and death.

Park was awarded the Grand Prix for "Old Boy" at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, the CinemAvvenire Award for "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" at the 2005 Venice Film Festival and the Jury Prize for "Thirst" at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. His brother, recognized as a media artist, directed shorts such as "Sindoan" and "Flight".

Meanwhile, rising director Yang Hyo-joo received the Silver Bear award of the International Short Film Jury for her film "Broken Night". The film is about a story about two swindlers who are involved in a real accident one evening after contriving a fake car accident to claim insurance payments.

Yang graduated from the Korea National University of Arts this year and "Broken Night" was her graduation project. She has won numerous awards for her earlier shorts films "One Last Day" and "Jouissance". Most recently she received the Asian New Force award at the 15th Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards.

Lee Yoon-ki's much anticipated film "Come Rain Come Shine" starring heartthrob Hyeon Bin and Im Soo-jeong competed for the Golden Bear top prize as the only Asian film but did not win. Hyun's film "Late Autumn - 2010" co-starring Chinese actress Tang Wei directed by Kim Tae-yong was also invited to screen at the festival.

This year, nine Korean movies were shown in various sections of the festival.