| Kim's Autobiography Takes Life of Its Own (Source) |
2009/08/12 |
By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter
Director Kim So-yong has only two feature films under her belt, but both works have already hot-wired the international film festival circuit, including the Pusan (Busan), Berlinale and Sundance events, and picked up prizes along the way.
Her second piece, "Treeless Mountain", coming to theaters here Aug. 27, is another autobiographical piece about growing pains. Existential struggles, family crises and raw human emotions speak across different languages and cultures ― so it is no mystery why Kim's films are so well received near and far.
"I wanted to understand more about what happened when I was young. People do it differently; some people see a therapist or write. I tell a story through characters", Kim told The Korea Times in an interview, Tuesday, in Seoul.
Kim's first work, "In Between Days", delves into her experience as an immigrant teenager adapting to her new American home, while "Treeless" goes further back into her childhood ... |More
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| 'Treeless Mountain' Opens Turkish Fest (Source) |
2009/06/12 |
KIM So-yong's prize-winning auto-biographical second feature "Treeless Mountain" opened the 16th Adana Golden Boll Film Festival running June 8 – 14. Director KIM and the film's two leading child actors KIM Hee-yeon-I and KIM Seong-Hee attended the red carpet opening ceremony.
Jury president and Cannes award-winning Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan introduced the film, saying he found Korean cinema interesting and followed it closely. Treeless Mountain tells the story of two unwanted young sisters shuffled off by their mother onto their alcoholic aunt and then on to their grandparents.
The film has played at numerous film festivals around the world. Director KIM is Korean-American and debuted with the feature "In Between Days". "Treeless Mountain" is her first film made in Korea. It won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Berlin, Best Film in Dubai, the Netpac Award in Pusan and the Filmex Special Jury Prize in Tokyo.
Nigel D'Sa (KOFIC) ... |More
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| 'In Between Days' (Source) |
2009/04/09 |
Directed by Kim So-yong (2006)
Howard Schumann
While many Hollywood movies portray adolescents as either bumbling fools or self assured heroes, Kim So-yong's remarkable first feature, "In Between Days" allows us to see that adolescence can be a strange, disorienting place, filled with loneliness and melancholy. Winner of a special jury prize at Sundance, "In Between Days" is an honest and affecting coming-of-age story about a Korean immigrant girl caught in limbo between the passing of childhood and the onset of maturity. Though not autobiographical, "In Between Days" is a personal film for 40-year-old director Kim So-yong who grew up as a Korean immigrant in East Los Angeles.
Reminiscent of the minimalist cinema of the Dardenne Brothers and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Kim's hand-held camera and long silences create a startling sense of immediacy. The film opens with recent immigrant Aimie (Jiseon Kim), in her parka trudging through the snow in an unnamed North American city. Having moved... |More
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| Korean Film "Treeless Mountain" Coming to U.S. Theaters (Source) |
2009/02/04 |
American movie distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired the North American rights to the Korean film "Treeless Mountain", according to a report from the Hollywood Reporter on Jan. 27. Oscilloscope will debut the film at the Film Forum in New York on Apr. 22 before taking it to screens nationwide. A DVD release is also in the works, scheduled for summer 2009.
"Treeless Mountain" won the best film award at the Dubai International Film Festival, following its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival in 2008. It will also be screened next month at the Berlin International Film Festival.
By Korean American director Kim So-yong, "Treeless Mountain" tells the story of two Korean sisters who look after each other when their impoverished mother abandons them to search for their estranged father. Taken under the care of a negligent aunt, six-year-old Jin and her younger sister Bin are exploited by their aunt's moneymaking schemes and are later shipped off to their el... |More
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| Berlinale Invites Seven Korean Films (Source) |
2009/01/23 |
A total of seven Korean films are selected to screen at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival, running February 5 -15 in the German capital. Korean films will dominate this year's Forum section. The sidebar consists of five Korean titles: "Land of Scarecrows", "Members of the Funeral", "My Dear Enemy", and "Treeless Mountain".
Recently announced was the addition of MIN Gyoo-dong's third feature "Antique", which will screen in the Culinary Cinema section. MIN, who debuted with the critically praised horror "Memento Mori" (1999) and the 2005 hit "All for Love" ("My Lovely Week"), studied film in France. His latest feature revolves around four handsome young men and a cake-shop.
"Land of Scarecrows" is NOH Kyeong-tae's second effort after his bold experimental "The Last Dining Table" which was awarded at Pusan International Film Festival and Seoul Independent Film Festival. His early experimental short films "Father and Son", and "Reincarnation" are also multi-awarded fi... |More
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