Im Kwon-taek's Classic Film to Get Digital Face-lift for Berlin Film Festival

Published on 2019/01/16 | Source

A classic film directed by veteran director Im Kwon-taek has been invited to this year's Berlin International Film Festival next month.

His 1980 film "Jagko" will be screened along with five other foreign films in the festival's Berlinale Classics section, which is dedicated to digitally restored versions of classic movies as part of the retrospective.

"Jagko" deals with a tragic story that revolves around two men and their long, ill-fated relationship in the context of the Korean War.

This is not his first invitation to the festival. In 1982, his film about Buddhist monks, "Mandala", became the first Korean film to be invited, while two of his other films, "Gilsotteum" and "The Taebaek Mountains" were nominated in the competitive section in 1986 and 1995.

Im received an Honorary Golden Bear for "Chunhyang", a film interwoven with pansori, or traditional Korean narrative song, in 2005.

This year's festival is set to open on Feb. 7.