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- DATABASE
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Archive
DATABASE
TICKET
Aug 18, 2020
- Writer by Pierce Conran
- View658
1986 | 108 MIN | Drama, Romance
DIRECTOR IM Kwon-taek
CAST KIM Ji-mee, JEON Se-yeong, PARK Keun-hyong
RELEASE DATE August 23, 1986
CONTACT Korean Film Archive
Tel +82 2 3153 2001
Fax +82 2 3153 2080
Email kofa@koreafilm.or.kr
Prolific director IM Kwon-taek may have started his career in the early 1960s but it was only in the 1980s, after almost two decades of furiously churning out a wide variety of genre films for studios, that he found his feet as filmmaker with a social voice. His eye turned to stories about the separation of the Korean Peninsula (Jagko, 1983) or Buddhism (Mandara, 1981) during this time, but he soon started to focus his attention on stories of women in a cycle of films that included Village in the Mist (1983), Gilsotteum (1986), Ticket (1986), The Surrogate Womb (1987) and Adada (1987). Among these, Ticket (1986) stands out as a particularly frank look at the lives of women who have each been forced by individual circumstances to start selling their bodies in a ‘ticket dabang’, a common establishment where women sold coffee, and frequently sexual services on the side.
Ji-sook (KIM Ji-mee), who runs in ‘ticket dabang’ in Seokcho, a port town on the Eastern coast in Gangwon Province, has hired three new girls to work for her - Miss Hong (LEE Hye-young), Miss Yang (AHN So-young) and Se-yeong (JEON Se-yeong). Miss Hong and Miss Yang are both experienced in the work, having found their way to it as a way to escape their poor rural backgrounds. Miss Hong is a no-nonsense character who sometimes gets into trouble when she doesn’t toe the line, while Miss Yang has dreams of becoming a star and escaping the life. Se-yeong, meanwhile, who is dubbed ‘Rookie’ as the youngest of the girls, is from Seoul and new to this type of work. Her father is sick at home and she wants to help her student boyfriend pay for his studies, but she resists when customers push her for the extra services, to the eventual frustration of Ji-sook. Mean-while, Miss Ju (Myeong-hee) has spent three years at the establishment, only seeing her debt rise as she tries to support her son back home. Ji-sook, despite her harsh appearance as she slaps fines on the girls and forces them to hustle, also harbors her own sad story.
Against the unique and colorful backdrop of Seokcho, with sailors coming in and out of town and trampling through contorting alleys leading to a cramped port, Ticket (1986) depicts the stories of the women with both a warm sympathy and a cool detachment. All these characters are victims of circumstances, but they can also be naive and conniving, as their morals are worn down by their crushing needs. The story also occasionally brings us to the majestic hillsides of nearby Seorak Mountain, unspoiled and eternal, in contrast to the abasement that runs amok in town.
KIM Ji-mee was one of Korea’s brightest stars through the 1960s and early 1970s and staged a comeback in the 1980s by forming a production company, Jimee Films. Ticket (1986), in which she appeared as the Madame of the ‘ticket dabang’, was her first film as producer and followed just four months after her previous collaboration with IM in Gilsotteum (1986), for which she received rave reviews. Director IM and KIM researched for the film by interviewing several women working in real ‘ticket dabangs’ in Seokcho, a process which becomes a small part of the narrative of the film. Yet the controversial content of the film fell afoul of censors, who demanded that several parts of the film be excised before release.
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