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Five Korean films were invited to the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival which is scheduled to be held from February 5th to the 15th. Out of the five are three feature films, one short film and one documentary. One thing to note is that the selection comes in various genres. First of all, Ode to My Father by director JK YOUN is currently the most popular film in Korea and has surpassed ten million admissions. This human drama was invited to the panorama section, which is known to feature excellent works of high quality and commercial popularity or works by directors worth watching for the year. This section welcomed Untold Scandal (2004) by E J-yong, Woman on the Beach (2007) by HONG Sangsoo and The Unjust (2011) by director RYOO Seung-wan in past years.

 

Kukje Market, one of the main backgrounds of Ode to My Father is an old traditional market in Shinchang-dong of Busan. When the Japanese departed Korea on the heels of Korea’s liberation, the market took shape there. It soon expanded and was known for its large amounts of U.S. military supplies after the breakout of the Korean Conflict and goods smuggled via Busan Port. Even today, the market is bustling with people and business. The story of Ode to My Father unfolds mainly in and around the market. Director YOUN who enjoyed big success through Haeundae (2009), shed a new light on Busan with warmth.  

 

Its story unfolds with Deok-su who has gone through the turbulent modern history of Korea since the Korean War in the 1950s. Deok-su was a young man with many dreams, but he never lived for his own interest. He struggles for his family during his entire life, withstanding the pain of his era. He settles in Busan as the head of his family after losing his father and younger sister while fleeing his town during the Korean War. As he grows up, the times are tough. Deok-su drudges away at work to support his mother and two siblings, but it wasn't enough. When he gets older, Deok-su decides to fly into Germany as a miner and meets his wife-to-be, working as a nurse. However, his stable and happy life is short-lived. The Vietnam War breaks out and Deok-su voluntarily goes to the war site for a new job and gets amputated. Even after returning from the war, he is drawn into the vortex of Korea’s tempestuous modern history. One day, a campaign program for reunion of dispersed family members allows Deok-su to reunite with his younger sister who he lost during the evacuation. Deok-su expresses his regret and sadness through tears.       

Ode to My Father is commonly called Korea’s Forrest Gump. This is because Deok-su, the hero of Ode to My Father directly embraces the modern history of Korea just like Forest Gump. Ode to My Father inked three million admissions within ten days since its release and it recently passed the ten million admissions milestone. Cross-generation sympathy played a key role in the film’s remarkable success. The first Korean megahit of 2015 reminded middle-aged and the elderly of their past and drew nostalgia. The modern history of Korea and experiences of the older generation came across as dramatic and fresh to the younger generation.     

 

End of Winter by KIM Dae-hwan is programmed in the Forum section, which introduces independent and experimental films from around the world and discovers promising new filmmakers. End of Winter delicately catches the facial expressions of siblings who suddenly hear of their parents’ abrupt announcement for divorce just ahead of their twilight years. Their father is about to retire after working as a teacher at Cheorwon Technical High School his entire adult life. In honor of his retirement, his wife, two sons and daughters in law come to Cheorwon. His retirement ceremony was smaller and less pleasant than expected. During a family dinner which they haven’t had for a long time, the father drops the bomb by saying that he will divorce his wife. His unexpected and out-of-the-blue announcement makes his wife too angry to talk and flabbergasts his sons and daughters-in-laws. At this critical juncture, the weather decides to get ugly, stranding the family. They have no choice but to stay at the father’s residence for three days. In the isolated space, the family’s true intentions surface and become entangled. End of Winter simply describes a process where family members mislead and misunderstand one another. In fact, director KIM lived in the Cheorwon area as his mother worked as a teacher. KIM cinematized the local ambiance he had experienced through this family movie. End of Winter is KIM’s debut film which nabbed the New Currents Prize at the Busan International Film Festival.

 

The culinary section programmed An Omnivorous Family's Dilemma directed by HWANG Yun. This section usually introduces films about food and the environment. An Omnivorous Family's Dilemma focuses on and makes the viewers think about the livestock which we eat without much thought. It shows various perspectives from an industrial to an everyday-life view. One day, foot-and-mouth disease sweeps the entire nation, having large number of pigs to be slaughtered in droves. The director decides to document the pigs being buried alive on a farm near her house. While shooting them on the farm, the director comes across new aspects and perception of what she had never thought of, while falling in love with the lovable creatures.
  
While working on the project, she realizes the hidden side of the systemized livestock industry makes her feel uncomfortable about eating pork cutlet which she used to love. It also forces her to brood over new menus that can replace meat and pork on her dinner table. What choice will they make in this dilemma? Director HWANG has steadily made documentaries to let audiences muse over a wide array of problems from a view point of the ‘ecosystem’. In addition to An Omnivorous Family's Dilemma, HWANG also made Farewell, which picked up the Excellence Prize at the Yamagata International Documentary Festival and the Unpa Prize at the Busan International Film Festival in 2001. An Omnivorous Family's Dilemma took home the Grand Prize in the Korean film category at the Green Film Festival in Seoul.

 

Hosanna, a short directed by NA Young-kil is going to the Berlin Film Festival after participating in the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. The story begins as a boy revives a frog that was run over by a car. Unlike others, he has supernatural powers. The film shows the boy reviving the frog in one take. The boy cuts his arm and feeds his mother with his blood, who is in a coma, to keep her alive. It is not rare for locals in his town to commit suicide or come down with an illness. But the boy fights the shadow of death that haunts the town and heals the locals with his extraordinary power. But his good intentions are not welcomed. On the contrary, the boy hears their complaints. The revived people become disgusted with their new lives and try to kill themselves once again. Hosanna coherently takes a cold look at the boy who has to save someone continuously like Sisyphus. This film asks viewers “Who will save the people?” and “Who will save a savior who becomes depraved?” Director NA called the work ‘a film that asks a question about the ethics and value of salvation.’ 
 

Last but not least, Revivre, director IM Kwon-taek’s 102nd feature film was officially invited to the Critics Week. The event, a newly established side bar section this year will be held jointly by the German Critics Association and the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The section was established last among the three major international film festivals after Cannes and Venice. The event will run from February 5 to 12 during the jubilee period. The organizing committee explained that they selected Revivre as the film matches the purpose of the special week to select works that profoundly and richly ask various questions. 

 

“IM Kwon-taek, a living legend of Korean cinema, doesn’t play it safe, but takes all kinds of risks in his latest (102nd) output,” the organizing committee was quoted by Finecut, who is in charge of international distribution. "A touching yet completely unsentimental reflection on aging and beauty is told through a complex structure of flashbacks, which in itself defies the finality of death.”

Revivre is based on the original novel of the same title which picked up the 28th Lee Sang Literary Prize in 2004. The film explores the anguish of a man attracted to a healthy young woman despite his wife dying of cancer. AHN Sung-ki played the middle-aged man who is debating between his sick and old wife and a young female co-worker. KIM Ho-jong and KIM Gyu-ri played the wife and the female co-worker, respectively. The film was screened at the 71st Venice International Film Festival, the 39th Toronto International Film Festival, the 19th Busan International Film Festival and the 25th Singapore International Film Festival. The film will hit screens in Korea this spring. 

 

In February of last year, Sprout directed by YOON Ga-eun won the Best Short Prize in the K-generation section with rave reviews at the Berlin International Film Festival. A lot of attention is being placed on how the five films will be received in Berlin in 2015.