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2007｜112 MIN | Drama

DIRECTOR IM Sang-soo

CAST JI Jin-hee, YUM Jung-ah, LEE Eun-seong

RELEASE DATE January 4, 2007

CONTACT Cineclick Asia (Fantom co.,Ltd)

Tel : +82 2 538 0211

Fax : +82 2 538 0479

Following the broad acclaim of A Good Lawyer's Wife (2003) and The President’s Last Bang (2005), director IM Sang-soo pursued an altogether different direction for his fifth film. Exploring the ideological divides of a rapidly changing modern nation, The Old Garden (2006) is a dense and literary fable that calls to mind the works of Korean New Wave directors such as JANG Sun-woo and PARK Kwang-su. Though just as politically bold and socially sensitive as his previous works, this film, which debuted at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, was and remains the most personal film of IM’s career.

Adapted from the acclaimed best-selling novel of the same name by HWANG Seok-young, The Old Garden follows Hyun-woo, a young and idealistic college student who becomes heavily involved in pro-democracy activism. Following the events of the Gwangju Massacre in May 1980, the young man goes underground and winds up being harbored by Yoon-hee in a cabin in the mountains. It doesn’t take long for the pair to grow close and then become lovers, but Hyun-woo’s idealism compels him to return to the world he left behind. He is immediately arrested and sentenced to 17 years in jail. By the time of Hyun-woo’s release (which is where the narrative of the film begins), Yoon-hee has passed away, but she leaves behind a lengthy correspondence and the child he fathered but has never met. 

In this beautifully photographed tale, director IM twists melodramatic tropes to his advantage as he uses this doomed romance, and particularly the child left behind, as metaphors for the ideological rifts that linger in modern Korean society and the disconnected apathy of the nation’s youths. IM’s longtime cinematographer KIM Wu-hyeong (who recently worked on PARK Chan-wook’s upcoming BBC series The Little Drummer Girl) brings a redolent tone to this nostalgic tale of things that were lost or prevented from being as Korea made its difficult transition to its modern, globalized era. JI Jin-hee is a melancholic presence as Hyun-woo while screen veteran YUM Jung-ah was never better as the hardy woman he left behind.

In the wake of the relatively poor reception afforded to The Old Garden at the time of its release, IM once again changed tack as he sought to sharpen his social edge through a pair of highly cinematic chamber drama-thrillers. The Housemaid (2010), based on KIM Ki-young’s 1960 classic, and The Taste of Money (2012) were both invited to Cannes but failed to connect with audiences and critics the way his previous work had. IM’s most recent outing was the poorly received Intimate Enemies (2015).