The Office

Five South Korean thrillers of various sub-genres were part of the Country Focus at IFFI  2016. They included two films that were shown at Cannes. Culled from latest releases, the selection has been titled Memoirs of Fear.

Now a household name across the world thanks to Gangnam Style, a K(orea)-Pop song that shook the world in 2012, Gangnam-gu, in Seoul, is actually a large district where wealthy residential areas sit alongside high-end art facilities and Korea’s busiest fashion streets.

The country has a population of 51.33 million (as of the 2013 census) and, is a free democracy, operating under the Presidential system. The Korean film industry is quite unique, in the sense that domestic admissions for Korean and foreign films are split almost 50-50, with a mandate that 40% of all films released have to be local productions. In the past 10 years, Korean films have raced past foreign films in box office revenue and ticket sales. In 2012 alone, domestic films earned $44 million, whereas foreign films brought in $35 million.

Alone, 2015, directed by Park Hong-Min, 91 min.

While preparing his documentary about an old town in Seoul, Soo-min accidentally films a crime scene, in which a woman is killed by a group of masked men. He runs away with his camera, but soon gets caught, and is smashed on the head with a hammer by the men. Not long after, he wakes up naked, but without a wound, in the alley, and believes that he had a nightmare. Every time he tries to escape from the alley, he is brought back to the same alley.

Alone is the second film from Park Hong-min (A Fish, 2011). Dealing with gentrification and modern masculinity, in a confused urban landscape. Park follows his lead actor with an eerie, gliding camera, and the result is infectious and unsettling.

Horror Stories III, 2016, directed by Kim Sun, Kim Gok, Min Kyu-dong and Baek Seung-Bin, 94 min.

This is the third outing for the franchise, based on three horror stories, each set in the past, present and future respectively. Dwelling into a bit of science fiction, the plot revolves around a girl who makes a near escape from Space War.

Producer, director, screenwriter Min Kyu-dong made an impressive debut as a co-director of Memento Mori (1999). Min’s second film All for Love (2005), revealed where his interests lie. All for Love had much more commercial sensibility than his debut film. It shows many couples and their love stories, and this style of filmmaking, resembling the popular Love Actually, brought him commercial success. Min’s third film, The Antique Bakery (2008), which was based on a well-known Japanese cartoon, was another showcase of the director’s wide-ranging interests, by deftly mixing up various subject matters that are difficult to deal with in a movie, such as homosexuality, childhood trauma, and a patriarchal family system. His 2011 film The Last Blossom, which was based on an original piece by a famous TV drama writer, introduced, just as in his previous works, several leading cast-members at once, to unfold its storyline. 2012 was a busy year for Min, as he released the enormously popular romantic comedy All About My Wife. He was also one of the directors on the second instalment on the omnibus Horror series, before helming the erotic, period drama-thriller, The Treacherous. 2016 saw him return for a third helping of Horror Stories.

Inside Men, 2015, directed by Woo Min-ho, 130 min.

Lee Kang-hee, an editor at an influential conservative newspaper, raises congressman Jang Pil-woo to the position of a leading candidate for President, using the power of the press. Behind this, there was his secret deal with the paper’s biggest sponsor. Ahn Sang-goo, a political henchman who supported Lee and Jang, gets his hand cut when he is caught pocketing the record of the sponsor’s slush fund. Woo Jang-hoon, an ambitious prosecutor, starts to investigate the relationship with Jang and the sponsor believing it is the only chance he can make it to the top. While getting down to the grass roots on the case, Woo meets Ahn, who has been deliberately planning his revenge. Now, the triangular conflict between one blind for power, one hell bent for vengeance and one eager for success starts.

Woo Min-ho is a director-screenwriter who released Man of Vendetta, a successful revenge thriller about a minister who goes searching for his kidnapped daughter. Woo followed that up in 2012 with the action-comedy-thriller The Spies, about a North Korean spy, stationed in Seoul, who has been making illegal money on the side, as he waits for orders from the North. When those finally arrive, he teams up with other agents. Spies did not work and was panned. Three years later, Woo came-up with his next film, the thriller, Inside Men, about corporate corruption, political fixing and media manipulation.

Office, 2015, directed by Hong Wan-Chan, 111 min.

To move up to a permanent job, intern Mirae’s been working hard for five months. One day, her gentle supervisor, Byung-guk, slaughters his entire family, and sneaks back to the office. While investigating, Detective Jong-hun senses that Byung-guk’s colleagues, unlike their testimonies, do not trust one another. What in the office really made Byung-guk go mad? Is he still in the building?

Office is the year’s biggest commercial surprises of 2015.

Hong Won-chan (director, script editor) entered the mainstream film industry as a scriptwriter, specialising in high-end thrillers. It all began with his  iconic debut, a genre-bending thriller, The Chaser (2008), which catapulted the lead pair to stardom, after attracting over five million viewers to theatres, and earning critical acclaim at home and abroad, including a selection at the Cannes Film Festival. Hong next worked on the stock market heist film The Scam, in 2009. The gritty revenge thriller The Yellow Sea (2010) followed. Another critical hit, the film was also invited to Cannes, and screened widely, around the world. One more revenge thriller followed for Hong in 2012, when he co-wrote Confession of Murder.

The Wailing, 2016, directed by Na Hong-jin, 156 min.

An old stranger appears in a peaceful rural village, but no one knows when or why. As mysterious rumours begin to spread about this man, the villagers drop dead one by one. They grotesquely kill each other, for inexplicable reasons. The village is swept by turmoil and the stranger is subjected to suspicion. . A policeman is drawn into the incident and is forced to solve the mystery in order to save his daughter. The Wailing featured in the Out of Competition section, at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Director, screenwriter Na Hong-jin scored box office success in Korea with The Chaser (2008). It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and sold to about 40 countries. His last film, The Yellow Sea (2010), a movie about a Korean Chinese professional hit man, was funded by 20th Century Fox. Although The Yellow Sea was not as commercially successful in Korea as his first film, the film was invited to the Un Certain Regard section of the 64th Cannes International Film Festival, where it was recognised for its artistic achievement.