Im Kwon Taek is a director who, without overstatement, has dominated the Korean film industry. The extent of Im’s influence and the range of subjects he has treated—not to mention his prolificacy, as he nears his hundredth film—are simply extraordinary. The first American scholarly work on Korean film proposed as its title a simple apposition: Im Kwon Taek: the Making of a Korean National Cinema. Domestic ticket sales confirm what Kyung Hyun Kim, the UCLA professor who wrote the book in question, suggests: that the significance of Im’s work in South Korea is not to be underestimated.
Im has also gained considerable recognition outside of homeland. His 1993 film Seopyonje garnered three international prizes, in addition to the 27 awards it received at Korean film festivals. Chunhyang, released in 2002, became the first Korean film ever to be accepted at Cannes and was also an official selection at the Telluride, Toronto and New York Film Festivals in that year.
Tonight, as well as Saturday evening, Im will be at the Harvard Film Archive to kick off three screenings taking place under the auspices of their “Directors in Focus” series. At 7 p.m., the Archive will show Chunhyang, a romantic epic that, like several of Im’s films, is related by a traditional pansori singer—and which with its sweeping sets and lavish costumes, recalls both the Korean theatrical and Hollywood musical traditions from which it draws. Chihwaseon, a portrait of Korea’s great artist and brush master Jang Seung-up, will be playing Saturday night at 7; Sopyonje, on Monday.
All movies are in Korean with English subtitles. Tickets for the event are available at the Harvard Box Office in the Holyoke Center.
—Moira G. Weigel Interpol
Orpheum Theater
Wednesday, March 9
7:30pm
Tickets $25-30
Some bands form a reputation, even in their youth, as a band that puts on a great live show. It’s a perfectly valid compliment––an album is only a single way to get at a band’s sound, and live performances are a completely different experience. This is why it may be worth it to cough up the dough to catch Interpol at the Orpheum next week, as they’re one of the few bands in the post-Strokes wave that have made a name for especially killer live performances. Say what you will about 2004’s Antics, but their debut album, Turn On The Bright Lights, was a almost undisputed classic, channeling the gloomy 80s through a cultivated veneer of sneering guitar and downcast vocals, and oh that sound! On both albums, Interpol draws strength from this signature sound of repetitively churning guitar lines evoke smoky roads, heartbreak, and an overwhelming cool above it all. Recent setlists point to a slight preference for the newer album, which continued in the patterns mapped out by the first, and launched Interpol’s biggest radio single, “Slow Hands.” While the Orpheum might not be the best place to catch the band—consider that three years ago you might have seen them at Bill’s Bar—the stylish group are consummate showmen, and will be sure to entertain both floor and balcony in the posh environs.
—Christopher A. Kukstis