And in this year’s Palme d’Or contest, Kore-eda, the most respected and creative director of Japanese cinema today, is back in the race with a film. The new name is Makelaar.
The special thing is that the film is set in Korea with a bright Korean cast and Korean speaking.
The return of two great names
In a film career spanning more than 3 decades, Kore-eda has always focused on exploiting stories of life and small, easily forgotten identities in Asian megacities.
His films are slow, heavily narrative, but always reveal hidden corners that leave the audience stunned.
Ever compared to Ozu – the legendary director of Japanese cinema, Kore-eda has dedicated the film world to outstanding works such as Still walking, Nobody know, Life father like son and most recently Shoplifters – the film won the Palme d’Or about a family from thieves in Tokyo.
With Broker – this year’s Palme d’Or contest, Kore-eda continues to explore a social story: newborn babies are left in boxes by their parents outside maternity hospitals in Seoul. †
The main cast of the film includes Song Kang Hoo (this is the 7th time a major Korean star has a film to compete in Cannes), Gang Dong Won and Bae Doona (the actress who worked with Kore-eda in the film ). his previous Air Doll movies).
Kore-eda’s competitor for the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year is Park Chan Wook, also a big name in contemporary Korean cinema with shocking films.
Almost 20 years ago, Park Chan Wook once stunned Cannes with the film Oldboy (2003) with violent revenge scenes.
That film earned Park the Grand Prix, the second most important prize in Cannes after the Palme d’Or.
In the years that followed, Park Chan Wook continued to bring a number of other acclaimed works to Cannes, most notably the film The Handmaiden (2017).
Park’s competition for the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year is Decision to leave – a mysterious crime drama in the Chinese language starring Chinese actress Tang Wei.
Co-written and directed by Park himself, this noir crime drama tells the story of a detective (played by Park Hae Il) who investigates the death of a man who fell from a mountaintop.
The wife of the ill-fated victim (Tang Duy) is the prime suspect in the murder. However, during the investigation with many unanswered mysteries, the detective fell in love with the suspected widow.
The script idea doesn’t seem new, having appeared in some classic noir thriller works, but when it came through the hands of the director of Park Chan Wook, he must have brought it up. gives viewers many surprises, if not shocking.
And the unknowns are worth the wait
Over the past two decades, Korean cinema has replaced Japan and China as the ‘baby’ at the world’s No. 1 prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
Not only always present in the competition category for the Palme d’Or, Korean cinema often appears in other competition categories or non-competitive screenings to grab the attention of the world.
Hunt—the actor’s first work turned to director Lee Jung Jae—is shown in a screening at midnight.
The star actor is a global name after the groundbreaking TV series Squid Game released by Netflix last year.
But not only as an actor, Lee Jung Jae will prove his talent in the spy crime drama Hunt with other key creative roles such as writer, producer, director and of course the lead role.
He plays the head of a South Korean intelligence unit tasked with tracking down a North Korean spy hiding in his ranks. Along with Lee Jung Jae, Jung Woo Sung is also a prominent name in Korean cinema.
The Critics’ Week category competes for the ‘Next Sohee’ prize from female director Jung July – who made her remarkable Cannes debut a few years ago, ‘A girl at my door’.
In this year’s Cannes screening, Bae Doona (after Broker’s second film in competition) plays a pressured female detective at work and her strange relationship with a coroner. high school girl.
The last Korean-language work to compete in the Un Certain Regard category is All the people I’ll never be by David Chou, an emerging filmmaker. from Cambodia.
In 2016, his debut film Diamond Island won an award during Critic’s Week in Cannes and last year he was the producer of the film White Building, which took part in the Venice Film Festival.
In this year’s Cannes competition film, David Chou tells the story of a young French-Korean girl who returns to her hometown to find her biological parents.
Asian cinema has been playing an increasingly important role at the Cannes Film Festival and many other prestigious film festivals around the world for years. And this year is no exception, when the list of films vying for the main categories at the 75th Cannes Film Festival pops up many names worth looking out for.
Source: tuoitre.vn