Paju (film)

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Paju
File:Wtb Paju english.jpg
Directed by Park Chan-ok
Produced by Lee Eun
Kim Ju-kyung
Eom Ju-yung
Written by Park Chan-ok
Starring Lee Sun-kyun
Seo Woo
Music by Jang Young-gyu
Cinematography Kim Woo-hyung
Edited by Kim Hyeong-ju
Production
company
TPS Company, Myung Films
Distributed by Warner Bros. Korea
Release dates
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  • October 29, 2009 (2009-10-29)
Running time
 111 minutes
Country South Korea
Language Korean
Box office US$818,676[1]

Paju (Hangul: 파주; RR: Paju) is a 2009 South Korean film. It tells the tale of a teenage schoolgirl (Seo Woo) and her complex relationship to her older sister’s husband (Lee Sun-kyun). Set in the city where it takes its name from – a longtime military area and now a developing city located close to the North/South Korean border – its elegant and well-constructed narrative deals with guilt, mystery, love and redemption, as well as the psychological layers of its characters. The film also offers a vivid glimpse into Korean society and the struggles some residents of Paju face. The result is both uniquely Korean and universally resonant.

In 2010 Paju became the first ever Korean film to open the International Film Festival Rotterdam[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] and to compete at the Tribeca Film Festival.[9][10][11]

Plot

Twenty-something Eun-mo listens to a taxi driver drone on as she rides down a foggy highway. The story then cycles back eight years earlier, when a lustful Joong-shik accidentally causes a woman to neglect her baby with disastrous consequences. Suffering from guilt, Joong-shik goes on the lam and holes up in the titular city of Paju, an underdeveloped and desolate city just north of Seoul and near the North Korean border. Teaching religious classes to the town's schoolgirls, Joong-shik captures the heart of local house owner Eun-soo, despite the protestations of her pubescent younger sister and Joong-shik's student Eun-mo.

Back in the present day, Joong-shik is now the ringleader of a political protest group whose interests run from obstructing the city's plans of gentrification to strengthening relations with North Koreans. Squatting in Paju's derelict apartments, the group is under siege from an unidentified property developer who has engaged goons to bulldoze the buildings. With only the briefest of hints as to what has transpired, Eun-soo is nowhere to be seen and Joong-shik and Eun-mo are clearly at odds. While believing her brother-in-law killed her sister for insurance money, Eun-mo finds herself falling in love with him, the sole guardian and grownup in the lonely girl's life. Narrative flashes back twice more to sparingly fill in the gaps on their shifting lives.[12][13]

Cast

Production

This is Park Chan-ok's long-awaited follow-up to her critically praised 2002 debut Jealousy Is My Middle Name.[20]

Park had found it difficult to secure funding for her sophomore film amidst Korean cinema's currently declining investment environment,[21][22] and though her screenplay won the Kodak Award and received ₩20 million (US$19,000) worth of negative film from the Pusan Promotion Plan in 2005,[23] it would eventually take almost seven years to complete Paju. Park said, "I stopped (filming) because I could not make any more modifications to it. I wanted to talk about emotions shared by two people who are similarly alone.[24] More than a love affair between a man and a woman, the relationship between Joong-shik and Eun-mo is more of compassion that those in agony are likely to develop for each other."[25]

Park said Paju is the perfect backdrop for this mysterious and gripping story.[26] "When I think of Paju, I always view it as a mysterious place because it was always foggy whenever I visited there and it also sits right next to the border area dividing the two Koreas. I wanted to portray that mysterious feeling in the film."[25]

Critical reception

Paju played to highly impressed reviews in its debut in the Pusan International Film Festival. The PIFF jury awarded it the NETPAC Award, describing it as "a fine example of passionate, high-quality filmmaking."[27]

Screen International said of director Park, "This should help to cement Park's reputation as one of Korea's most talented arthouse directors"[28] while Variety praised the film's handling of elements of melodrama, action and mystery, saying they "make it function like a Bergmanesque thriller."[29] The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "Seo delivers one of the most believable depictions of conflicted female emotion as has ever been put on film in Korea."[30] Koreanfilm.org called it "without question one of the best Korean films of 2009."[31][32][33]

Film festivals

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Recipient Result Ref.
2009 14th Pusan International Film Festival NETPAC Award Paju Won [27][34][35]
New Currents Award Paju Nominated
10th Women in Film Korea Awards Woman Filmmaker of the Year Park Chan-ok Won [36][37][38][39]
2010 13th Deauville Asian Film Festival Jury Prize Paju Won [40]
Best Film Paju Nominated
11th Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival Best Actor Lee Sun-kyun Won [41][42][43]
46th Baeksang Arts Awards Best Director Park Chan-ok Nominated
Best Actress Seo Woo Nominated
11th Busan Film Critics Awards Best Cinematography Kim Woo-hyung Won
4th Asia Pacific Screen Awards APSA NETPAC Development Prize Paju Won [44][45]
Best Feature Film Paju Nominated [46][47]
Best Actress Seo Woo Nominated [48][49]

References

  1. ↑ "Paju-si (2009)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-11-20.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Moon Seok. "Return of the Masters". Korean Film Observatory No.28, pp.16. Korean Film Council. 28 November 2008.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ http://www.deauvilleasia.com/gb/historique/historique_2010.html
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ http://www.asiapacificscreenacademy.com/nomsarchive/paju/
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ http://www.asiapacificscreenacademy.com/nomsarchive/seo-woo/
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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