Museum of the Moving Image Presents Five-film Hong Sang-soo Retrospective, 3/17-23

From March 17 through 23, 2012, Museum of the Moving Image will present a five-film retrospective of Hong Sang-soo featuring a preview screening of his latest film, Oki's Movie, a triumph from the 2010 New York Film Festival; his rarely screened first feature The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996); and three recent films Woman on the Beach (2006), Night and Day (2008), and Like You Know It All (2009). Both The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well and Like You Know It All have not been distributed theatrically in the United States. Many of these films will be presented as imported 35mm prints.

Best known for his formal inventiveness, dry wit, and anti-heroic male characters-often artists who are unlucky in love and prone to long nights of drinking and talking-the South Korean director Hong Sang-soo's work is complex and offers a profound sense of humor and a fondness for deeply flawed protagonists who muddle through despite their hapless attempts at romantic intimacy, press notes state.

Chief Curator David Schwartz said, "Hong Sang-soo deftly balances two different artistic impulses: one towards playful modernist formalism that makes us aware not just of the film medium itself, but of the filmmaking process and of the mechanics of narrative; and the other towards sheer realism, an approximation of the sprawling, disorderly nature of life itself."

The Hong Sang-soo retrospective is presented in collaboration with The Korea Society, which also co-presents a monthly Korean cinema series at the Museum.

SCHEDULE FOR 'HONG SANG-SOO,' MARCH 17–23, 2012
All screenings take place at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue in Astoria. Screenings are included with Museum admission unless otherwise noted. Tickets for Friday evening screenings (when the Museum offers free gallery admission) are $12 adults / $9 students and senior citizens.

The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (Daijiga umule pajinnal)
SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Hong Sang-soo. 1996, 115 mins. With Bang Eun-hee, Cho Eun-sook, Park Jin-seong. A success on the international film circuit that launched Hong's career, his debut feature is comprised of intertwining stories of four young people looking for love in all the wrong places. A study of infidelity and unrequited love in the city, the film has a slowly unfurling narrative.

Woman on the Beach (Haebyeonui yeoin)
SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 5:00 P.M.
Dir. Hong Sang-soo. 2006, 100 mins. With Kim Seung-woo, Go Hyun-jung, Song Seon-mi. This gradually unfolding love triangle, with a film director as the main character, is both accessible and complex. 

Night and Day (Bam gua nat)
SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Hong Sang-soo. 2008, 145 mins. With Sabine Crossen, Jérémie Elkhaïm, Gi Ju-bong, Kim Yeong-ho. For strange and seemingly dubious reasons, middle-aged painter Sung-nam flees South Korea and finds himself in a Parisian hostel. The resulting story unfolds as an episodic exploration of emotional and spiritual dislocation in unfamiliar places, and a humorous examination of the troubling timelessness of flight and return. 

Like You Know It All (Jal aljido mothamyeonseo)
SUNDAY, MARCH 18, 5:30 P.M.
Dir. Hong Sang-soo. 2009, 126 mins. With Kim Tae-woon, Uhm Ji-won, Go Hyun-jung. With biting reflexivity, Like You Know It All centers on the insecurities and indiscretions of an acclaimed art house director through his interactions with friends, potential lovers, and successful ex-students. This critical favorite, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival, is a look at the often pathetic truths of life as an artist.

Oki's Movie  (Ok-hui-ui yeonghwa)
FRIDAY, MARCH 23, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Hong Sang-soo. 2010, 80 mins. With Jeong Yu-mi, Lee Seon-gyun. The non-chronological four-episode structure of this bittersweet romance, set in the backdrop of a Korean university's film department, lends a novelistic freshness to a simple story of courtship and indecision. Sparse, relaxed, and jarringly real, Oki's Movie rejects easy classification. It is the work of a self-assured artist tuned in to the inner worlds of his characters in all their flawed humanity.

MUSEUM INFORMATION
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Friday, 10:30 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Closed Monday.
Film Screenings: Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays, and as scheduled. Unless otherwise noted, screenings are included with Museum admission.
Museum Admission: $12.00 for adults; $9.00 for persons over 65 and for students with ID; $6.00 for children ages 3-18. Children under 3 and Museum members are admitted free. Admission to the galleries is free on Fridays, 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tickets for special screenings and events may be purchased in advance by phone at 718 777 6800 or online.
Location: 36-01 35 Avenue (at 37 Street) in Astoria.
Subway: M (weekdays only) or R to Steinway Street.  Q (weekdays only) or N to 36 Avenue.
Program Information: Telephone: 718 777 6888; Website: movingimage.us