Abandon all hope, ye who enter here: the Na Hong-jin retrospective at the 20th Five Flavours
The second director honoured with a retrospective this year is Na Hong-jin, one of the most distinctive auteurs of New Korean Cinema, a visionary and a provocateur. At the 20th edition of Five Flavours we will screen all of his feature films – including his latest blockbuster Hope, which combines fast-paced action with extreme emotions. The mere four titles that make up Na’s filmography have earned him the status of a master at plumbing the dark side of human nature. These are going to be intense screenings!
An observer of Korea’s brutal reality, Na Hong-jin made his debut in 2008 with the thriller The Chaser, about a disgraced ex-policeman’s confrontation with a serial killer of women. The first-time director surprised audiences with his outstanding feel for the rules of the genre and his skill at staging kinetic chases through the night-time streets of Seoul. The film was steeped in an overwhelming pessimism which – as quickly became clear – was no accident.
Two years later, his next film, The Yellow Sea, premiered at Cannes, and in 2016 he achieved his greatest success to date with The Wailing, a horror film that draws viewers into a spiral of fear leading to the very bottom of a nightmare. This year’s production, Hope, is in turn the most expensive and most ambitious film in the history of Korean cinema. Shot in remote areas of a national park in Romania, it features an international cast and costly CGI – the worldwide success of Hope will determine not only Na’s career, but also whether Korean producers remain willing to invest in large, daring projects.
Na is a worthy representative of New Korean Cinema, a movement that looked at film genres with fresh eyes and, with joyful enthusiasm, discovered their new narrative possibilities. On the one hand, he understands the rules of the genre game perfectly and follows them; on the other, he blows them apart, generates narrative chaos and widens the emotional range, moving smoothly from extreme violence to black humour, disrupting the rhythm of the action, accelerating violently only to ease off the gas moments later. But Na’s films are not merely genre fencing – the director does not shy away from political or social commentary. One thing is certain: this is cinema made at full speed. Whether it leaves you out of breath is up to you.
The first Na Hong-jin retrospective in Poland features:
The Chaser / Chugyeokja
dir. Na Hong-jin, South Korea 2008, 125’
[cinema + online]
Jung-ho is not a pleasant man – a former policeman, now a pimp living off the work of a group of women. He is in a foul mood, because two of them failed to come back from their last job – Jung-ho suspects one of the clients has sold them on. Now he talks the ailing Mi-jin into going out, hoping she will lead him to the supposed trafficker. He does not know that he is sending her to meet a monster in human skin. Na Hong-jin’s debut is not another formulaic thriller about a psychopathic killer. The director executes the rules of the genre masterfully and takes audiences on a nerve-shredding journey into the darkest depths of hell.
The Yellow Sea / Hwanghae
dir. Na Hong-jin, South Korea 2010, 157’
[cinema only]
Gu-nam’s life is a failure – his wife left for South Korea and stopped getting in touch, while he drives a taxi around the run-down city of Yanji, on the border of China, Russia and North Korea. He is also a gambler with a noose of debt around his neck. When a local gangster offers him a handsome fee to kill a man in Seoul, he hesitates only for a moment. He sets off on a journey that will soon turn into a dangerous nightmare. Na Hong-jin’s second film confirmed his interest in the dark side of human nature and his masterful ability to play with the audience’s expectations.
The Wailing / Gokseong
dir. Na Hong-jin, South Korea 2016, 156’
[cinema + online]
In the sleepy village of Gokseong in the Korean countryside, a series of baffling murders takes place, and the residents begin to suffer from a strange illness that leads to madness. Police officer Jong-goo opens an investigation – his own daughter has similar symptoms. The trail leads to a mysterious Japanese man whose presence sends the village into a collective fever. Facing a growing threat, the locals turn to a shaman for help. Na Hong-jin fuses a crime story, shamanistic horror and religious parable into one, consistently leading viewers by the nose through a tale about fear, faith and the nature of evil.
Hope / Hopeu
dir. Na Hong-jin, South Korea 2026, 160’
[cinema only]
On the outskirts of the town of Hope, a mysterious incident occurs – a cow is found torn apart. A police officer follows the trail of the mystery into the town, while a group of hunters searches the nearby forest for traces of what happened. When they discover the cause of the commotion, they come face to face with something whose existence they will not be able to explain. The most expensive film in the history of Korean cinema is a brutal spectacle staged on a grand scale. Na Hong-jin plays with the monster movie convention, combining it with his own taste for an atmosphere of paranoia and mounting chaos.
We are presenting Korean films at the 20th Five Flavours Asian Film Festival with the support of the Korean Cultural Center in Poland.
