Korean Movie Night continues with free screenings of animated films!

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Every other Tuesday @ 7pm
Tribeca Cinemas
(54 Varick Street, on the corner of Canal Street, one block from the A, C, E and 1 train Canal Street stops)
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Price? Free.
All seating is first-come, first served. Doors
open at 6:30pm

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Series 2: Korean Animation Explodes!

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Everyone knows all about Japanese animation, but what do we know about Korean? There are stories about North Korean animation sweatshops employed to work on The Lion King and The Simpsons and there’s the fact that most television animation in the 90’s was drawn in Korea, but since 1967, South Korea has been releasing its own animated films that are almost never shown in the United States. After the glut of Korean animation in the 90’s things died down but recently there has been a new explosion of talent and experimental techniques that are once again putting Korean animation on the world stage.

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Tuesday, March 1 @ 7pm
THE STORY OF MR. SORRY (New York Premiere, 2009)
Gaining a cult reputation on the film festival circuit, THE STORY OF MR. SORRY started life as a graduation project from the Korean Academy of Film Arts and it’s one weird slab of surrealism. Animated in a simple, 70’s style, it’s a trip down the ear hole as a sad sack ear cleaner discovers a doorway to the human subconscious and is put on a path that includes political assassination, a game show called To Kill or Not to Kill and incest.

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Tuesday, March 15 @ 7pm
YOBI, THE FIVE-TAILED FOX (New York Premiere, 2007)
On the other end of the spectrum is this lush, gorgeously animated film from the director that people call “Korea’s Hayao Miyazaki,” Lee Seong-Gang. His previous film was the lush MY BEAUTIFUL GIRL MARI, and he spent years making this follow-up, a big budget animated epic. Exquisitely detailed and shimmering with eye-popping colors, it tells the tale of one of Korea’s mythical, shape-shifting five-tailed foxes and its encounter with an alien.

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Tuesday, April 5 @ 7pm
WHAT IS NOT ROMANCE (US Premiere, 2009)
A surprisingly moving animated film, WHAT IS NOT ROMANCE is all about a middle aged couple approaching their anniversary and it’s as tender, delicate and subtle as the best arthouse movie. Tensions are rising, dinner table conversation is nonexistent and all their romance seems dead. Leaping backwards in time it returns to the beginning of their marriage when they were head over heels in love with each other and traces it to the present when they barely talk and tries to see if there’s any way for a couple married for years to get back to the way things were. (watch the trailer)

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Tuesday, April 19 @ 7pm
AUDITION (North American Premiere, 2008)
What line-up of Korean animation would be complete without a glitzy, gaudy, crowd-pleasing anime-style manhwa (Korean manga) adaptation? Based on the most popular manhwa of the late 90’s, AUDITION is a teen-girl-ready romance about four dudes, all misfits, who form a rock band. All the main characters are already licensed products in Korea and this feature film version of their well-known story took 8 years to make. It’s pure pop culture cream cheese: smooth and delicious.

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