Forum of Independents - Competition 2014 / Haneul e hwanggeummacha / South Korea 2014
A group of friends are happy travelling around making music. Their carefree itinerant existence, however, leads them into the path of a man, who is trying to straighten out his life. Prize-winning Korean director O Muel abandons the aesthetics of his previous film, awarded at Sundance, in order to tell a gloomy, yet essentially compassionate tale of quite ordinary things.
Pong Ddol dreams of forming a band – he names it Golden Chariot after the old cart full of instruments he pulls around the neighbourhood in hopes of recruiting band members. Money is another problem and there’s little chance they’ll find any. So Pong Ddol offers Chul-wook the job of band manager if he helps with financing. Strong emotions and subtle humor add depth to a film that may seem reminiscent of the instinctive wit seen in the work of Hong Sang-soo. Although the story involves a heterogeneous group of individuals who have been marked by traumas from the past, music has the potential to bring people together and smooth over old wounds, thereby allowing the story to move toward a positive resolution. But resolution doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll become stars – and they couldn’t care less. Modeled as an unobtrusive road movie, the story may come off somewhat gloomy with its nostalgic mood, but the protagonists never lose heart even when they fail, thereby helping support the overall vitality of this low-key picture.
84 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director O Muel
/ Screenplay O Muel
/ Dir. of Photography Yang Junghoon, Choo Kyungyup, Kim Kyungseob
/ Music Don Spike
/ Editor Kim Jungho
/ Producer Ko Hyukjin, Kwon Mihui
/ Production National Human Rights Commission of Korea and Japari Film
/ Cast Moon Sukbum, Kim Dongho, Yang Jungwon, Lee Kyungjoon, Kingstonrudieska
/ Contact Finecut Co., Ltd
O Muel (b. 1971) is one of Korea’s most interesting writer-directors working today. All of his features (e.g. Nostalgia / Eoyigeu, jeo gwitgeot, 2009; Pong Ddol, 2010; Wind of Island / Iodo, 2010) are connected to his home island of Jeju. His black-and-white picture Jiseul (2012) also takes place there, addressing a local massacre that occurred in 1948; the film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance after picking up other awards at Asia’s premier festival in Busan, Korea. He cooperates with the Terror J culture collective and other cultural institutions, as well as helping to stage plays and performances.
Finecut Co., Ltd
Patio House #102 (Bldg. C), 22-14 Bongeunsa-ro 26-gil, Gangnam-gu, 135-907, Seoul
Republic of Korea
Phone: +82 256 987 77
Fax: +82 256 994 66
E-mail: [email protected]
O Muel
Film Director, Film Director
Luna H.Y. Kim
Sales Agent
Sukbum Moon
Actor
Jungwon Yang
Actor
Mihui Kwon
Producer
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