Incoherence
1 NOV - 3 NOV
Online Screening
The three episodes that comprise Bong’s short film feature three middle-aged men who behave badly. In the first, a teacher hides a pornographic magazine from a female student. In the second, a jogger steals milk and blames his misbehaviour on a newspaper delivery boy. The final episode features an exceptionally drunk man in a suit searching for a public toilet. These scenes seem unconnected, indeed incoherent in relation to each other. But in the epilogue, the men reappear, together, as panellists on a television programme. While the incoherence of the film’s episodic form is momentarily resolved, another incoherence quickly arises pertaining to their moral hypocrisy.
Incoherence marks the rapid rise of Bong Joon Ho within the Korean film industry. Made during his studies at the KAFA (Korean Academy of Film Arts), the film was selected for both the Vancouver and Hong Kong international festivals. A superb example of the dark satire which would later become his trademark, Bong's film shows the hypocritical, lofty and immoral stupidity of important people.
Cast: Lim Sanghyo, Yoon Ilju, Shin Dong-whan
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Writer: Bong Joon Ho
Influenza
30 OCT - 2 NOV
Online Screening
Constituted entirely through found CCTV footage, Influenza tells the story of Cho Hyuk-rae, an unemployed man who contemplated jumping off a bridge in 2000. A year later, he is seen practicing a sales pitch for instant glue in the men’s room of an underground station. He boards an underground train to begin selling, but is immediately dragged off by the Metro police. Mr. Cho is desperate and, in 2003, turns to robbing an old woman at an ATM. One hour later, he is eating ramen noodles at a convenience store. A female accomplice eventually joins him as more crimes are shown through CCTV footage, taken from ATM corners and car parks. By 2004, criminal activity has become Mr. Cho’s daily routine.
Commissioned by Jeonju International Film Festival, the humour-inflected Influenza is listed as Bong Joon Ho’s fifth short film and was made after his critically acclaimed feature Memories of Murder (2003). Part of an anthology, together with works by Japanese director Sogo Ishii and Hong Kong-based Yu Lik-wai.
Cast: Yoon Je-moon
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Writer: Bong Joon Ho