Paju (film)
| Paju | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Hangul | |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Paju |
| McCune–Reischauer | P‘aju |
| Directed by | Park Chan-ok |
| Produced by |
Lee Eun Kim Ju-kyung Eom Ju-yung |
| Written by | Park Chan-ok |
| Starring |
Lee Sun-kyun Seo Woo |
| Music by | Jang Young-gyu |
| Cinematography | Kim Woo-hyung |
| Edited by | Kim Hyeong-ju |
|
Production
company |
TPS Company, Myung Films
|
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Korea |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
111 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
| Box office | US$818,676 |
Paju (Hangul: 파주; RR: Paju) is a 2009 South Korean film. It tells the tale of a teenage schoolgirl (Seo Woo) and her complex relationship to her older sister’s husband (Lee Sun-kyun). Set in the city where it takes its name from – a longtime military area and now a developing city located close to the North/South Korean border – its elegant and well-constructed narrative deals with guilt, mystery, love and redemption, as well as the psychological layers of its characters. The film also offers a vivid glimpse into Korean society and the struggles some residents of Paju face. The result is both uniquely Korean and universally resonant.
In 2010 Paju became the first ever Korean film to open the International Film Festival Rotterdam and to compete at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Twenty-something Eun-mo listens to a taxi driver drone on as she rides down a foggy highway. The story then cycles back eight years earlier, when a lustful Joong-shik accidentally causes a woman to neglect her baby with disastrous consequences. Suffering from guilt, Joong-shik goes on the lam and holes up in the titular city of Paju, an underdeveloped and desolate city just north of Seoul and near the North Korean border. Teaching religious classes to the town's schoolgirls, Joong-shik captures the heart of local house owner Eun-soo, despite the protestations of her pubescent younger sister and Joong-shik's student Eun-mo.
Back in the present day, Joong-shik is now the ringleader of a political protest group whose interests run from obstructing the city's plans of gentrification to strengthening relations with North Koreans. Squatting in Paju's derelict apartments, the group is under siege from an unidentified property developer who has engaged goons to bulldoze the buildings. With only the briefest of hints as to what has transpired, Eun-soo is nowhere to be seen and Joong-shik and Eun-mo are clearly at odds. While believing her brother-in-law killed her sister for insurance money, Eun-mo finds herself falling in love with him, the sole guardian and grownup in the lonely girl's life. Narrative flashes back twice more to sparingly fill in the gaps on their shifting lives.
...
Wikipedia