Jan 23, 2023
In honor of the recent release of Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave, we decided to add even more movie nights! Join us for our Thrilla Thursdays series in February featuring four Korean thrillers from two of South Korea's most renowned directors; Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho. All screenings will take place in the Main branch auditorium at 120 Metcalfe St., with the events starting at 5:30PM on every Thursday throughout February.
Note that these films are for a mature audience and contain scenes of intense violence, some sexual content and drug use. Viewer discretion is highly advised.
February 2nd - Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance: The first entry in Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy. Factory worker Ryu has just been fired. This happens at the worst possible time as his sick sister needs a kidney transplant and he simply cannot provide. Ryu and his girlfriend hatch a plot to kidnap a wealthy man's daughter in order to get ransom money for the transplant. The plan hits a snag and goes awry, leading to a bloody revenge quest on the father's part.
February 9th - Mother: A widow lives with her intellectually disabled son in a small Korean village. She sells medicine in the village but, in order to get by, also provides unlicensed acupuncture treatment to other women in the village that she claims eliminates bad memories. One night, on his way back home, her son Yoon Do-joon encounters a young girl. The next morning the young girl is found murdered in the same area. Due to circumstancial evidence, Do-joon is ultimately accused of murdering the young girl. Seeing she is getting no help from the legal system, she decides to find out who the real murderer is on her own.
February 16th - Parasite: Living in a semi-basement of a poor Seoul neighbourhood, the Kim family is barely scraping by. They all must take on small jobs such as folding pizza boxes for a pizza delivery service. The son of the family, Ki-woo, is recommended to be a tutor to a child of a well-off family. The Kims then decide to further infiltrate the wealthy family's life by having the daughter, Ki-jung, act as an art therapist referred to the wealthy family by Ki-woo himself. Continuing with their con job, the father and mother also begin working for the wealthy family. By now the Kims are essentially living in this new home while the family is away on vacation. The recently laid-off housekeeper, who has been replaced by the Kim matriarch, comes back to pick something up from the basement and everything changes from that point.
February 23rd - Decision to Leave: A lush romantic mystery/thriller by master filmmaker Park Chan-wook. Insomniac detective Hae-jun is investigating the death of a Korean immigration officer. When the officer's wife, Seo-rae, an emigrant from China, is brought in for questioning, Hae-jun and the other detectives notice she doesn't seem too concerned. They note that she lets out a small laugh during the interrogation, has few signs of grief and has a band-aid on her hand. Since she shows very little concern or care for her husband's death, they consider her a suspect. Hae-jun conducts further interviews with Seo-rae and begins nightly stakeouts outside her house. During his investigation, Hae-jun slowly starts developing an interest in Seo-rae and must balance his duties as an investigator with his emotions. This film is brilliantly crafted and filled with stylish direction and editing. Park Chan-wook directs the film superbly, having co-written it with longtime co-writer Jeong Seo-kyeong. It is also anchored by amazing performances from Tang Wei (Seo-rae) and Park Hae-il (Hae-jun).
The schedule is as follows:
- February 2nd - Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
- February 9th - Mother
- February 16th - Parasite
- February 23rd - Decision to Leave
All screenings will begin at 5:30PM
Note: The films are intended for a mature audience. The films contain intense violence, nudity, strong language and drug use. The films will be screened in Korean (and some Mandarin) with English subtitles.