Virtuoso Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden; Oldboy) picked up rave reviews and the Best Director Prize at Cannes for this singularly strange genre piece, a neo-noir mystery about a homicide detective who falls in love with the widow (Lust Caution’s Tang Wei) of an apparent suicide. The deceased was a mid-level bureaucrat in the department of immigration, and an older man; the widow is young, beautiful, and Chinese. She’s so apologetic about her Korean she uses a translation app on her phone during her questioning, but her words don’t allay suspicion in either language, and it emerges that the dead man used to beat her. Then again, she has an ironclad alibi.
These narrative elements are familiar from a 1001 thrillers. And yet we must be on our game; Park shuffles the pack with dizzying skill, concocting a visual syntax which is wildly original and quite idiosyncratic. Scenes are highly abbreviated, and often distilled into a handful of eye-catching compositions; he’ll place an unusual emphasis there or here, and it’s only later that everything falls into place. This is a tantalizing, teasing movie, and in its own weird way, desperately romantic.
Best Director Award, Cannes 2022
Media Partner
Tang Wei, Park Hae-il
South Korea
2022
In Korean and Chinese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Blue Trail
In a near-future Brazil, elderly citizens are forcibly relocated to live out their days in a senior housing colony. When 77-year-old Tereza learns that she will soon be taken away, she embarks on a fantastical odyssey into the Amazon.
Shifting Baselines
Towering rockets rise as wetlands vanish in this sly black-and-white documentary about SpaceX’s conquest of Boca Chica, Texas. With sci-fi aesthetics and observational calm, the film exposes how cosmic dreams begin with the quiet erasure of Earth.
A Poet
When embittered poet Oscar Restrepo takes a job at a local high school, he meets Yurlady, a talented student from a poor background. Seeking to help her cultivate her art, he draws her into the poetry world — to disastrous and comedic results.
La Salsa Vive
An exuberant celebration of salsa that traces the genre's evolution from New York City in the 1960s and 70s to Cali, Colombia — the salsa capital of the world. Carvajal’s documentary highlights the rich legacy of this musical form and the joy it inspires.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
Can a filmmaker depict the future without AI? Damien Hauser crafts a genre-blending Afro-speculative fable about love, war, and the future of storytelling in a resurrected African kingdom. A micro-budget epic fueled by digital invention and heart.
Winter Light
Da-bin has a broke mother, a runaway brother, and a sister who’s going deaf, but gets by thanks to his best friend and caring girlfriend. Poignant and poetic, this is a film that explores the pain of adolescence and the stress of competing loyalties.
Credits
Executive Producer
Miky Lee
Producer
Park Chan-wook
Screenwriter
Chung Seo-kyung, Park Chan-wook
Cinematography
Kim Ji-yong
Editor
Kim Sang-bum
Original Music
Cho Young-wuk
Production Design
Ryu Seong-hie
Director
Park Chan-wook
Park Chan-wook has had two films win at Cannes: Oldboy (2003), which won the Grand Prix and Thirst (2009), which won the Jury Prize. His film The Handmaiden (2016) screened in competition at the 69th Cannes Film Festival, and won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. From his TV series The Little Drummer Girl (2018), which screened on the BBC, to his collaboration with Apple on the short film Life is But a Dream (2022), director Park Chan-wook constructs unique cinematic worlds with his taboo-breaking storytelling, fascinating characters, and sensual visuals.
Filmography: Oldboy (2003); Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005); Thirst (2009); The Handmaiden (2016)