The 2024 Warsaw Korean Film Festival is the 10th edition thus far. The films range from dramas and horror to romantic comedies. Two films screened early were 12.12: The Day (Seoul-ui Bom 2023) by Kim Sung-su and Sleep (Jam 2023) by Jason Yu. The former is South Korea’s submission for the Oscars and is the more compelling work of the two. Set during the titular day in 1979, following the assassination of President Park Chung-hee, it depicts a pivotal time in South Korean history. The film has been highly successful in its homeland. It was the most-watched film in Korea in 2023 and the sixth most-watched film in the history of Korean cinema.
Numerous Korean films take place during this period. A prime example is Im Sang-soo’s The President’s Last Bang (Geuddae geusaramdeul 2005), which is about the events leading up to the murder. An equally important but different work is Jang Sun-woo’s A Petal (Ggotip1996), set during the subsequent Gwangju massacre in 1980. 12.12: The Day would work as a centrepiece in a trilogy with those two works. It is a dramatisation of the coup d’etat that occurred after Park’s death. Since Korea has powerful libel laws, the names have all been changed, but for a Korean crowd, it’s evident that the film’s Chun Doo-gwang is a thinly veiled portrait of Chun Doo-hwan, who would soon become the country’s leader.
Against him stands General Lee Tae-shin (Jung Woo-sung), who aims to uphold the rule of law, another character based on an existing person (Jang Tae-wan). Some voices have been raised that this particular portrait is slightly idealised. Be that as it may, 12.12: The Day is a constantly engrossing work, even though long parts of the film are men talking in smoky rooms. The 141-minute runtime doesn’t just run smoothly but persistently presents arresting images expertly edited. In some ways, it might be a conventional film, but that’s not said in a derogatory fashion. This is what American blockbusters used to look like in the good old days (meaning 50 years ago). The film comes with my highest approval.
The 2024 Warsaw Korean Film Festival goes to Sleep
I am not sure the same could be said about Sleep. A pregnant wife becomes worried about her husband’s sleeping habits. He is prone to sleepwalking and behaves exceedingly erratic, from scratching himself to nearly jumping out the window. Occasionally, he sits up in bed and says, “Someone’s inside”, and apparently, he is not only referring to his wife’s body. It is unnecessary to divulge where the film goes from here. Some of it is unexpected, but most of it is not. When the child is born, the wife’s (mother’s) anxiety naturally increases. Would the husband be able to hurt their child? He says no, but who knows? Honestly, the answer is “virtually all the spectators watching this debut feature”.
The couple is played by Jung Yu-mi and Lee Sun-kyun. This was the fourth time they played a couple, but it would also be their last due to Lee’s suicide in December 2023. Among other films, he was known for his role in Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winner Parasite (Gisaengchung 2019). Here, he has to manoeuvre a pretty tricky (some might call it thankless) part when the film starts swinging in different directions, not all of which are perfectly under control. There is a particular uncertainty of what exactly is going on. There might be afterwards discussions about whether a specific plot element was real or imagined. In any case, Sleep contains one of cinema’s most unexpected and hilarious PowerPoint presentations.
These two films were among the highlights of the tenth edition of the Warsaw Korean Film Festival. It remains to be seen which works will be presented next year.
