|
Tagline :
A socialist student activist named Hyun-woo and his colleagues are on the run from the police in the months after the Gwangju Massacre. Showing themselves in Seoul would surely result in their capture and arbitrary prosecution on some trumped-up charge, so they split up and go into hiding, with Hyun-woo being put up in a remote cabin by a woman named Yoon-hee. Yoon-hee is more than hospitable, and very soon the two are sharing a bed and falling in love. But in this dark era in Korea's history, politics and the state not only limit their freedoms, but ultimately push into their private lives as well. An unusual mix of politics and melodrama that ranges from 1980 up until the present day, The Old Garden represents a collaboration between two generations of anti-authoritarian artists: young director Im Sang-soo, known for his filmmaking talent and taste for controversy; and novelist Hwang Seok-young, a prizewinning author who spent the 1980s in exile and then served five years in prison in the 1990s for an unauthorized visit to North Korea. Im's adaptation of Hwang's novel of the same name boasts some very strong casting, with Ji Jin-hee maintaining a nice air of unpredictability around the character of Hyun-woo, and Yeom Jung-ah being given the best opportunity to showcase her acting abilities since A Tale of Two Sisters. The depth of talent in the large cast of supporting characters, many of whom are Im regulars, is also impressive. |
