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Film Archive

Bongja

Official Selection - Competition 2001 / Bongja / South Korea 2000

Bongja Bongja

Synopsis

A lonely middle-aged woman named Bongja works in a small restaurant where it is her job to prepare maki rolls, a kind of sushi. She leads the life of an old maid and one of her small pleasures is indulging in a somewhat immoderate amount of saké. Because of recurrent problems with drinking Bongja eventually loses her job. Desperate and depressed, she returns home where to her surprise she finds a strange girl asleep in her house. This mysterious person who, without any explanation whatsoever settles into Bongja’s place, slowly begins to fundamentally change not only the life of her amazed and somewhat startled hostess but even her neighbours as well. Gradually they all drop the masks behind which, their whole lives, they have hidden their desires, and begin to give vent to previously suppressed feelings and secret aspirations, whether of a sexual, violent or even deadly nature. . . .

About the film

94 min / Black & white, 35 mm

Director Park Chul Soo / Screenplay Kim Jeon Han / Dir. of Photography Cho Dong Kwuan / Music Lee Sang Eun / Editor Kim Yang Il / Producer Ha Kwang Hui / Production Next Films / Cast Suh Gap Sook, Kim Jin Ah, Kim Il Woo, Choi Dae Woong, Min Kyung Jin, Kim Ju Hong, Lee Yong Ee, Kim Yoon Mi

About the director


Park Chul Soo (b. 1948, Kyungbuk Chungdo, Korea) is one of Korea’s top directors. A Vietnam veteran, he began in film in 1976 as Shin Sang Ok’s assistant director. He got his first chance to direct two years later and made Rain in the Evening. Then for eight years he directed and produced TV movies for the MBC channel. In 1988 he returned to directing films. His 301, 302 (1995), screened at Cannes, became the first Korean film to make it into international distribution. In 1994 he established Park Chul Soo Films, an independent film company. Selected filmography: The Woman Who Walks on Water (1989), Love in My Generation (1994), Farewell, My Darling (1996), Push! Push! (1997), Kazoku Cinema (1998).

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