The Korea Society presents the best of Korea cinema at the largest exhibition of Asian films in the United States. The festival will be attended by director Im Soon-rye, producers Shin Bum-soo & NAM Jung-Il from Whistleblower, director Lee Won-Suk from The Royal Tailor, and director Boo Ji-young, producer Shim Jae-myung from Cart.

View the full schedule for the 14th New York Asian Film Festival at Subway Cinema.

Friday, June 26 - Saturday, July 11, 2015

Best of Korea Cinema: Monday, July 6 - Thursday, July 9, 2015

Walter Reade Theater
165 W 65th Street, north side, upper level
Film Society of Lincoln Center

SVA Theater
333 West 23rd Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues
SVA Theater

CART (103 min) 2014
카트

Monday, July 6 | 8:45 pm at Walter Reade Theater

NEW YORK PREMIERE
DIR. BOO JI-YOUNG | CAST: YUM JUNG-AH, MOON JUNG-HEE, KIM YOUNG-AE, KIM KANG-WOO, HWANG JEONG-MIN, CHUN WOO-HEE
SOUTH KOREA | KOREAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FORMAT: DCP | 103 MINUTES
Q&A WITH BOO JI-YOUNG and SHIM JAE-MYUNG

Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in New York.

Boo Ji-young’s follow-up to Sisters on The Road is a formidable social drama and a moral shocker. Armed with a larger budget and a stellar cast, it nonetheless maintains the same human-scale storytelling that made her debut so memorable. Based on a true story, this is a David vs Goliath tale where a group of women band together and go on strike after their big box supermarket lays off all the temporary workers to cut costs.

Although there are no marching armies, grand disasters or international incidents, no definitive statements about life, death or society, the fate of these few women, citizens like any other, but unregarded, unmoored and untamed, leave an impression of grandeur, limitless suffering, and wrath. Boo allows each character in the ensemble quiet moments that personalize the massive labor issues South Korea faces. The women, facing their own doubts, poverty and the brutality of those trying to break the strike with incredibly fervent performances from the three leads Yum Jung-ha, Moon Jung-hee and Kim Young-ae.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER (113 min) 2014
제보자   

Tuesday, July 7 | 8:45 pm at Walter Reade Theater

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
YIM SOON-RYE, 2014
SOUTH KOREA | KOREAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FORMAT: DCP | 113 MINUTES
INTRO AND Q&A w/ DIRECTOR YIM SOON-RYE

Yim Soon-Rye (one of Korea’s few female directors) turns in the All The President’s Men of biotechnology with The Whistleblower,a powerhouse thriller based on the true story of one of the biggest scientific frauds of the 21st century. Dr. Lee is a thoughtful scientist whose pioneering work with cloned stem cells is spurring talk of the Nobel prize. He is also a monster who has faked his research and when a TV producer gets involved, The Whistle Blower becomes a white-knuckle thriller where secret phone calls, boardroom confrontations, DNA analysis, and conversations that contain double, and sometimes triple, meanings are assembled into a high-performance engine designed to flood your brain with outrage. Not since Michael Mann directed The Insider has the world of corporate medical research seemed so out of control, so bleak, and so deadly.

Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in New York.

The All The President’s Men of biotechnology, Yim Soon-Rye (one of Korea’s few female directors) turns in a powerhouse thriller based on the true story of one of the biggest scientific frauds of the 21st century. Dr. Lee is a thoughtful scientist whose pioneering work with cloned stem cells is spurring talk of the Nobel Prize. He is also a monster who’s faked his research and when a TV producer gets involved, The Whistle Blower becomes a white-knuckle thriller where secret phone calls, boardroom confrontations, DNA analysis, and conversations that contain double, and sometimes triple, meanings are assembled into a high-performance engine designed to flood your brain with outrage.

THE ROYAL TAILOR (127 min) 2014
상의원

Thursday, July 9 | 8:30 pm at SVA Theater

NEW YORK PREMIERE (U.S. CONTINENTAL PREMIERE)
LEE WON-SUK, 2014 | CAST: HAN SUK-KYU, KO SOO, PARK SHIN-HYE, YOO YEON-SEOK
SOUTH KOREA | KOREAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FORMAT: DCP | 127 MINUTES
INTRO and Q&A with director LEE WON-SUK

Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Service in New York.

Two years after his anarchic comedy How to Use Guys With Secret Tips, Lee Won-suk returns to New York and the silver screen with his ambitious, big-budget period drama The Royal Tailor. His second feature is set during a clash between tradition and modernity in the royal court of 18th century Korea. Han Suk-kyu plays the king's tailor Jo Dol-seok. After serving the court for three decades, he is on the brink of rising to the rank of nobleman. But his life's dream is threatened with the sudden appearance of young, handsome and carefree "designer" Lee Gong-jin whose radical fashion ideas quickly earn the Queen's favor. Unlike most films about the power of art (and music), Lee lets the striking costume designs of Jo Sang-gyeong speak for themselves, without resorting to reaction shots or exposition. The film's traditional costumes took as much as six months to create, at a cost just shy of $1 million.

A playful, fresh and daring reinvention of one of Korea's most conservative film genres.

 The New York Asian Film Festival is co-presented by Film Society of Lincoln Center and Subway Cinema