NYAFF'09 Films
DREAM (KOREA, 2008)
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
97 minutes, 35mm, in Korean with English subtitles
Directed by: Kim Ki-Duk
Starring: Joe Odagiri, Lee Na-Yeong
Showtimes:
Sat June 20, 11:30am at the IFC Center [Buy Tickets].
Wed July 1, 7:30pm at the IFC Center [Buy Tickets].
Note: "Buy Tickets" links will take you to the IFC Center website (for shows at IFC Center) and to Japan Society website (for shows at Japan Society). Tickets for each venue must be purchased separately.
Jin (Joe Odagiri, PLASTIC CITY) likes to stalk his ex-girlfriend on the road late at night...or at least, he likes to dream about stalking her on the road late at night. After a nasty hit and run, he wakes up to find that Ran (Lee Na-Young) is being charged with the crime he committed in his dreams. Feeling guilty, he rushes to the police station to explain this simple, obvious mistake, but the cops don't quite see it his way - they've got Ran on camera in her car, even though she was asleep in bed herself. Or was she? In fairly short order, Jin and Ran realize that his dreams are bleeding into her sleepwalking: as Jin dreams of his lady love, Ran acts out his tender feelings on her own ex, whom she claims to despise. Awkward!
Thoroughly put out by this NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-style inconvenience, Jin and Ran attempt to sleep in shifts to avoid further episodes, resorting to taping their eyes open and smacking themselves around to stay awake but, this being a Kim Ki-Duk picture, things go south, quickly. Soon, an insidious link between the dreamers' lost loves becomes clear, and as Jin's bestial subconscious comes to bear on the helpless Ran's waking life, insomnia-induced desperation sets in, leading to a Bergman-style role reversal, pins being driven into flesh, claw hammers, handcuffs, boxcutters, and finally, murder.
South Korean maestro Kim Ki-Duk is an international superstar, with films such as THE ISLE and SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER...AND SPRING receiving worldwide honors. Known for his unearthly visuals and twisted narratives he delivers on his reputation in spades with DREAM, an international co-production featuring Japanese uberstar Joe Odagiri in a role that requires him to fearlessly turn way ugly, way fast. A mind-bender of the highest order, DREAM opens like a stock Asian thriller, heavy on exposition, but quickly turns in on itself, disappearing down its own crazy shadow into a world of nightmares, memories and delusions, defying conventional genre expectations and confounding our sense of structure at every turn. There's two answers for virtually everything you see in the last hour, and absolutely no way out as Jin and Ran spiral downward into a divine madness.
DREAM (KOREA, 2008)
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
97 minutes, 35mm, in Korean with English subtitles
Directed by: Kim Ki-Duk
Starring: Joe Odagiri, Lee Na-Yeong
Showtimes:
Sat June 20, 11:30am at the IFC Center [Buy Tickets].
Wed July 1, 7:30pm at the IFC Center [Buy Tickets].
Note: "Buy Tickets" links will take you to the IFC Center website (for shows at IFC Center) and to Japan Society website (for shows at Japan Society). Tickets for each venue must be purchased separately.
Jin (Joe Odagiri, PLASTIC CITY) likes to stalk his ex-girlfriend on the road late at night...or at least, he likes to dream about stalking her on the road late at night. After a nasty hit and run, he wakes up to find that Ran (Lee Na-Young) is being charged with the crime he committed in his dreams. Feeling guilty, he rushes to the police station to explain this simple, obvious mistake, but the cops don't quite see it his way - they've got Ran on camera in her car, even though she was asleep in bed herself. Or was she? In fairly short order, Jin and Ran realize that his dreams are bleeding into her sleepwalking: as Jin dreams of his lady love, Ran acts out his tender feelings on her own ex, whom she claims to despise. Awkward!
Thoroughly put out by this NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-style inconvenience, Jin and Ran attempt to sleep in shifts to avoid further episodes, resorting to taping their eyes open and smacking themselves around to stay awake but, this being a Kim Ki-Duk picture, things go south, quickly. Soon, an insidious link between the dreamers' lost loves becomes clear, and as Jin's bestial subconscious comes to bear on the helpless Ran's waking life, insomnia-induced desperation sets in, leading to a Bergman-style role reversal, pins being driven into flesh, claw hammers, handcuffs, boxcutters, and finally, murder.
South Korean maestro Kim Ki-Duk is an international superstar, with films such as THE ISLE and SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER...AND SPRING receiving worldwide honors. Known for his unearthly visuals and twisted narratives he delivers on his reputation in spades with DREAM, an international co-production featuring Japanese uberstar Joe Odagiri in a role that requires him to fearlessly turn way ugly, way fast. A mind-bender of the highest order, DREAM opens like a stock Asian thriller, heavy on exposition, but quickly turns in on itself, disappearing down its own crazy shadow into a world of nightmares, memories and delusions, defying conventional genre expectations and confounding our sense of structure at every turn. There's two answers for virtually everything you see in the last hour, and absolutely no way out as Jin and Ran spiral downward into a divine madness.
