107 minutes, 35mm, in Korean with English subtitles
Directed by: PARK Chan-wook
Starring: JUNG Ji-hoon (better known as RAIN!), IM Soo-jung

Showtimes: SUN June 24, 6:20pm at the IFC Center - SOLD OUT!
SAT June 30, 8:15pm at the IFC Center - SOLD OUT!
THU July 5, 5:00pm 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.

Not many romantic comedies begin with a suicide attempt and end with its two lovebirds blissfully trying to detonate a nuclear device, but not many romantic comedies are directed by Park Chan-Wook, either. In fact, this is the first one directed by the man who brought the world JSA, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance so you’ll forgive him if his romance takes place in a mental institution and if his Romeo is a kleptomaniac and his Juliet is a cyborg with machine guns in her fingers and battery level lights in her toes.

Il-soon (Rain) is a kleptomaniac locked away in a mental institution because he couldn’t handle his mandatory military service. Enter Yeong-goon (IM Soo-jung), a young woman who believes with all her heart that she is a cyborg who must return her institutionalized grandmother’s dentures. She meets Il-soon and becomes desperate for him to steal something from her: her emotions. That way she can go on a killing rampage and avenge all the wrongs that have been visited on her by life. First time feature-film actor and international music megastar, Rain (aka Jung Ji-Hoon), was voted by TIME magazine readers as the most influential person of 2007 (beating Stephen Colbert and leading to a showdown between the two) and his R&B career has seen him sell out Madison Square Garden and his fans are legion. IM Soo-jung is one of the stars of A Tale of Two Sisters and her work here has earned her praise around the world. Their characters are protected from the world by their fantasies, which Park lovingly depicts onscreen with all of his customary technical élan, and they forge a tentative connection, but this ain’t Patch Adams – there aren’t any life lessons here. You may be a thief, you may be broken, you may be fat, you may be suicidal, you may be unhappy or depressed or even a cyborg, but this movie wants you to know that whatever it is, that’s OK. Beyond that, you’re on your own.

In April 2006, Time named Rain as one of the "100 Most Influential People Who Shape Our World.In 2007, Rain was voted first on Time Magazine's Most Influential People online user poll, although he was not in the magazine's actual list.He also made it into People's 2007 list of the "Most Beautiful People" in the world.

"Rain is big—big!—in Japan. The South Korean king of pop also fills seats in Beijing, Pusan and Bangkok. In Hong Kong his concerts sell out in 10 minutes, and across much of Asia, fans snap up pirated videos of his soap operas. Thanks to his angelic face, killer bod and Justin Timber— like dance moves, Rain, 23, has ridden the crest of hallyu, or the Korean wave, the Asia-wide obsession for that country's pop culture. But the ambition that lifted Rain (real name: Ji Hoon Jung) out of a one-room house in Seoul won't be sated by simply conquering the biggest continent on earth. Rain is looking east to the U.S., studying English day and night. He sold out two shows at Madison Square Garden's smaller venue in February, and that could be just a few drops of the deluge that some think will follow the release of his English-language debut album this fall. Yet even if Rain, whose style virtually clones American pop, fails to make it in the U.S., the trend he represents is here to stay. Rain is the face—and well-muscled torso—of pop globalism. Before he visited the U.S., Rain already had a fan base, thanks to Internet music sites, satellite TV and DVDs of his soap operas. Those are the same media that make it easier than ever for growing numbers of Americans to get their fix of Japanese anime, Bollywood films and Korean music—and vice versa. Pop culture no longer moves simply in a single direction, from the West to the rest of the world. Instead, it's a global swirl, no more constrained by borders than the weather. Rain, after all, falls on everyone." - Bryan Walsh, TIME (April 2006)