Tale of Cinema

Tale of Cinema is the sixth film by critically acclaimed South Korean director Hong Sang-soo. It was entered into the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

Tale of Cinema
Theatrical poster
Hangul	극장전
Hanja	劇場前
Revised Romanization	Geukjangjeon
McCune–Reischauer	Kŭkjangchŏn
Directed by	Hong Sang-soo
Written by	Hong Sang-soo
Produced by	Marin Karmitz Hong Sang-soo
Starring	Kim Sang-kyung Uhm Ji-won Lee Ki-woo
Cinematography	Hyung-Ku Kim Young-rho Kim
Edited by	Sung-Won Hamm
Music by	Yong-Jing Yeong
Release date	26 May 2005 (2005-05-26)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean

Plot

As the film begins, Sangwon, an aimless and indecisive college student on school holiday after final examinations, avoids walking together with his older brother by instead taking a side street, where he finds a former girlfriend, Yongsil, working at an optician's store. Unsure of his own emotional preparedness in rekindling the relationship, he decides to watch a play while waiting for her to complete her work shift, delaying the decision to meet her later in the evening. The final words of anguish in the play, uttered by a desperately ill child unable to be comforted by his mother, would later be echoed by Sangwon from the rooftop of his parents' apartment after his own failed act of despair. In the film's corollary chapter, Tongsu, a struggling, rootless, and inscrutable filmmaker who has become obsessed with a short film directed by his former classmate - and in particular, the devoted and obliging woman in the film - encounters the young actress in person and begins to ingratiate himself into her company, acting out his projected image of her by imitating gestures and revisiting locations from the film in an attempt to realize his own created image of her.

Cast

• Kim Sang-kyung as Kim Dong-soo
• Lee Ki-woo as Jeon Sang-won
• Uhm Ji-won as Choi Young-shil
• Lee Kyung-jin as Sang-won's mother

See also

• List of Korean-language films

External links

• Tale of Cinema at IMDb