The Poetry of Lee Chang-Dong: Four Films

Founded in 2002 as one of the first-ever subscription film services with its DVD-of-the-Month Film Club, Film Movement is now a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films based in New York City. In 2015, Film Movement launched the reissue label Film Movement Classics featuring new restorations released theatrically as well as on home video, with an emphasis on films by auteur directors such as Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway and Takeshi Kitano.

Filmmaker, playwright and novelist Lee Chang-dong is one of South Korea’s most celebrated artists as well as one of its harshest critics. Newly restored in 4K, this collection of four of his early works reveals the poetic origins of a cinematic career that is uniquely “marked by a fascination with pain and longing” (IndieWire).

In his directorial debut, GREEN FISH (1997), Lee uses the conventions of film noir to explore the story of a young man who becomes ensnared in a dangerous love triangle with the girlfriend of his employer, a local mob boss. Opening on a shocking scene of implied suicide, Lee’s sophomore feature PEPPERMINT CANDY (1999) proceeds to move backward in time, revealing the unhappiness of its protagonist in reverse chronology. In OASIS (2002), two societal outcasts become unlikely soulmates when an irresponsible ex-con befriends a woman with severe cerebral palsy. Following a matriarch who finds her capacity as a caregiver threatened by Alzheimer’s disease, POETRY (2010) features a Cannes award-winning screenplay by Lee and an achingly vulnernable performance by legendary actress Yun Jung-hee in a role he specifically penned for her.

directed by: Lee Chang Dong
starring: Yun Junghee, Lee David, Kim Hira, Sol Kyung-gu, Moon So-ri, Han Suk-kyu, Shim Hye-jin, Moon Sung-Keun, Yu-Kyeong Cha, Song Kang-ho
1997-2010 / 514 min (combined) / 1.85:1 / Korean DTS-HD MA 2.0, 5.1

Additional info:

• Region A 4-Disc Blu-ray
• English subtitles

OASIS

• Lee Chang Dong Intro
  
• Making of
  
• Cast and crew interviews
  
• Oasis preview screening
  
• Oasis trailer

PEPPERMINT CANDY

• Lee Chang Dong Intro
  
• Making of
  
• Auditions
  
• Outtakes
  
• Peppermint Candy trailer
  

POETRY

• Lee Chang Dong Intro
  
• Making of
  
• Actor Ahn Nae-sang Interview
  
• Poetry trailer

GREEN FISH

• Lee Chang Dong Intro
  
• James Marsh & Pierce Conran Commentary
  
• Making of
  
• Production Announcement
  
• Green Fish trailer