Driving with My Wife's Lover Sunday, April 13, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium A superb ensemble cast anchors this engrossing film from director Kim Tae-sik. When a mild-mannered man discovers his wife is cheating on him with a taxi driver from Seoul, he hires this adversary for a long trip so he can confront the man. What follows is a plot full of surprising twists and turns as the two men forge an unlikely bond. Intended for mature audiences. 2006 / 92 min. Korean with English subtitles. Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. Grain in Ear Friday, April 18, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Zhang Lu's subtle, poetic drama provides a window into the rarely depicted Korean diaspora in China. A Korean single mother makes a living by selling snacks to factory workers in an industrial no-man's-land. With her husband in jail, she enters into an affair that has dire consequences for her and her young son. Intended for mature audiences. 2006 / 109 min. / Mandarin and Korean with English subtitles Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. Our School Sunday, April 20, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Kim Myeong-joon spent a year living with Korean students at a school on the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The result is this engrossing documentary about the rarely depicted lives of the pro–North Korea community of Koreans living in Japan. Kim's film follows these young people as they try to find their identity—somewhere between Korea and Japan. 2007 / 134 min. Korean with English subtitles. Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. Secret Sunshine Friday, April 25, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium In person: Lee Chang-dong Lee Chang-dong's latest feature is one of the most acclaimed films of the past year. An emotional rollercoaster about a grieving mother seeking solace, its plot raises thought-provoking questions about faith, love, and loss. Actress Jeon Do-yeon's emotionally wrenching performance earned her the Best Actress award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. 2007 / 142 min. Korean with English subtitles. Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. Peppermint Candy Sunday, April 27, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium The political becomes achingly personal in director Lee Chang-dong's remarkable drama chronicling twenty years of a life gone wrong. Ingeniously constructed in reverse chronological order, it covers the years 1979 to 1999, during which South Korea went from military rule to democracy. The film's protagonist, a former soldier and policeman, gradually realizes that the mistakes he has made in life are, in fact, irreversible. 2000 / 130 min. Korean with English subtitles. Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. The Marines Who Never Returned Friday, May 2, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Frequently cited as one of the true classics of Korean cinema, Lee Man-hee's ambitious production looks at a band of soldiers fighting in the Korean War. Lee had the full assistance of the Korean army while he was filming the harrowing battle scenes, but his ability to convey intimate moments of camaraderie and friendship is what elevates this film above the average war movie. 1962 / 110 min. Korean with English subtitles. Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. Wildflower in the Battlefield Sunday, May 4, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium More than a decade after making The Marines Who Never Returned, Lee Man-hee returned to the Korean War for inspiration. Set in the early days of the war in the 1950s, it views the brutal fighting from the perspective of a young boy who has been adopted as a "mascot" by a group of soldiers. 1974 / 102 min. Korean with English subtitles. Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. AD LIB NIGHT Sunday, May 11, 2008, 2:30 pm, Meyer Auditorium Three men approach a young woman with a strange request: impersonate the prodigal daughter of a man now on his deathbed. His only wish is to see his daughter again so he can die in peace. Lee Yoon-ki's clever, emotionally moving independent feature probes the nature of family relationships and asks whether deception is sometimes more effective than the truth. 2006 / 100 min. Korean with English subtitles. Note: Due to circumstances beyond our control, Sunday’s 1 PM panel discussion, Love, Marriage, and Family in the New Korea, has been cancelled. In addition, director Lee Yoon-ki, originally scheduled to participate in the panel and discuss his film Ad Lib Night, will not be able to appear. The screening of Ad Lib Night will proceed at 2:30 PM as planned. Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. Dasepo Naughty Girls Friday, May 16, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Welcome to No Use High, where the students and teachers seem to have only one thing on their minds. Featuring an uproarious opening musical number and a yodeling song-and-dance routine by "Anthony, the exchange student from Switzerland," E. J-young's twisted musical comedy satirizes everything from internet dating to cross-dressing. Beneath the bawdy jokes, however, is a touching story about a poor, shy girl who tries to fit in at the weirdest high school imaginable. Intended for mature audiences. 2006 / 103 min. Korean with English subtitles. Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. If You Were Me 2 Sunday, May 18, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Part of a series of omnibus movies produced by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, this second installment presents short films by five well-known directors: Park Kyung-hee, Ryoo Seung-wan, Jung Ji-woo, Jang Jin, and Kim Dong-won. The films' subjects include the plight of refugees and immigrants, prejudice against the physically challenged, and problems of temporary workers. They are treated in a variety of styles, from straightforward documentary to sly comedy. 2005 / 112 min. Korean with English subtitles. Part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008. This festival is made possible by the Korean Film Council and the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. Empress Chung: Korean Folktale through Animated Film Tuesday, June 3, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Join Dr. Heinz Insu Fenkl, associate professor of English at SUNY New Paltz, for a stimulating discussion of Nelson Shin's rarely screened animated film Empress Chung. Dr. Fenkl explores the way this film, based on the folktale of Shimchong, the blind man's daughter, deals with central Korean values. This film is not rated, but it does contain disturbing scenes and violence. 2005 / 94 min. / Korean with English subtitles This event is part of the Korean Film Festival DC 2008 and is cosponsored by the Korea Foundation. Free tickets required. Dragon Gate Inn Friday, June 6, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Directors as diverse as Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-liang have paid tribute to this iconic martial arts film. Its astonishing fight sequences, which were inspired by the rhythms of Beijing Opera, set a new standard for the genre, and its heroine, a no-nonsense fighter capable of dispatching dozens of enemies with her sword, spawned legions of imitators. 1967 / 111 min. Mandarin with English subtitles. Part of the series King Hu: Inspired by Taiwan, presented in conjunction with Yellow Mountain: China's Ever-Changing Landscape. This series is cosponsored by the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in the US. Additional Taiwanese films are shown on May 30 and 31 at TECRO's Twin Oaks estate in Washington. For more information, click here. Free tickets required. A Touch of Zen Sunday, June 8, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Generally acknowledged as Hu's masterpiece, this blend of mysticism and action elevated the martial arts film to new heights of sophistication. Living in a fortress that is rumored to be haunted, a scholar encounters what he thinks is a ghost, but the situation turns out to be more complicated than that. The film's technical wizardry—especially the oft-imitated but never equaled battle in a bamboo grove—earned Hu comparisons to directors Akira Kurosawa and Sergei Eisenstein. 1971 / 170 min. Mandarin with English subtitles. Part of the series King Hu: Inspired by Taiwan, presented in conjunction with Yellow Mountain: China's Ever-Changing Landscape. This series is cosponsored by the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in the US. Additional Taiwanese films are shown on May 30 and 31 at TECRO's Twin Oaks estate in Washington. For more information, click here. Free tickets required. Hara Kiri Sunday, June 15, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium In this classic film by Masaki Kobayashi, a masterless samurai ("played with something like demonic self-possession by Nakadai," according to film critic Vernon Young) stops at an Edo mansion and asks for a haven where he can commit ritual suicide. While he waits for the arrival of three more samurai to serve as his seconds, the house’s owner passes the time by telling of the horrific outcome of a similar request. As each of the seconds calls in "sick," the masterless samurai begins his own story. 1962 / 135 min. / B&W Part of the film series, "Tatsuya Nakadai: Icon of Japanese Cinema." One of the great stars of Japanese cinema, Tatsuya Nakadai has worked with Japanese directors as disparate in style and subject matter as Akira Kurosawa, Masaki Kobayashi, Mikio Naruse, and Kon Ichikawa. This series presents a small sample of Nakadai’s diverse acting achievements. This series is cosponsored by Film Forum, New York, and the Japan Foundation. These films are in Japanese with English subtitles. Film descriptions by Japanese film specialist Michael Jeck. Free tickets required. Immortal Love Friday, June 20, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium The year is 1932, and a woman, whose fiancé is fighting in China, is raped and then forced into marriage with a landowner’s son (Nakadai). In four more chapters presented over three decades, their children undertake their own searches for love—under one condition. Black-and-white Cinemascope photography of Mount Aso highlights Keisuke Kinoshita’s complex, bitter, and sweet saga of family relationships. 1961 / 103 min. / B&W Part of the film series, "Tatsuya Nakadai: Icon of Japanese Cinema." This series is cosponsored by Film Forum, New York, and the Japan Foundation. These films are in Japanese with English subtitles. Film descriptions by Japanese film specialist Michael Jeck. Free tickets required. Yojimbo Sunday, June 22, 2008, 1:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium In person: Tatsuya Nakadai and Teruyo Nogami, and hosted by Michael Jeck Two icons of Japanese cinema—actor Tatsuya Nakadai and author Teruyo Nogami—introduce and discuss one of their classic collaborations with the great Akira Kurosawa. Joining acclaimed actor Tatsuya Nakadai is Teruyo Nogami, a legend in her own right whose work as a script supervisor for Kurosawa is commemorated in her memoir Waiting on the Weather: Making Movies with Akira Kurosawa. She signs copies of her book following the screening. Nakadai stars as a pistol-waving killer opposite Toshiro Mifune's scheming yojimbo (bodyguard) in this Kurosawa classic. Their confrontations are "like a face-off between Elvis Presley and John Wayne," writes Stuart Galbraith in his book The Emperor and the Wolf. Film critic Pauline Kael declared it "a glorious comedy-satire of force: the story of the bodyguard who kills the bodies he is hired to guard." 1961 / 110 min. / B&W Part of the film series, "Tatsuya Nakadai: Icon of Japanese Cinema." This series is cosponsored by Film Forum, New York, and the Japan Foundation. These films are in Japanese with English subtitles. Film descriptions by Japanese film specialist Michael Jeck. Free tickets required. Untamed Friday, June 27, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium In this adaptation of Shusei Tokuda's 1915 novel, Hideko Takamine plays an independent woman who defies her family's expectations that she enter an arranged marriage. Takamine gives a powerful, indomitable character portrait, with Nakadai providing a memorable performance in this rare period film that was not included in the Freer's 2006 retrospective of director Mikio Naruse. 1957 / 120 min. / B&W Part of the film series, "Tatsuya Nakadai: Icon of Japanese Cinema." This series is cosponsored by Film Forum, New York, and the Japan Foundation. These films are in Japanese with English subtitles. Film descriptions by Japanese film specialist Michael Jeck. Free tickets required. Kagemusha Sunday, June 29, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium An epic evocation of sixteenth-century Japan, as well as an ironic tale of loyalty and illusion, this film stars Nakadai in a double role as a thief and the dying lord he impersonates. This marked Akira Kurosawa's triumphant return to Japanese filmmaking after a decade-long absence. Film critic Roger Ebert praised it as "an epic that dares to wonder what meaning the samurai code—or any human code—really has in the life of an individual man." 1980 / 162 min. Part of the film series, "Tatsuya Nakadai: Icon of Japanese Cinema." This series is cosponsored by Film Forum, New York, and the Japan Foundation. These films are in Japanese with English subtitles. Film descriptions by Japanese film specialist Michael Jeck. Free tickets required. Travelers and Magicians Thursday, June 26, 2008, 2:00 pm Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 7:00 pm Special guests: Tshewang Dendup and Sonam Dorji In celebration of the Folklife Festival's focus on the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the Freer Gallery of Art presents this cinematic fable by Khyentse Norbu, Bhutan's most famous director and one of Himalayan Buddhism's most revered lamas. "To watch this movie," wrote Desson Thomson in the Washington Post, "is to be moved not only by an affecting, warmly spirited yarn, but also by the wisdom that seems to waft to us directly from those snow-capped peaks." 2003 / 108 min. / in Dzongkha with English subtitles Tshewang Dendup, the film's star, and celebrated musician Sonam Dorji take audience questions after each screening. Free tickets required. Exiled Friday, July 11, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Sunday, July 13, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Glenn Kenny of Premiere Magazine calls Johnny To's Exiled "one of his most assured, enjoyable pictures, refreshing fun that's sure to satisfy anyone's action jones." In the anxious atmosphere of Macau's final days as a Portuguese colony in 1998, four hitmen resolve to team up for one final big score before the island is handed over to Chinese rule. 2006 / 110 min. Part of the Thirteenth Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival. This year's festival features a selection of film, new and old, that highlights Hong Kong's cinematic achievements. This festival is cosponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. All films are in Cantonese with English subtitles unless otherwise indicated. Free tickets required. My Name is Fame Friday, July 18, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Sunday, July 20, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium This drama by Lawrence Lau is one of the treasures of recent Hong Kong cinema. Lau Ching-wan stars as a bitter, washed-up actor who begrudgingly takes an aspiring ingénue (Huo Si-yan) under his wing. Her growing success inspires in him a mixture of jealousy, affection, and a desire to return to the silver screen. Watch for cameo appearances by some of Hong Kong's well-known actors and directors. 2006 / 94 min. Part of the Thirteenth Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival. This year's festival features a selection of film, new and old, that highlights Hong Kong's cinematic achievements. This festival is cosponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. All films are in Cantonese with English subtitles unless otherwise indicated. Free tickets required. Exodus Friday, July 25, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Sunday, July 27, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium This wickedly clever, satirical thriller by Pang Ho-cheung begins with a Hong Kong police detective interrogating a Peeping Tom under arrest for spying on a women's restroom. He claims, however, that he was eavesdropping on a vast conspiracy to rid the planet of men. Pang keeps the viewer guessing right up to the end: are women really conspiring to rid the world of the less-necessary gender, or has the detective been hoodwinked? 2007 / 94 min. Part of the Thirteenth Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival. This year's festival features a selection of film, new and old, that highlights Hong Kong's cinematic achievements. This festival is cosponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. All films are in Cantonese with English subtitles unless otherwise indicated. Free tickets required. The Postmodern Life of My Aunt Friday, August 1, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Sunday, August 3, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Ann Hui's latest film, based on a popular novel by Yan Yan, mixes comedy and poignancy in a tale of a sixty-something woman who lives alone in Shanghai and is trying to cope with both financial woes and the impersonal city around her. Chow Yun-fat hilariously spoofs his famously suave screen persona and adds to the film's charm by playing a smarmy con man. 2006 / 111 min. / Mandarin with English subtitles Part of the Thirteenth Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival. This year's festival features a selection of film, new and old, that highlights Hong Kong's cinematic achievements. This festival is cosponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. Free tickets required. Shaolin Soccer Friday, August 8, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Sunday, August 10, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Stephen Chow both directs and stars in this special effects-filled farce, playing a down-on-his-luck goofball who just happens to be trained in the Shaolin school of martial arts. This training gives him and his fellow monks extraordinary abilities that come in handy in their soccer showdown with "Team Evil." The film's "infectious style has a way of lifting spirits. You don't have to be a fan of soccer or kung fu to enjoy it" (Claudia Puig, USA Today). 2001 / 87 min. Part of the Thirteenth Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival. This year's festival features a selection of film, new and old, that highlights Hong Kong's cinematic achievements. This festival is cosponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. All films are in Cantonese with English subtitles unless otherwise indicated. Free tickets required. As Tears Go By Friday, August 15, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Sunday, August 17, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Wong Kar-wai gained an enthusiastic cult following with such films as Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love, and 2046. He made his directing debut with this gang-world saga about a criminal whose protective instincts lead to tragic consequences. Evident here are characteristics of Wong's later style—a lush, moody atmosphere, dazzling camerawork, and tender moments underscored by melancholy pop songs—that established him as one of Hong Kong's most distinctive filmmakers. 1988 / 102 min. Part of the Thirteenth Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival. This year's festival features a selection of film, new and old, that highlights Hong Kong's cinematic achievements. This festival is cosponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. All films are in Cantonese with English subtitles unless otherwise indicated. Free tickets required. Moving Perspectives: Yang Fudong: Seven Intellectuals in the Bamboo Forest, Part I Saturday, May 31, 2008, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm Thursday, July 24, 2008, 1:00 pm - 8:00 pm Saturday, August 23, 2008, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm Projected continuously. Meyer Auditorium For centuries, artists have been inspired by the landscape of China's Yellow Mountain. Internationally renowned artist Yang Fudong expands that perspective in the contemporary medium of video with his five-part series Seven Intellectuals in the Bamboo Forest, which is based on a famous Chinese tale. In Part I, Yang follows seven Chinese youths in contemporary dress who are in a permanent state of contemplation atop the mist-shrouded peaks of Yellow Mountain. 2003 / 30 min. / single-channel video / Mandarin with English subtitles This continuous screening is presented in conjunction with the opening of the Sackler exhibition Yellow Mountain: China's Ever-Changing Landscape. Triangle Friday, August 22, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Sunday, August 24, 2008, 2:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Hong Kong legends Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, and Johnny To teamed up for this cinematic game based on Hark's idea for a collaborative film. Each director contributed a section to this continuous story, freely using his own methods and taking the plot in any direction he wanted. The result is both a primer in the unique styles of these directors and an enjoyable romp about a robbery gone wrong. 2007 / 101 min. Part of the Thirteenth Annual Made in Hong Kong Film Festival. This year's festival features a selection of film, new and old, that highlights Hong Kong's cinematic achievements. This festival is cosponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. All films are in Cantonese with English subtitles unless otherwise indicated. Free tickets required. Meet the Actor: Ahn Sung Ki Thursday, August 28, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Friday, August 29, 2008, 7:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium Renowned for his natural acting style and convincing portrayal of complex characters, Ahn Sung Ki has been a fixture in Korean cinema since his days as a child actor in the 1950s. This multiple award-winning star (dubbed "the national actor" by the Korean press) comes to the Freer to present and discuss two of his films. Film titles and descriptions forthcoming. Cosponsored by the Korea Foundation and the University of Georgia. Free tickets required. Free TICKETS Free tickets are required for films in the 300 seat Meyer Auditorium, located in the Freer Gallery. Up to two tickets per person are distributed at the auditorium one hour before show time. Support Us Your support helps to make our free film programs possible. Click here to make an online donation. 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