North American Premiere

Rough. Raw. Real. The Kim Ki-duk school of filmmaking has given us several great projects produced and written by Kim and directed by young filmmakers: Poongsan, Bedevilled, and now we have Rough Cut’s spiritual successor in Rough Play. The film opens with crazed actor Oh Yeong (K-Pop idol Lee Joon playing totally against type) dragging a mannequin up the stairs of a department store and spouting some rather menacing dialogue. Intercut with this is a stage performance from early in his career where Oh takes his performance a bit too far and threatens the actress he’s doing a scene with. The rest of the film expands outward from these two moments and shows Oh’s rise and violent fall under the influence of mobbish manager Kim Jang-ho (Seo Bum-suk). Lee Joon is absolutely captivating in a performance that is all about the destruction that narcissism and rampant ego can bring. He lets it all hang out and embodies Oh’s (literally) insane dedication to his craft. A darker than dark take on the Korean film industry, Rough Play rails against the apathy of a business wholly concerned with appearance and that gives no long-term thought to the future.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014 | 6:30 PM

Thursday, July 3, 2014 | 3:30 PM

ROUGH PLAY
배우는 배우다 | SHIN YEON-SHICK, 2013
SOUTH KOREA | KOREAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES | FORMAT: DCP | 98 MINUTES

 $10 affiliate rate for The Korea Society members.
You can also purchase at the box office by showing your membership card
or mention "The Korea Society."

Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th Street, New York, NY

New York Asian Film Festival 2014

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council.