The Frontline (East Coast Premiere)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 7 PM
Tribeca Cinemas
(54 Varick Street, NYC)
2011, 133 minutes
Series 1: Jang Hun Plus One!
Jang Hun started out as an assistant director to Kim Ki-Duk, but with his first film, Rough Cut, he established himself as Korea’s answer to Steven Soderbergh: a director making big budget movies with an independent sensibility. Rough Cut, and Secret Reunion, The Frontline have all become massive box office hits without making an compromises or talking down to their audiences. To round out the trio of movies in this mini-retrospective, we’re including White Night, another crime film that transforms itself into something dark, glittering and truly amazing.
The Frontline
One of the biggest hits of 2011, The Frontline is the simple story of a hill: Aerok Hill, a small rise on the Eastern Front of the Korean War that changed hands 30 times over 18 months of fighting. A military investigator is dispatched to see if allegations that the South Korean soldiers tasked with taking the hill are collaborating with their North Korean enemies to deliver letters to their families. It turns out that they are, and that’s the least of it. A movie about men (and some women) trying to hold onto their humanity in the midst of war, Frontline is Korea’s official submission to the Academy Awards.
Tribeca Cinemas:
54 Varick Street, on the corner of Canal Street, one block from the A, C, E and 1 train Canal Street stops
All seating is first-come, first served.
Doors open at 6:30PM.