ROMANCE JOE
Tuesday, September 11, 2012 at 7PM
Tribeca Cinemas
(54 Varick Street, NYC)
LEE Kwang-kuk, 2011, 115 min.
Series Six: Gems of Korean Cinema
Autumn is upon us, and The Korean Cultural Service is ready to usher you into the Fall with a trio of trailblazing independent Korean gems, guaranteed to change your outlook on life!
Over the course of 2012’s Korean Movie Nights, you’ve been treated to big budget romances, action spectacles, and blockbuster comedies – but much like everywhere else on Earth, a country’s true cinematic gems come from its pioneering independent filmmakers, working outside the studio walls.
As September marches in, kick back and enjoy three of Korea’s most innovative and groundbreaking indies – brought to you for free, as always, by The Korean Cultural Service!
Romance Joe (2011)
LEE Kwang-kuk discusses the relativity of the ‘real’ in film and life with his own critical approach to narrative. The nature of storytelling and the thin line between art and life are revealed with overlapping narratives. And with in this myriad, stories unfold and different strands of one story cohere into an exciting continuity. The stop-and-go rhythms of LEE’s plots create a brilliant fairy-tale continuum all on their own. Director LEE’s whirligig originality and robust characterizations assure international fest play in his first feature film, “Romance Joe”.
The film is in Korean with English subtitles. For more information please contact at (212) 759-9550 or visit www.koreanculture.org.
SYNOPSIS
In his spirited first feature, director LEE Kwang-kuk weaves several wild narratives into a sophisticated web of storytelling. A young barmaid in a remote lodge, in lieu of payment, recalls the time she met a suicidal man who called himself Romance Joe. In another thread, a filmmaker agonizingly searches for a story that will bring his new project to life. The tangled narratives confuse, mesmerize, and shift expectations to unseen limits – all the while, constructing a shrewd cinematic chronicle that’s both whimsical and brilliant.
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.