Special Exhibition of Korean Films from the 1960s at New York Lincoln Center... The Housemaid, Obaltan, and More

Next month, a total of 24 classic Korean films, including Director Kim Ki-young's The Housemaid and Director Yu Hyun-mok's Obaltan, will be screened in Manhattan, New York, USA.

Image courtesy of New York Korean Cultural Center

The Korean Cultural Center New York announced on the 16th (local time) that it will hold a special exhibition titled "Korean Cinema’s Golden Decade: The 1960’s" from September 1 to 17 at the Walter Reade Theater within Film at Lincoln Center in New York.

Co-hosted by the Cultural Center, Film at Lincoln Center, Subway Cinema, and the Korean Film Archive, and sponsored by the Korean Film Council, this special exhibition will showcase 24 works by prominent directors active in the 1960s over a total of 58 screenings. The 1960s is considered the golden age of Korean cinema, with an average of about 200 films produced annually and various attempts in arthouse, commercial, and experimental films. The enactment of the Film Act and the birth of the Grand Bell Awards also took place during this period.

This special exhibition will screen Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid (1960), regarded as a representative masterpiece of Korean cinema; Kang Dae-jin’s The Coachman (1961), which won the Silver Bear at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival in 1961, marking the first international film festival award in Korean film history; and female director Hong Eun-won’s Female Judge (1962), among others. Female Judge was a lost film for over 50 years but was rediscovered in 2015 as a 16mm print and will now be presented to New York audiences. In particular, digitally restored versions of films such as Director Im Won-sik’s The Great General (1966), recently rediscovered works previously classified as lost films, and films considered rare prints will be showcased, adding special significance to the event.

Included in the screening list is Director Jeong Chang-hwa’s King Boxer, which held the record for the highest North American box office among Asian films for a long time. Films regarded as the "Korean version of 007," such as Moment Forever (1966) and Twilight Swordsman (1967), will also be screened.

Korea’s first monster movie, Director Kim Ki-duk’s The Giant Monster Yonggary (1967), Korea’s first feature-length animation, Director Shin Dong-hoon’s The Story of Hong Gil-dong (1967), and Director Lee Man-hee’s Holiday, produced in 1968 but banned from screening for 37 years due to censorship, will also be unveiled.

Additionally, Director Yu Hyun-mok’s Obaltan (1961) and Director Lee Man-hee’s The Marines Who Never Returned (1963), which will be screened on September 2 and 3 respectively, will feature talk programs with film industry experts after the screenings.

Kim Cheon-su, Director of the Korean Cultural Center, said, "This special exhibition is a series highlighting Korean cinema of the 1960s and is planned as the largest overseas retrospective beyond Korea, making it a meaningful event to introduce excellent Korean film history to the local film industry. We hope this special exhibition will provide a unique experience for New York film fans who cherish and love classic films worldwide."

The special exhibition is scheduled to coincide with the New York Film Festival, a representative film event in New York. Tickets and screening schedules can be found on the Film at Lincoln Center website. Using the discount code KOREANYC when purchasing tickets will provide a $5 discount. More details are available on the Cultural Center’s website.