MISE EN SCENE SHORT FILMS  (Korea, 2010)
Every major Korean director, from Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy) to Na Hong-Jin (The Yellow Sea), started out making short films. A few years ago, eleven of Korea’s biggest directors established the Mise en Scene Short Film Festival (aka, the MSFF), dedicated to romance, horror, action, social commentary and comedy shorts. It’s a science lab where new Korean filmmakers can experiment and also a talent pool where established directors can snag undiscovered geniuses. Many of the MSFF directors have gone on to become some of the industry’s top technicians and writers, and Na Hong-Jin even got his start winning a prize one year. This year, for the fifth time, we’ve partnered with the MSFF to bring over the best of last year’s festival in two programs. 

Program #1(91 minutes)

Master Piece - (Choi Wan-Jae, 13 minutes) - Jan Švankmajer-style freak-out in which a writer cleans his ear with a pencil and unleashes hell.

The Key (Kim Hyun-Chul, 10 minutes) - to give away the punchline would be a crime, but this is not the Chaplin-esque light comedy it appears to be.

Entering the Mind Through the Mouth (Choi Jin-Sung, 23 minutes) - you only think you’ve seen “hallucinatory” before watching this animated maelstrom of abused kids, hallucinatory wroms, demonic parents, dark circuses and fish dirigibles.

The Brass Quintet (Yoo Dae-Eol, 30 minutes) - 100 days from the end of their military service, one brass quintet tries to record their memorial CD in this half-animated tribute to trombones.

Program #2 (91 minutes)

Tunnel (Kim Saino, 14 minutes) - more deadpan than the Coen Brothers, it’s all about a guy who’s about to bowl his first perfect game, and the jerks in the next lane.

Debris (No. 474, 16 minutes) - an abandoned space station with one caretaker, and the porn magazine floating just outside the porthole.

Familyship (Yoon Hye-Ryeom, 3 minutes) - a mom, sick of private tutors, holds a gun to her son’s head. “Give me the area of a rectangle, or I’m blowing your brains out.”

My Mom’s Great Kimchi Stew (Han Seung-Hun, 19 minutes) - on the first day of every month, something horrible happens in this house: mom makes awful kimchi stew. And everyone has to pretend to enjoy it.

C-Kal (Kim Tae-Yoon, 6 minutes) - beautifully animated brush strokes tell the story of a gang of martial artists out to…chop vegetables?

Mr. Tap’s Holiday (Lee Sang-Geun, 31 minutes) - a plumber gets a faucet stuck in his head, and goes on a bizarre journey with his brain damaged fiance.