MISE EN SCENE SHORT FILMS  (Korea, 2009)
Every major Korean director, from Park Chan-Wook (Oldboy) to Bong Joon-Ho (The Host), started out making short films. Several 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 short films. It’s a science lab where 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 this year, for the third time, we’ve partnered with the MSFF to bring over the best of last year’s festival in two programs.

Program 1 (95 Minutes, digital projection)
“Love is a Protein (23 minutes) – an animated short about the difficulties of ordering fried chicken in a world of talking, humanoid mutant animals.
“Auld Lang Syne” (26 minutes) – two elderly men bump into each other in the park and – whoops – it turns out they were lovers when they were younger. Before you can say, “For old time’s sake,” they’ve checked into a hotel to give it a spin again, but things are more difficult almost 40 years later, both physically and emotionally.
“Eden” (3 minutes) – this animated short is the funniest, craziest thing we’ve ever shown. 
“Lioness(es)” (20 minutes)  – a word of advice: don’t abuse your wife if she’s a butcher. Especially if all her friends are butchers too.
“Shaggy-Dog Story” (22 minutes) – one of the sharpest, funniest send-ups of local television news ever put on film. Winner of the MSFF Award for Comedy.

Program 2 (89 minutes, digital projection)
“Stop” (6 minutes) – a pencil-drawn animated short about a car accident.
“The Unbearable Heaviness of Nagging” (10 minutes) – a ten minute movie in one shot about moms we love to hate.
“Wanted” (22 minutes) – looking like a European animated film, this stylized, hand-drawn short about a flash flood and a wanted criminal becomes a satire of the government’s lousy response to natural disasters like, you know, Hurricane Katrina.
“Enemy’s Apple” (21 minutes) – there’s a riot going on and in a back alley a single protestor and a single cop are trapped in a stand-off. Winner of the MSFF Award for Comments on Society.
“A Coffee Vending Machine and its Sword” (30 minutes) – this anime-inspired animated short about a warrior reincarnated as a coffee vending machine took home the award from the Pusan International Fantastic Film Festival for Best Korean Short.