REVIVRE | 화장 (South Korea, 2014)
Directed by: Im Kwon-taek
Starring: Ahn Sung-ki, Kim Qyu-ri, Kim Ho-jung

With his 102nd feature, legendary 78-year-old Korean filmmaking giant Im Kwon-taek (Sopyonje, Chihwaseon) delivers a powerful and vital film about the indignities of old age and the fires of suppressed desire stirred by the proximity of death. Based on a prize-winning short story by former journalist Kim Hun, Revivre is also a silent critique of the vanity of contemporary urban life. Veteran actor Ahn Sung-ki (Nowhere to Hide) delivers a masterfully subdued performance as Oh Sang-moo, an ordinary businessman at the top of the corporate food chain who works at a major cosmetics company. Fully consumed by the simple task of getting on with his life, he stoically fulfills his corporate duties while his wife, Jin-kyung (Kim Ho-jung), suffers the agonies of brain cancer at the hospital. During this rather difficult moment, enter the stunning Choo Eun-joo (Kim Qyu-ri), the company’s new hire. Young, elegant, sophisticated, she’s like a sexual fantasy conjured from deep within the man’s grief-stricken psyche. Traveling between office and hospital, Sang-moo tries to balance the demands of the job with the moral obligation to his wife, while also dealing with his own aging body and the pangs of forbidden desire.