THE MAGICIANS (Korea – 2005)
Directed by: Song Il-Gon
Starring: Jeong Woong-In, Jang Hyeong-Seong, Lee Seung-Bi, Kim Hak-Seon

Song Il-Gong is a rarity in Korean cinema: a truly independent director. Only Kim Ki-Duk (3-IRON) is working as hard to create an individual body of work completely outside the commercial film industry, but whereas Kim traffics in extremity and violence Song uses his freedom to capture the most fleeting and delicate of feelings. His latest film, THE MAGICIANS started as a short film for the Jeonju International Film Festival and was later reshot as this 80 minute feature.  

Filmed in one unbroken, 80-minute take, the film opens at a New Year’s Eve reunion of three old friends who used to be in a band together. A few years ago they broke up after their guitar player killed herself and they’ve gotten back together to talk about their glory days, make a few confessions, grieve and maybe even start their lives again. As they talk into the night, these three screwed up people, all in their early thirties and all at a total loss, move back and forth from past to present and ghosts walk amongst them.  Fixed in space, but lost in time, THE MAGICIANS is a magic act. Because despite all the pain and disappointments life has dealt them, these three people, and one snowboarding monk, know that nothing is lost forever, they know that pain is only an illusion, and they know that their friendship can conquer anything. Even death.