Fearful Symmetry salutes the deeply human films of South Korean auteur Lee Changdong, at The Cinematheque June 8 to July 2

Burning, Poetry, Secret Sunshine, and more exquisite portraits of pain

The Cinematheque and Korean Film Festival Canada present Fearful Symmetry: The Films of Lee Changdong from June 8 to July 2

SOUTH KOREAN FILMMAKER LEE Changdong writes and directs only two features every 10 years or so, but each is made with the exquisite care of a fine artwork.

His most recent film was 2018’s brilliantly tense and unsettling Burning, the psychological thriller based on a Murakami Haruki short story; seething with barely suppressed rage and desire, it starred Yoo Ah-in and Jeon Jong-seo, with Steven Yeun as the mystery man who comes between them.

Now, working with the Korean Film Festival Canada, The Cinematheque is bringing together that masterwork with five more of the auteur’s features in a retrospective this month called Fearful Symmetry.

Each film has a distinct look and feel, but the throughline is characters who endure deep human suffering. As Lee has said: “My main interest has always been human beings. I believe film is the best medium to show something about human beings.”

In 2010’s Poetry, an old woman (Korean screen legend Yoon Jeong-hee in her last performance) who’s grappling with the early stages of dementia faces her grandchild’s indifference. His 1999 film Peppermint Candy travels backward from a broken man’s suicide, rewinding into a dark and tumultuous time in South Korean political history. And 2007’s Secret Sunshine follows the spiritual search of a widowed mother after she experiences an unthinkable loss.

Born in 1954, Lee turned to movies after careers as a teacher and a fiction writer—and did we mention he was once his home country's Minister of Culture? Uncompromising, elusive, and not always easy to watch, his films make an impression that sets him apart from better-known South Korean auteurs like Bong Joon-ho or Park Chan-wook. Several in this rarely gathered sextet have new restorations. See them this month, because let's face it: it could be years before he puts out another feature.

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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