In 2006, under pressure from the United States, South Korea announced a major reduction in its screen quota for domestic films. Since 1966, in a system designed to protect the local film industry, Korean theaters had been required to show domestic movies for 146 days a year. That quota was cut in half last July, thus opening the door for more competition from (big, bad) Hollywood.

Doomsayers predicted Korean cinema would inevitably be trampled by “Harry Potter,” “Transformers” and other foreign mega-flicks.

In reality, the sky is not falling on Korean cinema. Here are three 2006 Korean films I recently watched at the New York Korean Film Festival that serve as proof that Korean cinema is alive and kicking.

 

“200 Pounds Beauty”

Taking a page from “Shallow Hal,” this comedy puts a slim actress (Kim Ah Jung) in a grotesque fat costume. Kim, in heavy latex and make-up, plays Hanna, a golden-voiced woman who works as the ghost singer for lip-synching pop starlet Ammy. Good-natured and naïve, Hanna accepts her underappreciated role without complaint while harboring a secret crush on Ammy’s savvy producer Sang Joong (Joo Jin Mo). All is well until Hanna discovers that her dream man will never fancy her. This being South Korea, she makes the obvious decision to cure her woes via plastic surgery. Magically transformed into a sexy vixen, Hanna reinvents herself as a pop singer to be produced by — you guessed it — her unwitting former crush.

As a, uh, lightweight romantic comedy, “200 Pounds Beauty” is mostly successful, carried by Kim’s winning performance as fat/skinny Hanna. However, with plastic surgery so prevalent among young people in Korea, I hoped that the director would make more of a statement. Certain pieces of dialogue lightly address the issue, but by film’s end, the only message is simple: Beauty always wins.

 

 

“Family Ties”

Told in three separate but connected parts, “Family Ties” is the type of film to which you’re probably better off going in blind. It is a movie about the ties that bind unconventional — some might say dysfunctional — families, and how those bonds have lasting effects through time. It’s a beautiful story, told with humor and dashes of melancholy, but never with overbearing pathos or facile emotion.

Though the film has a couple of slow moments, every acting performance is top-notch, particularly from actresses Moon So Ri and Gong Hyo Jin, who are each able to convey strength, wisdom and vulnerability in their roles as de facto matriarchs. As a portrait of familial resilience, the film will stick with you long after it’s over. 

 

 

“A Dirty Carnival”

“A Dirty Carnival” is a revelation; it is probably the best Korean gangster film I’ve ever seen, better than “Friend” and the many pseudo-“Friend”s that followed. The plot, like that of any classic mafia/gang movie, follows the rise of a young, ambitious gangster (Jo In Sung) who tries to outrun karma as he carefully maneuvers (and beats and stabs) his way to the top. What separates “Carnival” from more standard gangster fare is its superior storyline, which is skillfully interwoven with two concurrent subplots that enhance, rather than dilute, the main story. It is a thoroughly compelling tale with the perfect balance of action and drama. As the lead, Jo is simply brilliant. I would favorably compare his performance to Leo DiCaprio in “The Departed.” Though Jo plays a gangster and Leo a cop, both portray tortured young men struggling with divided loyalties. There is no question that Jo will be one of Korea’s best actors in years to come. Definitely worth buying on DVD.