Im Sang-soo
New Film: The Taste of Money
Country: South Korea
Age: 50
Best Known for: Sexual, political, and controversial South Korean films, such as 2010's The Housemaid and 2005's The President's Last Bang
Cannes History
Im's only film, other than The Taste of Money, to play Cannes is The Housemaid, which was featured in 2010's Competition.
His Resume
Im has a reputation for pushing the envelope, if not formally, then in terms of subject matter. His films tackle seedy, noir-ish topics like sex and power. His characters are grimy, the look of his films is bold.
He started with Girls' Night Out, a drama about the sex lives of three Korean women, while his sophomore feature, Tears, follows four homeless teens in Seoul. He gained a much wider audience when his next film, A Good Lawyer's Wife, gained admittance to the Venice International Film Festival in 2003.
But it was 2005's The President's Last Bang that really cemented his position as someone willing to "go there"—even if that means touching a nerve and upsetting a few people. The film chronicled the assassination of a former South Korean President, Park Chung-hee, by the director of the KCIA, Kim Jae-kyu. His depiction of the slain leader led to a lawsuit from his family and a court-ordered censorship of nearly four minutes of documentary footage, which the courts claimed would have led audiences to believe the film was based on firm facts, when the opposite was the case. Im, in turn, elected to release the film with nearly four minutes of a blank screen until the time came when he could fill the void with the footage he wanted to include. Though the ruling was overturned just a year after the film's release, the unedited version remains unavailable in most parts.
Im's next film, The Old Garden, chronicled the Gwangju Massacre of 1980 in the eyes of one couple, and two years ago, his most recent film, The Housemaid, was accepted to play at Cannes and ultimately played in theaters around the world.
Im Sang-soo On-Demand
Hulu Plus: N/A
iTunes: The Housemaid
Netflix Instant: The Housemaid
Vudu: N/A
Taste of Money
"Lost between his morality and shortcut to successful life, [Young-jak] has to make the biggest decision he's ever made, to choose whom he will hang on to, in order to survive in this harsh world, where he wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth." —Twitch Film
This is the reason I started this project. I wanted to learn more about some of lesser-known directors who seem to play Cannes on a regular basis, and of all the director's I've previewed so far, Im's The Taste of Money is now the film I'm most excited about. It seems crazy, considering Moonrise Kingdom, Cosmopolis, Lawless, etc. have been on my radar forever, but the trailer for this film just hit all the right notes.
The Taste of Money looks and sounds insanely good. The quote above is just a taste of what the trailer below offers (and neither quite skims the surface of the red-band trailer, which is full of boobs and on YouTube, if that's your thing). This promises to be an intense thriller, full of passion, tension, and drama.
That said, I doubt it's a Palme winner, but The Housemaid won nothing and still managed to capitalize on the attention coming out of Cannes. Here's to hoping The Taste of Money can do the same.
Im's next film, The Old Garden, chronicled the Gwangju Massacre of 1980 in the eyes of one couple, and two years ago, his most recent film, The Housemaid, was accepted to play at Cannes and ultimately played in theaters around the world.
Im Sang-soo On-Demand
Hulu Plus: N/A
iTunes: The Housemaid
Netflix Instant: The Housemaid
Vudu: N/A
Taste of Money
"Lost between his morality and shortcut to successful life, [Young-jak] has to make the biggest decision he's ever made, to choose whom he will hang on to, in order to survive in this harsh world, where he wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth." —Twitch Film
This is the reason I started this project. I wanted to learn more about some of lesser-known directors who seem to play Cannes on a regular basis, and of all the director's I've previewed so far, Im's The Taste of Money is now the film I'm most excited about. It seems crazy, considering Moonrise Kingdom, Cosmopolis, Lawless, etc. have been on my radar forever, but the trailer for this film just hit all the right notes.
The Taste of Money looks and sounds insanely good. The quote above is just a taste of what the trailer below offers (and neither quite skims the surface of the red-band trailer, which is full of boobs and on YouTube, if that's your thing). This promises to be an intense thriller, full of passion, tension, and drama.
That said, I doubt it's a Palme winner, but The Housemaid won nothing and still managed to capitalize on the attention coming out of Cannes. Here's to hoping The Taste of Money can do the same.
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