Oasis South Korea
2002, 132min.
Prod.: Gye-nam Myeong, Jeon Jay, Min-cheul Cho, Script/Dir.: Chang-dong Lee, Dir. of Phot.: Yeong-taek Choi, Compos.: Jae-jin Lee, Art. Dir. Jum-hee Shin, Sound: Seung-cheol Lee, Edit.: Hyun Kim.
Cast: Kyung-gu Sol, So-ri Moon, Nae-sang Ahn, Seung-wan Ryoo, Kwi-Jung Chu, Jin-gu Kim, Byung-ho Son, Ga-hyun Yun, Myeong-shin Park, Kyung-geun Park.
Drama begins on the day that Jong-du, a mentally handicapped young man, is released from prison. He is immediately arrested again for being unable to pay a restaurant bill, and his brother bails him out and sets him up with a menial job and a place to live. The crime that originally landed Jong-du in prison was a hit-and-run accident that resulted in the death of an old man. One day he goes to visit the victim's family, and meets Gong-ju, the man's daughter, who has cerebral palsy. After a disastrous first meeting, the two begin an unlikely love affair that exposes the callousness and uncomfortable secrets of both of their families. (All Movie Guide)
Awards
Venice Film Festival, 2002 (Special Director's Award, Marcello Mastroianni Award, FIPRESCI Prize, SIGNIS Award), Bergen IFF, 2002 (Jury Award - Honorable Mention), Vancouver IFF, 2002, (Chief Dan George Humanitarian Award), Baek Sang Art Awards, 2003 (Best Director), Castellinaria International Festival of Young Cinema, 2003 (Three Castles), Gardanne Film Festival, 2003 (Audience Award), Seattle IFF, 2003 (Golden Space Needle Award - Best Actor, Best Actress), Independent Spirit Awards, 2005 (Best Foreign Film).
| Lee, Chang-dong  Chang-dong Lee (born 01.04.1954, Daegu, Korea)
A successful novelist and screenwriter before becoming a director, Lee Chang-dong came late to filmmaking, but quickly established himself as one of Korea's most talented directors. He studied Korean literature at Kyungpuk National University, where he directed and acted in numerous plays. He graduated in 1980 and published his first novel, Chonri, in 1983. In the early '90s, he co-wrote, with director Park Kwang-su, two pivotal films of the Korean New Wave: To the Starry Island (1993) and A Single Spark (1996). Now an established figure in the Korean cinema community, Lee was encouraged by his colleagues to become a director (they even formed a mock committee dedicated to the cause.) His first film, Green Fish (1997), a critique of Korean society told through the eyes of a young man who becomes enmeshed in the criminal underworld, won awards at the Rotterdam and Vancouver Film Festivals. His next film, Peppermint Candy (2000), took an even broader and bitterer view of Korea's recent history. It tells its story backwards, covering 20 twenty years in the life of a man progressively ruined by his experiences in the military, law enforcement, and business worlds. Fueled by its powerful performances, unique narrative structure, and strong social critique, it was widely praised both in Korea and abroad. He was so impressed with the work of two of the film's actors, Sol Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri, that he cast them in much more demanding roles in his next film, Oasis (2002), as a mentally disabled man and a woman afflicted with cerebral palsy who fall in love. Less overtly political than his previous films, it nevertheless garnered him even more international recognition, winning five awards at the Venice Film Festival. His last film, Secret Sunshine (2007) won Best Actress Award in Cannes.
Filmography
Green Fish (Chorok mulkogi, 1997), Peppermint Candy (Bakha satang (2000), Oasis (2002), Secret Sunshine (Milyang, 2007).
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