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Korean Film Festival to Kick Off in Washington DC

From April 17 to June 10, Smithsonian Museum's Sackler and Freer galleries will hold Washington DC's fifth Korean Film Festival. It was organized by Tom Vick, film programmer for the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution, and Hyunjun Min of the University of Maryland.

The annual Korean Film Festival in Washington, DC, seeks to acquaint a wide international audience with the flourishing Korean film industry. The festival will highlight the creative achievements of local Korean filmmakers. The festival is open to people of all cultures.

Throughout the Washington DC metro area, this year's festival films will be screened at a wide array of venues. All Smithsonian events are free, but tickets are required. Usually, these are given out at least one hour before a scheduled performance. Though for more popular events, lines have been known to form far in advance. You can reserve no more than two tickets at a time.

Other theaters than the Sackler and Freer galleries include the AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, MD, conveniently located near the MARC train and the red line Washington, DC metro. The AFI offers online ticketing as well as box office purchases beginning no more than 30 minutes before the first show of the day. The National Museum of Women in the Arts will show some of the festival films. These are included with the price of admission, $5 for adults and $4 for members, seniors, and students.

Experience the world of Korean cinema in this year's showcase of the best of South Korean filmmaking sponsored by Korea Foundation and the Korean Film Council.

Film Descriptions

"Forever the Moment"
Director Yim Soon-rye's crowd-pleasing sports melodrama recreates the on- and off-court turmoil that plagued the Korean women's handball team before it won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. 2008 / 124 min.

"Crush and Blush"
Consumed with lust, a high-strung teacher concocts a revenge scheme that spins hilariously out of control in this madcap comedy by Lee Kyoung-mi. Intended for mature audiences. 2008 / 101 min.

"The Seashore Village"
Widely praised for questioning restrictive Confucian beliefs on gender roles, Kim Soo-young's film tells the story of a widow who freely pursues her passions when her fisherman husband dies at sea. 1965 / 91 min.

"The Wonder Years"
Superb performances and Kim Hee-jung's subtle direction make this a closely observed portrait of the adolescent misfit daughter of a struggling single mother. 2007 / 95 min.

"Man with Three Coffins"
Lee Jang-ho's beautiful, brooding film concerns two travelers—a man carrying his wife's ashes to her hometown, and a nurse secretly escorting a dying CEO to his—who cross paths near the DMZ. 1987 / 104 min.

"Milky Way Liberation Front"
Yoon Seong-ho's witty black comedy follows the personal and professional foibles of a neurotic filmmaker who suffers from aphasia, endures a break-up, and risks losing his directing gig to Mongolian twins. 2007 / 99 min.

"Taxi Blues"
To make this documentary, Choi-ha Dong-ha worked as a taxi driver and mounted a camera on his dashboard to create candid, sometimes unflattering portraits of his passengers. 2005 / 98 min.

"Going by the Book"
Jung Jae-young's deadpan performance as Do-man, a straight-arrow cop, and a cleverly engineered plot make Ra Hee-chan's spoof of a bank heist one of the best Korean comedies of recent years. 2007 / 102 min

By Issac Nam

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