<The Pollen of Flowers (Hwabun)> (1972)

Director : Ha Kil-Jong
Production Company : Dae Yang Films Co., Ltd
Date of Rate : 1972-01-03
Date of Theatrical Release : 1972-04-07
Running Time : 85 min.
Opening Theater : Kukdo Theater
Genre : Mystery

Staff :
Screenplay(Adaptation) : Lee Hyo-Seok
Producer : Kim Hyeong-Keun
Director of PhotoGraphy : Yoo Young-Kil
Gaffer : Kim Yeon
Music : Shin Jung-Hyeon
Art Director : Park No-Dal
Editor : Lee Kyeong-Ja

Cast(Actor/Actress) :
NamGung Won, Choi Ji-Hee

Synopsis

Se-ran (Choi Ji-hee), the mistress of Hyeon-ma (Nam Koong-won), lives in a massive traditional-style house called "Blue Mansion"in the suburbs of Seoul with her sister Mi-ran (Yoon So-ra) and their maid (Yeo Wun-gye). One day, Hyeon-ma comes to the house with his newly-employed male secretary Dan-ju (Hah Myung-joong). When the fact that she has gotten her first period becomes a subject of joke, Mi-ran runs away from home. Hyeon-ma orders Dan-ju to find her and bring her back. When Dan-ju catches up with Mi-ran, she tells him that she wants to see his room. The two of them spend the night together there and end up falling in love. When Dan-ju fails to return, Hyeon-ma, who loves Dan-ju, is consumed by rage and jealousy. Dan-ju quits his job at the company and runs away with Mi-ran, but Hyeon-ma tenaciously tracks him down. Hyeon-ma beats Dan-ju until he loses consciousness, and locks him up in the back room of the Blue Mansion. After Hyeon-ma's company goes belly-up and he flees to Japan, Se-ran, Mi-ran, and the maid secretly lust after Dan-ju. One morning, a swarm of creditors burst into the house and wreak havoc, even sexually assaulting Se-ran. Se-ran dies, Mi-ran departs, and Dan-ju leaves the Blue Mansion as well.

Notes

"A film that obliquely expresses the exit-less oppression and rage of Korean society on the eve of the Revitalizing Reform" (Kwon Eun-sun), "A rare example of a movie in Korean cinematic history in which one can find traces of queer cinema" (Seo Dong-jin)
The Pollen of Flowers marks the directorial debut of Ha Kil-jong, a major pioneer of the visual age who criticized existing Korean films of the 1970s and advocated an aesthetic revolution. Although The Pollen of Flowers is based on Lee Hyo-seok's novel of the same title, Ha created a grotesque and enigmatic movie that departs completely from the original. As implied by the name of the film's main setting, "Blue Mansion," which recalls the supreme authority of Korea's presidential Blue House, the entirety of The Pollen of Flowers functions as an allegory that evokes the oppressive atmosphere of the day. Enlisting the provocative subject of homosexuality as a major motif, the film interweaves this theme with issues of power, class, and sexual instinct.
The Pollen of Flowers begins with the arrival of a young man named Dan-ju at the Blue Mansion, over which Hyeon-ma reigns supreme. Hyeon-ma and Dan-ju strike up a homosexual relationship mediated by power and class relations. But when Dan-ju falls for Mi-ran and tries to end his relationship with Hyeon-ma, the latter punishes him. As long as the authoritative Hyeon-ma exists, the pure love between Dan-ju and Mi-ran remains impossible. And this impossibility can be interpreted as an allegorical expression of the repressiveness and incapacitation of the historical moment in which the film was made. The castigated Dan-ju wanders through the Blue Mansion like a ghost and stimulates the sexual desire of its female inhabitants. Dan-ju is, in a sense, the trauma that was repressed in order for the Blue Mansion to be able to function as a site of power. This traumatic space conceals the symptoms of its own ruin beneath its seemingly solid and elaborate veneer symptoms which explode to the surface without warning. On the morning after a luxurious party, the Blue Mansion is ransacked by a horde of creditors. In this highly metaphorical way, director Ha Kil-jong critiques President Park Chung-hee's despotic regime despite the strict eye of censorship. At the time of its release, The Pollen of Flowers also stoked heated controversy among those who saw echoes of Pasolini's Teorama in the film.

Director Bio: Ha Kil-jong (1941~1979)

He was the catalyst for a new revival of Korean cinema when Korean cinema was at a decline in the 1970s. He majored in film directing at UCLA and returned to Korea in 1972 to make his directorial debut with the symbolist film, The Pollen of Flowers (Hwabun). He only made 7 movies before his untimely death. He criticized Korean movies and created a new visual aesthetic through experimentation, struggling to truthfully portray the society of the era. His The March of Fools (Babodeul-ui haengjin) (1975) is a significant work that portrayed the futility and pathos that the youth of the era felt because of the oppressive social climate of the times. His other important works include The Ascension of Han-ne (Hanne-ui seungcheon) (1977), The Home of Stars (Sequel) (Byeoldeul-ui gohyang) (1978), and Byung-tae and Young-ja (Byeongtae-wa Yeongja) (1979).