<Ticket (Tiket)> (1986)

Director : Im Kwon-Taek
Production Company : Jeemi Films Co., Ltd
Date of Rate : 1986-08-02
Date of Theatrical Release : 1986-08-23
Running Time : 100 min.
Opening Theater : Seoul, Myeong Hwa Theater
Genre : Melodrama

Staff :
Screenplay(Adaptation) : Song Kil-Han
Producer : Jin Seong-Man
Executive Producer : Kim Ji-Mi, Shin Kyeong-Shik
Director of PhotoGraphy : Koo Jung-Mo
Gaffer : Choi Yui-Jeong
Music : Shin Byeong-Ha
Art Director : Won Ki-Ju
Editor : Park Deok-Ryeol

Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Kim Jee-Mi, Jeon Se-Young, Lee Hye-Young, Park Keun-Hyeong, Ahn So-Young, Myeong Hee

Synopsis

Min Ji-suk runs a "ticket bar"where customers can purchase tickets for certain "services"in the town of Sokcho in Gangwon-do. She hires Miss Yang (Ahn So-young), Miss Hong (Lee Hye-young), and Se-young (Jeon Se-young) through the employment agency. Miss Yang and Miss Hong, who are well experienced in this type of business, are used to accepting propositions from customers. But Se-young, who is dating a college student named Min-su, rejects all requests for sexual favors. When Min-su professes to having problems with his tuition and finances, Se-young reassures him that she will procure the necessary funds for him. When the bar's clientele begins to dwindle because of Se-young, Ji-suk reprimands her severely. Se-young develops a close relationship with a Captain Pak and even allows him to sleep with her. She asks Captain Pak to find Min-su employment on a boat, but when Min-su comes to Sokcho for his new job, he sees how Se-young has been making her living. Shocked, he turns his back on the job and leaves. When he eventually returns to Sokcho, he scathingly denounces Se-young's morality and severs their relationship. Decades ago, Ji-suk had stumbled into the bar business in a desperate effort to support her husband, who was serving time in prison; she later left him voluntarily out of shame and moral degradation. Concerned that Se-young will end up with the same fate, Ji-suk asks Min-su to meet with her. She begs him not to abandon Se-young, but he flatly refuses. Ji-suk reacts by pushing Min-su into the sea, and suffers a mental breakdown that lands her in a psychiatric institution.

Notes

"Although Ticket appears at first glance to be a typical melodrama, it is in fact a film that indicts the exploitation of women as one of society's most urgent problems" (Jeong Yeong-il)
Although Ticket is one of Im Kwon-taek's less-known works, it deserves attention when considered in the context of Korean melodramas for the clear light it sheds on the complexity of patriarchal ideologies and women's struggles against them (Kim So-young). Dealing with the subject of prostitution as practiced through "ticket bars" in regional towns, Ticket has the outward form of a hostess melodrama from the 1970s and 1980s. But it disrupts the genre's conventions and sharply registers the contradictions of social reality. This distinction manifests itself, for instance, in the fact that the role of "pimp" (or "madam," in this case) as exploiter and protector of the prostitutes is filled by a woman rather than a man, as was the case in previous hostess movies. Although Min Ji-suk runs a prostitution business, the relationship between her and her employees goes beyond the simple opposition between exploiter and exploited. Se-young, Miss Hong, and Miss Yang can be seen as stages Ji-suk has already passed through in her life's journey. Although they belong to different generations, all these women are placed in analogous positions in Korea's patriarchal society. Ticket gradually reveals the sympathy and bond that obtain among its female characters as a result of this common social positioning, and this sense of community is most dramatically displayed when Ji-suk murders Se-young's boyfriend. Projecting her own past onto her youngest charge, Ji-suk vents the rage she feels toward patriarchal society upon Se-young's boyfriend Min-su. It is at this point that Im Kwon-taek's film stages a moment of female subversion in the face of patriarchy, and thus attains a force for social critique beyond the reach of conventional melodramas.

Afterword:

The total running time of Ticket was reduced from 112 to 100 minutes due to censorship. The censors required all lines containing the word "ticket" to be cut from the movie, and demanded that its ending be altered. As a result, the theatrical version was amended to show Miss Yang and Se-young settled into a family environment, whereas the original film ends with its four female characters continuing in their state of bondage.

Director Bio: Im Kwon-taek (1936- )

He began his filmmaking career as prop assistant to the lighting assistant, going through the traditional apprenticeship system of Chungmuro to become a film director. And in 1962, he made his directorial debut with Farewell Tumen River(Dumangang-a Jal Itgeora), an action film that deals with the plight of the Independence Army of Manchuria. He made Weeds(Jabcho), Mismatched Nose (Jjagko), and The Family Pedigree (Jogbo) during the 1970s and with his movies of the 1980s, Kilsodeum(Gilsotteum), Ticket (Tiket), Surrogate Mother (Ssibat-i) and Mandara (Mandala), gradually became recognized for his artistry and craftsmanship. He met Lee Tae-won and began working with Taeheung Film Studios starting with his 1989 film Aje Aje Bara Aje (Aje Aje Bara Aje) and continued to work consistently with the studio from then on. He achieved box office success with his The General's Son (Janggun-ui adeul) series and became a nationally recognized figure with the then unparalleled box office success of Sopyonje(Seopyeonje). He won many national and international awards for his works that dealt with traditional Korean themes and motives and many retrospectives of his works were held abroad. In 2002, he won the prize for best director at the Cannes Film Festival with his work, Chihwaseon(Chihwaseon) and in 2005, won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Berlin Film Festival for his lifetime effort in film