<The Road to Race Track (Gyeongmajang ganeun gil)> (1991)

Director Jang Seon-Woo
Production Company Tae Heung Films Co., Ltd
Date of Rate 1991-12-05
Date of Theatrical Release 1991-12-21
Running Time 138 min.
Genre Satire

Staff :
Writer Ha Il-Ji
Opening Theater Dan Seong Sa Theater
Screenplay(Adaptation) (Ha Il-Ji, Jang Seon-Woo)
Producer Lee Tae-Won
Director of PhotoGraphy Yoo Young-Kil
Gaffer Kim Dong-Ho
Music Kim Su-Cheol
Art Director Kim Yu-Jun
Editor Kim Hyeon

Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Kang Su-Yeon, Moon Seong-Keun, Kim Bo-Yeon

Synopsis

R (Moon Sung-keun) returns from studying in France and reunites with J (Kang Soo-yeon), whom he used to live with in Paris. For some reason, however, J refuses to have sex with R. Angered by her refusal, R travels to his hometown of Daegu. He sees his wife (Kim Bo-yeon) and children for the first time in years, but not only is he less than thrilled to be with them but he actually finds himself despising them. R's head is filled with thoughts of having sex with J. He sees J every time he comes to Seoul on business, but she keeps resisting his demand for sex on the unconvincing pretext that they are not in France, and he begins to grow tired. R feels betrayed when he finds out that J is rejecting him because she plans to marry another man, even though she received her Ph.D. in France for a dissertation that he wrote for her and even debuted as a literary critic in Korea with a piece that he composed. Reproaching J yet unable to leave her, R informs his wife of his intention to get a divorce and proposes to J that they leave Korea together. However, R is once again betrayed by J.

Notes

"A film that announces that it is no longer possible to critique Korean society using traditional methods" (Kang Han-sup) The Road to Race Track is based on Ha Il-ji's novel of the same title, which lay at the center of the newly-emerging "postmodernism" debate of the 1990s. The movie elicited sharply contrasting responses upon its release: its advocates praised The Road to Race Track for adopting a new cinematic form to depict the pervasive moral disintegration of Korean society, while its detractors saw it as a weak effort with no clear message or style. On the whole, support for the movie outweighed the negative criticism against it. In The Road to Race Track, Jang Seon-woo denounces the vulgarity and snobbishness of Korean society through a cinematic form that departs completely from the realist approach seen in his previous film, A Short Love Affair (Umugbaemi-ui salang). Indeed, The Road to Race Track has no plot to speak of; the only thing that happens is a series of quotidian meetings and partings between its two anonymous protagonists, R and J. Instead of employing a linear structure based on a coherent progression of events, the movie expands the story in increments by repeating and recycling analogous episodes (Shin Jong-su). Jang Seon-woo opted for an approach that "repeats yet does not remain repetitive, captures the exceptional through the everyday, arrives at the essence through the illusion, and reveals the whole via the individual." Using such repetition, The Road to Race Track gradually reveals the inner workings of an intellectual identified merely as R. What becomes discernible through the recurring conversations R and J engage in on the subject of sex are the vulgar snobbishness, false consciousness, and incompetency of the intellectual. By exposing his characters' internal landscapes, the director invites the audience to turn a critical gaze on the duplicity and snobbishness of Korean society.

Afterword

Upon returning from his studies abroad, director Hong Sang-su was reportedly amazed to see that "such movies were being made in Korea."

Director Bio: Jang Seon-woo (1952- )

As a film critic in the early 80s, he introduced realism in filmmaking by advocating "exciting camera," as well as "open movie." He co-produced Seoul Emperor (Seoul hwangje) in 1986 and made his directorial debut in 1988 with The Age of Success (Seong-gong sidae), initiating the New Wave in Korean cinema. Although his movies were variegated, - dealing with issues of sexuality, capitalism and history - because he showed an unhindered view of reality in his movies, he was always labeled as a realist. His most important works include A Short Love Affair (Umugbaemi-ui salang) (1990), The road to race track (Gyeongmajang ganeun gil) (1991), The Avatamska Sutra (Hwa-eomgyeong) (1993), To you from me (Neo-ege naleul bonaenda) (1994), A Petal (Kkoch-ip) (1996), and Lies (Geojismal) (1999).