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"A Journey with Korean Masters" is an omnibus film compiling four shorts created by directors who once dominated Korean cinema: Park Chul-soo, Lee Doo-yong, Lee Jang-ho, and Chung Ji-young. This modest project is the product of collaboration between professional and amateur actors of all ages and the masters. The aim was to promote the city of Seoul and the harmony of old and new. The project began as a promotional event, but its cinematic quality is equal, if not superior, to any Korean films officially invited to BIFF this year. That is by no means simply being polite. This special screening is the perfect opportunity to enjoy the unique characteristics of masters experiencing a cinema renaissance in their twilight years.
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Simple-minded Yeong-jin is considered to be the village idiot. But he holds the key to saving his sister's boyfriend. The latter stands accused of killing the policeman who was raping his Yeong-jin's sister
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L'Amour is the story of an elderly couple who have lived through pain and agony. Of their three sons, one committed suicide, one immigrated, and one ran away from home. The husband was once a two-star general with a promising future, but his decision not to join a coup d' tat would eventually lead to his dishonorable discharge and the loss of his pension. As the two grow older, they find an increasing sense of warmth and security in each other's presence. When one of their sons goes bankrupt, however, their house which they mortgaged to support him is take by the bank. With no social safety net to catch them, the two are forced to separate: the husband goes to a men's senior home while the wife ends up in a woman's home on the other side of the city. This painful separation forces the couple to find new means of communication, whether through letters or meeting in public parks. As month pass, the approaching winter promises harsh times ahead.
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An habitual, but good-natured, criminal is in and out of prison 38 times. Finally he is sentenced to 10 years though without a trial after facing the accusation of stealing a goat. Feeling certain that the elderly jailbird would die before his sentence is complete, the warden takes pity on him, helps him escape, and keeps the fugitive hidden in his home treating him like one of the family.
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Chi-geun's wife is beautiful and loyal despite his lowly job and reputation as the village idiot. A group of local boys, jealous of Chi-geun, report him to the Japanese police as a member of the Korean resistance.
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Governor Heo, worried over the plague that's sweeping the country, rebukes the Kus who make amulets to ward off evil. Heo castrates the husband when he makes superstitious claims and takes the wife as his mistress. Heo continues to be tormented by hallucinations and nightmares and begins to blame it on the Kus' curse. He kills the couple at their reunion and unable to ward off his bad karma, dies from leprosy.
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Governor Heo, worried over the plague that's sweeping the country, rebukes the Kus who make amulets to ward off evil. Heo castrates the husband when he makes superstitious claims and takes the wife as his mistress. Heo continues to be tormented by hallucinations and nightmares and begins to blame it on the Kus' curse. He kills the couple at their reunion and unable to ward off his bad karma, dies from leprosy.
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The evil criminal leader Kendrick has kidnapped an elderly biochemist who holds the secret to creating a biological superweapon. The only person who can possibly stop Kendrick and his gang is L. A. cop Sam Kettle and martial arts master Jun Kim (uncle of a little girl also kidnapped by Kendrick). Together, they go to war against an army of ninjas to rescue the hostages and bring their kidnappers to justice.
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Jeong-ho is castrated by an ambitious minister for loving above his station. The minister also happens to be the father of Ja-ok, the girl Jeong-ho loved. He sends his daughter to the king as a concubine in a bid to gain favor, but the king sees through his motives and the instead forces Ja-ok into the position of a lowly kitchen maid. Jeong-ho sole hope in life is to save his former lover.
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Sam-po is a gambler living without concern for how his wife will manage their houselhold without his earning money. In order to get food and provisions, his wife An-hyeob, sleeps with various merchants in the village. One of the few men she does not sleep with, a lustful servant named Sam-dol, decides to reveal her activities to her husband for revenge.
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They're a five-member girl group, Thriller. They might have chosen different paths in life but when it comes to music, they share the same ideals, led by their manager Seok. Taking after his policeman father, Seok is a man's man, helping the girls through their failures and sharing their happiness in success. He's a righteous, strong man ready to protect them whenever they fall in danger. And, sure enough, danger comes! Driven away by their conflicts and different personalities, the girls find themselves in trouble, one of them becoming a victim of rape. But fear not, Seok will try to get every single one of those responsible for such a crime. And when Seok gets angry, he becomes a Crazy Boy.
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Forced to leave their home because of the construction of a new dam which will flood their village, the eldest son in the family prepares land and money to construct a new house in Seoul for his family. However, he shirks his duty shortly after and leaves overseeing the construction of the house to his younger brother while he goes to live seperately.
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Ki-rye, from a respectable but poor family, is married off to the deceased son of a powerful government official. Her father-in-law takes pity on her miserable and lonely condition and helps her to run away. She becomes a servant in Minister Choi's house. She marries again to a low-level noble, but finds herself in dire straits when it appears that she is unable to produce a male child to carry on the bloodline.
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The story centres around various gang related tribulations plus a long running feud between a scruffy looking detective who spends the entire film shivering as though suffering from Heroin withdrawal symptoms(!) and Hwang who plays his old friend who has clearly landed on the wrong side of the tracks as it were and is now head of a gang called the Yellow Tigers. Throw into this mix a sub plot involving the lucrative ownership of a night club, a woman searching for her missing sister and of course the newly edited in footage which details the hired goons fighting on behalf of the gangs
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An attractive young woman has been called on to help rid a haunted family of its demons - the male heirs all die young, and one is now in a coma - she has to clear the environment where several exorcists have failed before her.
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Dr Han rapes his lab assistant one night. Rather than go to the police, the victim keeps quiet only bringing up the subject months later to inform the doctor that she is pregnant. Her attempts to blackmail him lead to her accidentally falling off a cliff. However, her ghost will not allow Han to forget his crimes.
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Detective Oh goes searching for the murderer of Yang, a small-time brewer bludgeoned to death by a quiet riverside with no witnesses, no apparent motive. As he wanders about the winter landscape of South Jeolla Province and Seoul, he finds himself caught in a story of treachery, rape and murder.
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Yu Mi-young, an ordinary housewife, loses her husband in a car accident. Two women come to his funeral and she is raged with his betrayal. She finds out in his diary that it wasn't an accident and plans a revenge against the two women, Sin-ae and Su-mi.
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Choi, Mun-oh decides to become a police officer over the objections of his girlfriend. He hopes to serve his country and is determined to fight the prejudices and stereotypes the public holds of the police through nobility and honesty
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So-dol, serving a prison sentence after being accused of murdering his friend, gets a 7 day leave from the prison when his mother dies. As soon as he and the guard assigned to him arrive in the village, strange events begin to occur. A 5-year old corpse is discovered floating in the harbor and the entire seaweed harvest spoils. So-dal's guard begins an investigation and find that the supernatural is very real in this remote island.
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Hwang Jang Lee is a corrupt Ming guard who frames John Liu for murder. A wanted fugitive, John hides out with a teen who is an expert in the infamous Iron Armor technique, a technique that means the expert can withstand anything. However, Hwang is an expert in it as well as the Eagle Claw's. Can John stop Hwang before it's too late?
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A lightning bolt strikes the grave of Bruce Lee. However, that is as much as Bruce Lee has to do with it. Then a kung fu instructor starts a quest to avenge a friend's death, and on the way has a romance with a girl with similar problems. He eventually finds the bad guys behind it all, and has several fights with them...
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A lonely woman runs a coffee shop to support her in-laws while waiting for her husband to complete his jail sentence. She begins fantasizing about a particular college student who visits her shop daily
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Forced by her father into keeping a doll that she knows is filled with drugs, Mi-yeon secretly goes to the police for aid. She soon requires their protection as the drug dealers learn the location of their missing stash.
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Action-drama set during the 1904 occupation of Korea (by Japan). An incident is sparked when the Japanese force the Korean soldiers to strip off their uniforms. Two of the Korean soldiers refuse and go on a rampage against the Japanese, forcing them to take their uniforms off.
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Park, a bar owner, is forced into paying extortion money to the local gangsters. When Yong-cheol, a customer, sees this, he is outraged and tries to beat up the gangsters, but he is overwhelmed by their numbers. The gangsters cut off Yong-cheol's leg to teach him a lesson. Park and a young boy assist Yong-cheol in forging a new leg out of iron to use as a weapon to defeat the gangsters.
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After exacting revenge on the people who killed his father for his involvement with the 1940's independence movement, Park Dal visits his father's friend, Reverand Hwang, and becomes convinced that he should carry on in his father's place.
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Yong-cheol, a gangster living in the 1930's, gains the reputation of having amazing fighting skills. However, he decides to give up his lucrative but dangerous calling for his girlfriend. He agrees to do one more job for his boss, but during the robbery, he winds up killing his girlfriend's brother.
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In Manchuria during the 1940's, a karate master named Sazaki and hapkido champion Wang make plans to rob the Korean Independence Army of its funds. However, unknown to them, the money is guarded by one Mr Lee--a grand master of taekwondo.
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Yong-cheol and Su-na help Hun to take revenge on the men who killed his parents, but anytime they kill one of the murderers, they hear a ghostly, melancholy harmonica.
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General Kwak, despite having retired from military service, organizes a small army to resist the onslaught of an invasion from Japan in the early Chosun Dynasty
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In some village near Sachonsong in China, whenever crows caw at night, a village girl dies. When Ki Seok-Bok's daughter Yi-Hwa died, too, Seok-Bok's son-in-law Jin-Rang keeps watch on his sister-in-law Yeon-Hwa. The crow ghost avoids fight with Jin-Rang, leaving behind a bamboo pipe. As Jin-Rang's wife dies, the crow ghost gets incarnated in her. The crow ghost wanted to kill Ki Seok-Bok and his family because he killed Joo and her daughter Bu-Yong who got engaged with Jin-Rang at that time, in order to marry Jin-Rang to his daughter. The ghost mother and daughter tell the truth about their death to Jin-Rang and leaves after killing Seok-Bok.
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Minsu and Insuk are a happily married couple until Minsu's chance encounter with a woman named Younghee changes everything.