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99. The Day a Pig Fell...
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 Home > Feature> 100 Korean Films |
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The Day a Pig Fell into a Well (Doejiga umul-e ppajin nal) (1996)
 Director Hong Sang-Su
Production Company Dong A Exports Co., Ltd
Date of Rate 1996-03-18
Date of Theatrical Release 1996-05-15
Running Time 114 min.
Genre Melodrama
Staff :
Screenplay(Adaptation) Hong Sang-Su, Jeong Dae-Seong
Producer Koo Hyo-Seo
Director of PhotoGraphy Cho Dong-Kwan
Gaffer Kim Il-Jun
Music Ok Kil-Seong
Art Director Cho Yung-Sam
Cast(Actor/Actress) :
Lee Eung-Kyeong, Kim Yui-Seong, Park Jin-Seong, Cho Eun-Suk, Bang Eun-Hee
Synopsis
The Day a Pig Fell into a Well depicts the criss-crossing desires and lives of four characters in diverse circumstances. Novelist Hyosup (Kim Yui-seong) has yet to publish a single book worth mentioning. After learning that his manuscript is merely gathering dust at his friend's publishing company, Hyosup gets into a fight with a reviewer and spends the night in jail. Suffering from an inferiority complex and paranoia at being treated as a third-rate novelist, Hyosup falls passionately in love with a married woman named Bokyung (Lee Eung-kyeong). Her husband Dongwoo (Park Jin-seong), who suffers from a severe case of OCD, goes to Jinju on business but cannot shake his distrust of Bokyung. Meanwhile, Minjae (Cho Eun-suk), a reasonably vain and deluded woman who works behind the ticket counter at a movie theatre, dreams of becoming Hyosup's wife. She derives happiness from proofreading his manuscripts, but he has no time for Minjae due to his absorption in the adulterous affair with Bokyung. Believing that she can get her husband to take her back whenever she wants, Bokyung decides to escape her married life with Hyosup. She packs her things and waits for him to turn up at the appointed hour, but he fails to keep his promise. She goes to his attic room, only to find the door locked and no sign of life coming from behind it. Sitting in a cat atonic state inside Hyosup's room is Minsu, who has murdered Minjae and her beloved Hyosup after she rejected his suit. With no inkling of what has really taken place, Bokyung returns to her home. The next morning, Bokyung opens the newspaper. She then lays it down along the swath of sunlight on her balcony, and walks upon it.
Notes
 "Hong Sang-su's directorial debut, which puts everyday life under the microscope and chillingly exposes its sordidness, signals the birth of a new auteur in the 1990s."
When The Day a Pig Fell into a Well opened in theatres, one reviewer praised the film as a revolutionary event in 1990s Korean cinema, calling it "the opening of a rare chapter in the history of Korean filmmaking." Utterly devoid of sentimentalism, exaggerated emotion, or cliched storytelling, Hong Sang-su's film was genuinely exceptional in its cynical, "disgustingly realistic" portrayals. Moreover, Hong was accorded a level of recognition generally reserved for other, more experienced directors despite the fact that The Day... was his very first film. This is because he already exhibited an idiosyncratic world view and cinematic style in his directorial debut, whether in terms of formal sophistication, characterization, or directorial prowess. From The Day… onward, Hong Sang-su uses his trademark settings of motels and bars to realistically portray the moment one crudely reveals one's most discomfiting desires and thus becomes a stranger to oneself. The Day… occupies a unique place even among Hong's own works: it demonstrates the qualities that make it an archetype for his later films, yet is more intense both in its narrative effect and emotional impact. This is particularly true of the final scene. Bokyung repeatedly knocks on Hyosup's door and tries to peer inside, a series of actions that is presented as merely tedious. This everyday act, monotonous and boring on the surface, is suddenly transformed into an appalling encounter with desire through the revelation that a grisly murder has just taken place behind the door. Hong Sang-su's directorial skill and film grammar, which exposes human desires through the veneer of the everyday, was a cinematic event in the 1990s.
Afterword
The Day… was adapted from Koo Hyo-seo's Strange Summer (Natseon yeoreum). Much of the literary original was altered during the process of adaptation. In particular, the chance encounters and romantic love emphasized in Koo Hyo-seo's novel were transformed into the sordid everyday activities of twisted, self-contradictory characters through Hong Sang-su's coldly realistic gaze.
Director Bio: Hong Sang-su (1961- )
He returned to Korea after studying art at University of California and became an overnight sensation through his 1996 movie, The day a pig fell into a well (Doejiga umul-e ppajin nal), becoming recognized as a new champion of modernism in Korean cinema. He took a look into the familiar in his movies through an alienated and awkward perspective, and earned the support of intellectuals and critics. Afterward, he released new movies every 2 years including The Power of Kangwon Province (Gang-wondo-ui him), Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (O! Sujeong), and Turning Gate (Saenghwal-ui balgyeon). He received numerous awards from oversea film festivals and received international recognition, becoming one of the favorites at the Cannes International Film Festival. He won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 51st Cannes Film Festival for The Power of Kangwon Province (Gang-wondo-ui him) and his Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors(O! Sujeong) was invited to be shown at the 53rd Cannes Film Festival. His 2005 work, Tale of Cinema (Keukjangjeon) was also selected to be one of the contending films at the Cannes Film Festival.
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