Besides his prolific output of feature films, Park Chan-wook has also made a number of shorts, some of which were co-directed with Park Chan-kyong, his brother and artist, under the moniker PARKing CHANce. M+ Cinema has selected four of his short films for this special programme:

Judgement

Park Chan-wook | 1999 | DCP | Korean with English and Chinese subtitles | 26 min.

Made right before Joint Security Area (2000) became Park’s first mainstream hit, Judgement is a black-and-white chamber play of a dispute between a mortician and a grieving couple over the corpse of a young woman. Inspired by the tragedy of the Sampoong Department Store collapse, the director intersperses the tragicomedy with footage related to real-life disasters.

Day Trip

PARKing CHANce (Park Chan-wook and Park Chan-kyong) | 2012 | DCP | Korean with English and Chinese subtitles | 18 min.

After a disappointing competition, a pansori teacher, played by Song Kang-ho, takes his young protégé on a mountain hike. This PARKing CHANce project was commissioned by an outdoor clothing company.

KT iPhone Film Project Night Fishing

PARKing CHANce (Park Chan-wook and Park Chan-kyong) | 2011 | DCP | Korean with English and Chinese subtitles | 33 min.

When a man goes fishing alone, he unexpectedly pulls the dead body of a woman from the water and he is even more shocked when she comes back to life and starts talking to him. It turns out that the woman is a spirit medium. Shot entirely on an iPhone 4, this PARKing CHANce (Park Chan-wook, Park Chan-kyoung) collaboration won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.

Life is But a Dream

Park Chan-wook | 2022 | DCP | Korean with English and Chinese subtitles | 22 min.

Eleven years after the lo-fi aesthetics of Night Fishing, Park Chan-wook took up another cellphone-related commission, this time with an iPhone 13 Pro. This martial arts fantasy concerns an undertaker who steals a coffin in order to give the famine-stricken town’s heroine a proper burial. Unfortunately, the ghost of the coffin’s original owner, will not let it go. A hilarious battle between the two ghosts ensues.

Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Park Chan-wook (b. 1963, South Korea) studied philosophy at Sogang University in the 1980s. After working as a film critic for many years, Park made his directorial debut with The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream (1992), followed by Trio (1997). His political thriller Joint Security Area (2000) received rave reviews and became the high-grossing film in South Korea at the time. Park then directed Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2001), the first of his ‘Vengeance Trilogy’, followed by Oldboy (2003), which was awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, and Lady Vengeance (2005). After the intense trio, Park directed the offbeat romantic comedy I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (2005). In 2009, he subverted expectations with the genre-bending vampire film Thirst. Park made his American debut with Stoker in 2013. Meanwhile, his streak at Cannes continued with The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (2022), for which he was awarded Best Director.