Im Showcase Reveals the Heart of Korea

USC’s School of Cinema-Television and the Korean Cultural Center are presenting “Im Kwon-Taek: The Heart of the Korean Cinema,” a film series and a daylong conference centering on Korea’s most internationally acclaimed director.

Im’s concern for national culture and identity characterize his films, which generally take the form of somber yet beautiful odysseys in which he views the human condition with both detachment and compassion. The series concludes Nov. 3, with Im attending the 7 p.m. world premiere at USC’s Norris Theater of his latest picture, “Festival,” an exploration of the relationship between life and death. The conference is set for Nov. 2 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Norris Theater.

The 12-feature series opens Friday at 7 p.m. in Room 108 of USC’s George Lucas Building with “The Genealogy” (1978), which is set in early 1941 when the Japanese Occupation is forcing Koreans to take Japanese names. A young Japanese government official (Ha Myoung-Joong), sympathetic to the Koreans’ plight, has been given the increasingly difficult task of trying to persuade a patrician landowner (Joo Sun-Tae) with a 700-year-old lineage to go along with the program. “The Genealogy” is charged with tension and ambiguity as Im attacks the harsh, relentless Japanese occupiers. At the same time the director does not shy away from the high cost the landowner’s unyielding stance exacts on others.

“The Genealogy” will be followed at 9 p.m. by “The Hidden Hero” (1979), set in the turbulent years between Korea’s liberation from Japan in 1945 and the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950; it concerns a liberal intellectual who disdains communism yet cannot completely embrace imported U.S.-style democracy.

The 1981 “Mandala” (Saturday at 7 p.m. in Norris Theater) remains one of Im’s most controversial and important pictures, in which a young itinerant monk, Pobun (Ahn Sung-Kee), is transformed by his encounter with a wayward older monk, Jisan (Chun Mu-Song), striving for spiritual enlightenment despite being given to heavy bouts of boozing and wenching.

It’s not that Pobun is tempted to emulate Jisan but that he’s confounded by the possibility that a libertine, having thrown over traditional Buddhist practices and rituals, could nevertheless be sincere in his quest and have even acquired some hard-won wisdom along the way.

Following “Mandala” at 9 p.m. is the powerful, epic-scale “Gilsottdum” (1985), in which a couple (Kim Ji-Mi, Shin Sung-Il), separated by the Korean War, meet after more than 30 years and decide to join forces to locate their lost child. Through their story we’re able to see the toll of the war and how the country has changed since its end.

All screenings are free. Information and full schedule: (213) 740-2991.

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Halloween Treat: Joshua Rosenzweig’s hilarious “Scream, Teen, Scream!” (Friday and Saturday at midnight at the Sunset 5) stars the inimitable Jackie Beat as a teenager hosting a Halloween slumber party the very night a serial killer is on the loose. The result is a delicious drag sendup of “Halloween” and other teen horror flicks. Alexis Arquette co-stars in this 38-minute film, which will be accompanied by a 22-minute program of campy, vintage trailers. Information: (213) 848-3500.