Korean Horror: Week 2 - Succubi & Killers

Korean Horror

October 16, 2023

As horror film mastermind Kim Ki-young once said, “When you autopsy human nature, black blood will flow out. That is what we call desire.” In week two, we examine the anxieties inherent to desire as translated through succubi-like women and vengeful killers. We’ll watch one of the most lauded Korean films of all time, Kim Ki-young’s The Housemaid (1960), as well as one of the lesser known entry’s in Park Chan-wook’s unofficial “Vengeance Trilogy,” Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002). Through these famed directors’ bodies of work, we’ll also continue to discuss what is or isn’t a horror film, particularly in the Korean context.

In conjunction with this film talk, SIFF will present The Housemaid at SIFF Cinema Egyptian on Sunday, October 15.

FILM TALK TICKETS

Individual Talks: $25 Sustainer | $15 Regular | $10 SIFF member

Tickets

The date of this event has passed.

SERIES PASS

Class Pass including all classes and screenings: $120 Sustainer | $100 Regular | $75 Member

Buy Pass

CLASS SPECIFICS

7:00–9:00pm PT
SIFF Film Center (live) + Streamed via Zoom Webinar

SUPPLEMENTAL VIEWING

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance can be rented from Scarecrow Video or steamed for free on Tubi. Content Advisory: Blood and gore, attempted sexual violence, depiction of suicide, torture, accidental death, kidnapping.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Hannah Baek is an independent film programmer specializing in Asian cinema and interactive film screenings. She received a master’s degree from Harvard’s Regional Studies East Asia program, where she studied gender queerness in the "Dark Ages" of 1970s South Korean cinema. Most recently, she has worked with the Sundance Film Festival, the Harvard Film Archive, MUBI, SIFF, and Spectacle Theater.

The Housemaid

Film Screening - The Housemaid

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 | SIFF CINEMA EGYPTIAN | 2 PM

(Kim Ki-young, 1960)

A bizarre and seductive housemaid systematically destroys her employers’ world in what film historians call one of the top three Korean films of all time.