Korean Horror: Week 1 - Ghosts & Specters

Korean Horror

October 9, 2023

To open our course, we’ll formulate a working definition of “horror” as a film genre and learn about how it communicates social anxieties through monstrous metaphors. As well, we’ll start examining how South Korean horror films fit into or fall out of our American conceptions of the genre by examining the most classic of Korean horror tropes—the female ghost—in the Korean horror pathbreakers, A Tale of Two Sisters (2004) and Memento Mori (1999).

In conjunction with this film talk, SIFF will present A Tale of Two Sisters in 35mm at SIFF Cinema Egyptian on Sunday, October 8.

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

Memento Mori can be rented from Scarecrow Video or streamed for free on Kanopy with most public library cards. Content Advisory: Homophobia, depiction of suicide, allusions to sexual abuse of a minor.

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.

A Tale of Two Sisters

Film Screening - A Tale of Two Sisters

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8 | SIFF CINEMA EGYPTIAN | 2 PM

(Kim Jee-woon, 2004)

A young girl returns home with her sister after being released from a psychiatric hospital, but disturbing events surrounding their stepmother hint at something haunting their family.