Special Focus: Kang Soo-yeon

Beloved within Korea as a young actor, Kang Soo-yeon became well known on the international stage with her breakout role in Im Kwon-taek’s The Surrogate Woman in 1987. Kang won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 44th Venice International Film Festival for her role, making her the first Korean actor to receive an award at a major international film festival. Considered a national treasure, Kang passed away unexpectedly on 7th May 2022, she was only 55. Five key films from Kang’s illustrious career will screen in the LKFF 2022 ‘Special Focus’, celebrating her work and life.

LKFF 2022: The Surrogate Woman

Fri 04 Nov, 6:45pm

ICA

Shin Sang-gyu has a problem: he is the last male heir in his branch of the Shin clan, and despite the close relationship with a beautiful and still young wife, they have no children, no son to carry on the family line. Uncle and grandmother confer and decide to seek out a surrogate from a village of women known for providing such ‘borrowed wombs’. Ong-nyeo, only seventeen, is chosen for the rol...

LKFF 2022: Come Come Come Upward + Q&A

Sun 06 Nov, 2:30pm

ICA

A young woman makes her way to a mountain convent. The hard menial chores she is made to carry out, aloofness close to hostility from the young nuns, the spiritual challenges of the convent elder – none of this seems able to put her off. Flashbacks allow a glimpse of her motivations for leaving the world behind. However, the world, in the strange form of one broken yet determined man, pursues S...

LKFF 2022: Rainbow Trout

Sun 06 Nov, 5:20pm

ICA

A small van-load of city people head into the hills. There are two thirty-something couples plus one younger sister, Se-hwa, off to visit old school friend Chang-hyeon. He has turned his back on career and middle-class comforts and operates a trout farm, his only company is a strange boy, Tae-ju who runs a kennel. When Tae-ju becomes fixated on lovely young Se-hwa, the urban sophisticates see t...

LKFF 2022: Celebrating Kang Soo-yeon (Special Focus Forum)

Mon 07 Nov, 6:30pm

KCCUK

Kang Soo-yeon was an actor celebrated internationally and domestically, a cherished household name from her television days to later reign of the big screen. She made history with her Volpi Cup ‘Best Actress’ win at the 44th Venice International Film Festival, for her role in Im Kwon-taek’s The Surrogate Woman (1986), making her the first Korean actor to receive an award at a ...

LKFF 2022: The Road to the Race Track + Q&A

Tue 08 Nov, 6:30pm

ICA

R (Moon Sung-keun) arrives at Gimpo Airport after years of study and a PhD achieved in the intellectual mecca of Paris. Waiting for him is J (Kang Soo-yeon), a woman who shared life and bed with him during much of that time. Her loyalty had been rewarded by his contribution to her own PhD. Rather than hurry home to his family down in Daegu or even to find a proper position in Seoul, R runs hims...

LKFF 2022: Girls’ Night Out

Wed 16 Nov, 8:30pm

Cine Lumiere

Three friends on the cusp of thirty share a flat. All three have so far avoided the direct route prescribed by their conservative society: from school/university to marriage and motherhood. Ho-jeong runs a small commercial art firm, Yeon works as a waitress and Soon studies at graduate school. Ho-jeong is the most frank and active about seeking sexual partners while Yeon and boyfriend Yeong-jak...

In memory of Kang Soo-yeon – Programmer’s Note

Author: admin

Posted: 4 October 2022

Category: Blog

For a good decade and a half, from the mid-1980s till the end of the 1990s, Kang Soo-yeon was one of the most significant actors in Korean television and film. After that period, she made the odd cameo (With a Girl of Black Soil 2007, Sunny 2011), even tried her hand at crime-horror (The Circle 2003) or performed in limited roles in films such as the bombastic Hanbando (2006) or Im Kwon-...