''The Power of Kangwon Province'' (
강원도의 힘, ''Gangwon-do ui him'') is the second film by
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
n director
Hong Sang-soo
Hong Sang-soo (홍상수, born 25 October 1960) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter.
Early life
Hong's parents owned the film production company Cinetel Soul. Hong took the entrance exam and entered the theater department at Chun ...
. It follows the lives of a man and a woman who have decided to end their affair. It was screened in the
Un Certain Regard
(, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob.
The section presents 20 films w ...
section at the
1998 Cannes Film Festival
The 51st Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 May 1998. American director, producer, screenwriter, and film historian Martin Scorsese was the Jury President. The Palme d'Or went to the Greek film '' Mia aioniotita kai mia mera'' by Theo An ...
.
Plot
Three young girls, Jisook, Misun and Eunkyoung take a trip to the mountainous Kangwon Province of South Korea. Jisook has just broken up with another married man, and she is lonely and unhappy with her current situation. They meet a young policeman who shows them around and after a meal where they all get drunk together, Jisook ends up passing out with the policeman in her bed, but not having sex. He is married, but Jisook returns another day to see him and they end up falling-over drunk again.
The second half the film then follows the situation of Sangwon, the married man that Jisook has just broken up with. In a typically symmetrical fashion, after a repeat scene where it becomes apparent that both of them are on the same train, Sangwon also visits the Kangwon Province with a friend and the paths of the two characters cross without them ever meeting there, both of them encountering a couple involved in a murder investigation.
See also
*
List of Korean-language films
References
*
External links
IMDb entry
1998 films
1998 drama films
South Korean drama films
South Korean anthology films
Films set in Gangwon Province, South Korea
Films directed by Hong Sang-soo
1980s Korean-language films
{{SouthKorea-film-stub