Chi-hwa-seon

''Chi-hwa-seon'' or ''Chwi-hwa-seon'' (also known as ''Painted Fire'', ''Strokes of Fire'' or ''Drunk on Women and Poetry'') is a 2002 South Korean historical drama film directed by Im Kwon-taek. It stars Choi Min-sik as Jang Seung-eop (commonly known by his pen name, Owon), a nineteenth-century Korean painter who changed the direction of Korean art.

The film was entered into the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, where Im Kwon-taek won Best Director, shared with Paul Thomas Anderson for Punch-Drunk Love.

In 2020, the film was ranked 13th by ''The Guardian'' among the classics of modern South Korean cinema.

Synopsis

It begins with the Korean artist being suspicious of a Japanese art-lover who values his work. The story then goes back to his early years. Beginning as a vagabond with a talent for drawing, he has a talent for imitating other people's art, but is urged to go on and develop a style of his own. This process is painful and he often behaves very badly, getting drunk and being hostile to those who care about him and try to help him.

These events are set against the struggle for reform within Korea, caught between China and Japan (annexed by Japan in 1910, outside the film's time-frame).

Cast

* Choi Min-sik as Jang Seung-up
* Ahn Sung-ki as Kim Byung-Moon
* Yoo Ho-jeong as Mae-hyang
* Kim Yeo-jin as Jin-jong
* Son Ye-jin as So-woon

Awards

References

Sources

Distributor's page
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External links

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at koreanfilm.org

{{Blue Dragon Film Award for Best Film

2002 films
2002 biographical drama films
South Korean historical drama films
South Korean biographical drama films
Biographical films about painters
Films set in the 19th century
Films set in Joseon
Films shot in Incheon
Films directed by Im Kwon-taek
Best Picture Blue Dragon Film Award winners
2000s Korean-language films
Cultural depictions of South Korean people
Cultural depictions of 19th-century painters
2000s historical drama films
Japan in non-Japanese culture
2000s South Korean films