Judgement (1999 film)
Judgement is a 1999 short film by South Korean director Park Chan-wook.
| Judgement | |
|---|---|
 Film poster | |
| Hangul | 심판 |
| Hanja | 審判 |
| Revised Romanization | Simpan |
| McCune–Reischauer | Simp‘an |
| Directed by | Park Chan-wook |
| Produced by | Park Chan-wook |
| Written by | Park Chan-wook |
| Starring | Gi Ju-bong Koh In-bae Kwon Nam-hee Park Ji-il Choi Hak-rak Myeong Ji-yeon |
| Cinematography | Park Hyun-Cheol |
| Edited by | Kim Sang-bum |
Release date |
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Running time | 26 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
Plot
Park Chan-wook draws on a disaster that took place in South Korea to ironically criticize the greed of rampant capitalism. In 1995, in Seoul, a huge shopping centre, the Sampung department Store collapsed, killing about 500 people and injuring many others. This tragedy was caused by human negligence. Half a million dollars were offered in indemnity to the victims' relatives, and this triggered a merciless looting made by unscrupulous people. In a morgue where the lifeless body of a girl lies, waiting to be identified, a man and a woman, who introduce themselves as the parents of the victim, are distraught over the loss of the young girl. However, after a moment's hesitation, a morgue employee claims the body of the girl. The grotesque controversy about who is the real "owner" of the corpse and the legitimate beneficiary of the money starts here. Between turn of events and paradoxical punishments of fate, the ending leads to a tragic and ironic conclusion. In black and white, the whole story is set in the cold morgue, where the characters' absurd and pathetic dialogues take place, like a journalist and a police detective who keep on squabbling.
Cast
- Gi Ju-bong
- Koh In-bae
- Kwon Nam-hee
- Park Ji-il
- Choi Hak-rak
- Myeong Ji-yeon
External links
- Judgement on IMDb
- Judgement at the Korean Movie Database
- Judgement at parkchanwook.org