The Oldest Son
Jangnam
South Korea
1984
115 Min
Color
Korean
Synopsis
Lee Tae-yeong (Shin Seong-il) lives a busy and demanding life: he works hard to fulfill his responsibilities as the head of technological development at an electronics company, as a father and husband to his family, and as the eldest son to his parents. When his hometown is designated as a soon-to-be-submerged area, his elderly parents (Kim Il-hae, Hwang Jung-seun), who are simple country folk, move in with Tae-yeong in the city. As the eldest son, Tae-yeong is not averse to taking care of his parents, but his wife (Tae Hyun-sil) finds cohabitation with her in-laws discomfiting and frequently clashes with them. —koreafilm.org
Director
Lee Doo-yong
LEE Doo-yong is the first Korean film director to advance to the Cannes Film Festival with ‘Spinning the Tales of Cruelty Towards Women’(1983). After debuting with ‘Ilheonbeorin myeongsapo’ in 1969, LEE has made more than 60 films in a wide array of genres. In the 1970s, he rose to the status of Korea’s representative action film director by introducing Korean-style action films that were differentiated from the then-mainstream Hong Kong-style action films. In the 1980s, he grabbed the limelight again by making popular historical movies that portrayed the oppressed lives of Chosun Dynasty women with a touch of eroticism. Of such films, ‘The Hut’(1980), won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, and ‘Spinning the Tales of Cruelty Towards Women’ was screened to rave reviews at many prestigious film festivals such as the Cannes Film Festival. With his directing talent that crosses over many genres, LEE even reaches realism in the 1990s by depicting lives of poverty-stricken… read more
