Lee Chang-dong and Moon So-ri in New York: “Oasis”

Written by Samuel Jamier

Tuesday, 06 May 2008

Sol Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri: a scene from Oasis Director Lee Chang-dong and actress Moon So-ri were introducing Oasis earlier tonight at Asia Society, and taking questions from the audience. This film, the first of the retrospective this week, is a bit of shocker and is many ways a very hard-to-identify film object. I first watched it quite a while ago, and felt its impact long after the screening. Of course, you can always pick up your conceptual tools and try to come up with something smart, do the critique job: You can adopt the “This works. This doesn’t… This is how the film should work” stance, if you are the journalistic type of reviewer, the type that writes fast (and loose),or adopt a “This is how it works” sort of discourse, if you are more of an analytic – and often academic – type. And yes sometimes it works, but sometimes you just fall flat on your face – overinterpretation, over- intellectualization they call it.

Moon So-ri

Moon So-ri (b. July 2, 1974) first appeared in plays and short films such as Black Cut and To the Spring Mountain before finding fame as a leading actress. Her first film role was in Lee Chang-dong’s acclaimed Peppermint Candy, however her acting skills were not really showcased until she appeared in her second film Oasis, also by Lee Chang-dong. Her powerful portrayal of a woman with cerebral palsy earned her strong praise as well as the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Actor or Actress at the 2002 Venice International Film Festival. Best Actress honors at many domestic awards ceremonies followed.

The following year she again found fame in Im Sang-soo’s third film A Good Lawyer’s Wife. A 180-degree turn from her previous screen image, this film