Chihwaseon

Rating: 60%

(http://twi-ny.com)

Also Known As:

Chwihwaseon

Painted Fire

Strokes of Fire

Drunk on Women and Poetry

Year:

2002

Country:

South Korea

Predominant Genre:

Non-fiction

Director:

Im Kwon-taek

Best Performances:

Unknown

Premiss:

In a time of political and social unrest in nineteenth-century Korea, an uncouth, self-taught painter explores his natural talent amidst the repressive world around him.

Themes:

Personal change

Self-expression

Totalitarianism

Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:

Unknown

Review Format:

DVD

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Talented artists can be a pain in the neck, but we need them more than they do us: For they create all the man-made beauty of the world.

This movie gets to grips with the mystery of what makes squiggles on paper into art. Our contemporary, self indulgent, so-called artists could learn a good deal from this.

(www.filmlinc.com)

Like Picasso, this artist cannot keep his hands off the decorous young things that are his muses: His art being his most honest expression of the life force – more, even, than of his making love. Talent makes you lonely, since you can only display it to others who understand, you can rarely truly share it with them; hence, the drunken self haunting of his own genius here.

However, this film remains strangely aloof from the genius exhibited, as if the director knows he can never match such sublimity; making the film something of an uninvolving experience.

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