Judgement (1999 film)

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
  • 1999 (1999)
Running time
 26 minutes
Country South Korea
Language Korean

Judgement is a 1999 short film by South Korean director Park Chan-wook.

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. Halfway between Hitchcock and Polanski, Judgement reveals all Park's irony about a shabby, ignorant and greedy humanity, that does not hesitate to come to vile compromises for money.

Cast


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