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Nabi (film)
Encyclopedia
Nabi is a 2001 South Korean film. Directed by Moon Seung-wook, Nabi was shot on digital video
and transferred onto 35mm film, filmed on a low budget of $
380,000. It marked the feature film debut of Kang Hye-jeong
, who won Best Actress at the 5th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival
for her role as Yuki. Nabi also starred Kim Ho-jung, who won the Bronze Leopard for Best Actress at the 54th Locarno International Film Festival
.
The film is a science fiction
tale set in a near future Korea, where an "oblivion virus" which causes memory loss has become the centre of a tourist industry aimed at those who wish to forget the past. Anna Kim, a German woman of Korean descent
, seeks the virus in order to erase painful memories and, along the way, develops a close bond with her driver and her teenage guide.
, lead poisoning
, and the "oblivion virus". People come from all over the world on guided tours of the city deliberately seeking the virus. Victims of lead poisoning are quarantine
d in sanatorium
s for the protection of tourists, and forced abortion
s are carried out to prevent the births of deformed babies.
Anna Kim (Kim Ho-jung) is one such tourist who arrives in the city having booked a tour with the Butterfly Travel Agency. Anna wishes to become infected with the virus in order to forget the painful memories of her abortion. Her "virus guide", Yuki (Kang Hye-jeong
), is seven months pregnant and unwell, but needs the money to support herself and her unborn child. K (Jang Hyun-sung), their driver, is new to the agency and starting his first assignment. An orphan with no memory of his real family, he keeps an old photograph of himself as a child on the dashboard of his taxi; he picks up other passengers in the hopes that someone will recognize him, even though this is against agency policy.
Ater meeting Yuki and K at the airport, Anna is taken straight to a number of virus exposure sites, but their early attempts at finding the virus are cut short by acid rain storms. Finding out about Yuki’s pregnancy and poor health, Anna requests a new guide. K, suspicious of Yuki’s behaviour, reports her to the authorities as a suspected lead poisoning victim. Nevertheless, after Yuki treats Anna for exposure to acid rain, a bond starts to develop between them, and the three spend some time together. Anna cooks a meal for Yuki, and in return Yuki reveals her collection of personal items from previous clients, memories she is safeguarding should those people ever wish to remember their past again. After Anna leaves, Yuki is taken away by the city authorities.
Continuing without Yuki as a guide, K continues to drive Anna around the city. At first Anna is frustrated by K's efforts to learn about his own past, but they begin to understand each other as they spend more time together. One night, they are involved in a road accident and their taxi veers over the side of a bridge; Anna rescues K from the water below and manages to resuscitate him, though she later requires treatment herself.
Having recovered from the accident and with her time in Korea drawing to a close, Anna begins to make arrangements for her return home. However, she decides to track down Yuki and uses the last of her money to buy her release. They resume their search for the virus, but are cut short once again when Yuki’s water breaks
. Knowing that she will not survive the birth, Anna urges Yuki to put her own health first, though Yuki is adamant that she will have the baby. Unable to reach the hospital in time, Anna fulfils Yuki’s wish to have a water birth
, and, assisted by K, takes her down to the beach where she delivers the baby in the sea. Yuki later dies in hospital.
As Anna and K search through Yuki’s belongings, they discover an old passport with Anna’s photo in it, suggesting that this is not the first time she has been to the city in search of the virus. Having no memory of such a visit, Anna goes to the Butterfly Travel Agency headquarters where she demands answers, but as she has signed a waiver they refuse to divulge any information. Later, she tells K how she wanted to adopt Yuki’s son in order to make a fresh start, but that she knows he needs the child more than she does.
Three years later, K is still working as a driver for the agency. No longer searching for answers to his past, he now keeps a photograph of Anna in his taxi, along with one of him and his adopted son.
380,000, Nabi was shot on digital video
and later transferred to 35mm film. Filming took place on location in Busan
, South Korea
, as well as Kobe
and Osaka
, Japan
.
Director Moon Seung-wook received his filmmaking education in Poland
at the National Film School in Łódź, and Offscreen critic Peter Rist detected in Nabi traces of that country's tradition of romantic-pessimism, while Koreanfilm.org found the film's "clear Eastern European visual pattern" to be reminiscant of Tarkovsky
and Kieślowski
, the latter a former teacher of Moon's. Water
is used throughout the film in various forms—rain
, showers, swimming pool
s, and the ocean
—resulting in a continuous stream of blue
and aqua
-tinted images, described by Shelly Kracier of Senses of Cinema
as being "subtly shaded, eerily translucent, and suffocatingly dreamlike... [creating] an underwater world in which the characters seem suspended, floating in voids of their own, unmoored by their own particular estrangements with their pasts".
The premise of Nabi has been compared to Song Il-gon
's Flower Island
, another South Korean film released in 2001. Both films feature three central characters, each with differing goals but sharing an emotional pain that allows them to develop a strong bond, and both films use a plot device—Nabis "oblivion virus" and the magical Flower Island—promising take away painful memories. Lisa Roogen-Runge of Senses of Cinema found the "oblivion virus" similar to the magic wine used by Wong Kar-wai
in his 1994 film Ashes of Time
, and also noted the physical scars bore by each of the three main characters in Nabi, in each case connected to their childhood or relationship with children.
. It was also screened at the following film festivals:
Nabi was released on DVD in South Korea on 7 September 2002.
In a report of the 26th Toronto International Film Festival for Senses of Cinema
, Shelly Kraicer found much to praise about Nabi, highlighting Kim Ho-jung's "masterful performance as Anna", and adding, "One scene, though, remains unforgettable. As Anna and K help Yuki struggle to give birth half immersed in the sea, pounded by the surf, their ferocious intensity combines with Moon's agitated digital cameras to create a tour de force: this was the most shattering single scene I saw in Toronto." Peter Rist of Offscreen also identified the birth scene as "One of the film’s best", and stated, "There are some gaps in the narrative and too much reliance is placed on dialogue, but the acting is outstanding, especially by the two principal women". G. Allen Johnson of indieWire
found the film to be "worthy of cult status... properly weird and dripping with atmosphere", and despite being "sometimes sluggish", it was nevertheless "typical of the inventiveness in genre filmmaking that has characterized recent Korean filmmaking." Darcy Paquet of Koreanfilm.org praised both the director and two lead actresses, describing Nabi as a "beautiful and strange film [which] offers its viewers a memorable experience".
Lisa Roosen-Runge was less glowing in her report of the 20th Vancouver International Film Festival for Senses of Cinema, saying, "I admit that the revelation about Anna's expired passport did not make any sense to me, and I was confused by the extra non-Yuki character played by the same actress. I also did not find the epilogue completely necessary. Still, [Nabi] is recommended as an unusual film despite the minor caveats." Comments made in the San Francisco Bay Guardian
were somewhat critical of Moon Seung-wook's direction, saying, "some of his favored technical tactics (in particular, camera work that lurches during moments of emotional upheaval) become heavy-handed", though Kim Ho-jung's performance was singled out as the film's "chief strength".
Digital video
Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...
and transferred onto 35mm film, filmed on a low budget of $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
380,000. It marked the feature film debut of Kang Hye-jeong
Kang Hye-jeong
- Career :Kang Hye-jung began working as a model in her first year of high school, and throughout the late 1990s she appeared in small roles in TV dramas and sitcoms such as Jump and Nonstop 3. Her first film role was in Moon Seung-wook's arthouse/sci-fi film Nabi, for which she won a Best Actress...
, who won Best Actress at the 5th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival
Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival
The Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival , or PiFan, is an international film festival held annually in July in Bucheon, South Korea...
for her role as Yuki. Nabi also starred Kim Ho-jung, who won the Bronze Leopard for Best Actress at the 54th Locarno International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
.
The film is a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
tale set in a near future Korea, where an "oblivion virus" which causes memory loss has become the centre of a tourist industry aimed at those who wish to forget the past. Anna Kim, a German woman of Korean descent
Koreans in Germany
Koreans in Germany numbered 31,248 individuals , according to the statistics of South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Though they are now only the 14th-largest Korean diaspora community worldwide, they remain the second-largest in Western Europe, behind the rapidly-growing community...
, seeks the virus in order to erase painful memories and, along the way, develops a close bond with her driver and her teenage guide.
Plot
The film is set in an unnamed Korean city of the near future, a city plagued with acid rainAcid rain
Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of hydrogen ions . It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals, and infrastructure. Acid rain is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen...
, lead poisoning
Lead poisoning
Lead poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems...
, and the "oblivion virus". People come from all over the world on guided tours of the city deliberately seeking the virus. Victims of lead poisoning are quarantine
Quarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
d in sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
s for the protection of tourists, and forced abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
s are carried out to prevent the births of deformed babies.
Anna Kim (Kim Ho-jung) is one such tourist who arrives in the city having booked a tour with the Butterfly Travel Agency. Anna wishes to become infected with the virus in order to forget the painful memories of her abortion. Her "virus guide", Yuki (Kang Hye-jeong
Kang Hye-jeong
- Career :Kang Hye-jung began working as a model in her first year of high school, and throughout the late 1990s she appeared in small roles in TV dramas and sitcoms such as Jump and Nonstop 3. Her first film role was in Moon Seung-wook's arthouse/sci-fi film Nabi, for which she won a Best Actress...
), is seven months pregnant and unwell, but needs the money to support herself and her unborn child. K (Jang Hyun-sung), their driver, is new to the agency and starting his first assignment. An orphan with no memory of his real family, he keeps an old photograph of himself as a child on the dashboard of his taxi; he picks up other passengers in the hopes that someone will recognize him, even though this is against agency policy.
Ater meeting Yuki and K at the airport, Anna is taken straight to a number of virus exposure sites, but their early attempts at finding the virus are cut short by acid rain storms. Finding out about Yuki’s pregnancy and poor health, Anna requests a new guide. K, suspicious of Yuki’s behaviour, reports her to the authorities as a suspected lead poisoning victim. Nevertheless, after Yuki treats Anna for exposure to acid rain, a bond starts to develop between them, and the three spend some time together. Anna cooks a meal for Yuki, and in return Yuki reveals her collection of personal items from previous clients, memories she is safeguarding should those people ever wish to remember their past again. After Anna leaves, Yuki is taken away by the city authorities.
Continuing without Yuki as a guide, K continues to drive Anna around the city. At first Anna is frustrated by K's efforts to learn about his own past, but they begin to understand each other as they spend more time together. One night, they are involved in a road accident and their taxi veers over the side of a bridge; Anna rescues K from the water below and manages to resuscitate him, though she later requires treatment herself.
Having recovered from the accident and with her time in Korea drawing to a close, Anna begins to make arrangements for her return home. However, she decides to track down Yuki and uses the last of her money to buy her release. They resume their search for the virus, but are cut short once again when Yuki’s water breaks
Rupture of membranes
Rupture of membranes or amniorrhexis is a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac. Normally, or "spontaneously", it occurs at full term at the onset of, or during, labor...
. Knowing that she will not survive the birth, Anna urges Yuki to put her own health first, though Yuki is adamant that she will have the baby. Unable to reach the hospital in time, Anna fulfils Yuki’s wish to have a water birth
Water birth
Water birth is a method of giving birth, which involves immersion in warm water. The immersion can mean giving birth to the infant in the water or using it as a tool during the labor process. Proponents believe that this method is safe and provides many benefits for both mother and infant,...
, and, assisted by K, takes her down to the beach where she delivers the baby in the sea. Yuki later dies in hospital.
As Anna and K search through Yuki’s belongings, they discover an old passport with Anna’s photo in it, suggesting that this is not the first time she has been to the city in search of the virus. Having no memory of such a visit, Anna goes to the Butterfly Travel Agency headquarters where she demands answers, but as she has signed a waiver they refuse to divulge any information. Later, she tells K how she wanted to adopt Yuki’s son in order to make a fresh start, but that she knows he needs the child more than she does.
Three years later, K is still working as a driver for the agency. No longer searching for answers to his past, he now keeps a photograph of Anna in his taxi, along with one of him and his adopted son.
Production, style and themes
Produced on a budget of $United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
380,000, Nabi was shot on digital video
Digital video
Digital video is a type of digital recording system that works by using a digital rather than an analog video signal.The terms camera, video camera, and camcorder are used interchangeably in this article.- History :...
and later transferred to 35mm film. Filming took place on location in Busan
Busan
Busan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...
, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, as well as Kobe
Kobe
, pronounced , is the fifth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, approximately west of Osaka...
and Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
at the National Film School in Łódź, and Offscreen critic Peter Rist detected in Nabi traces of that country's tradition of romantic-pessimism, while Koreanfilm.org found the film's "clear Eastern European visual pattern" to be reminiscant of Tarkovsky
Andrei Tarkovsky
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century....
and Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...
, the latter a former teacher of Moon's. Water
Water
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
is used throughout the film in various forms—rain
Rain
Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...
, showers, swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
s, and the ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
—resulting in a continuous stream of blue
Blue
Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
and aqua
Aqua (color)
Aqua is a tone of the color cyan which is identical to the color electric cyan, one of the three secondary colors of the HSV color wheel, along with magenta and yellow. It is precisely halfway between green and blue on the color wheel...
-tinted images, described by Shelly Kracier of Senses of Cinema
Senses of Cinema
Senses of Cinema is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Senses of Cinema publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career overviews of the works of key directors, and coverage of many...
as being "subtly shaded, eerily translucent, and suffocatingly dreamlike... [creating] an underwater world in which the characters seem suspended, floating in voids of their own, unmoored by their own particular estrangements with their pasts".
The premise of Nabi has been compared to Song Il-gon
Song Il-gon
Song Il-gon is a South Korean film director and screenwriter known for his international award-winning early short films, and later feature films such as Spider Forest and Feathers in the Wind...
's Flower Island
Flower Island
Flower Island is an award-winning 2001 South Korean film directed by Song Il-gon. This was Song's first feature-length film after directing several award-winning short films.-Synopsis:...
, another South Korean film released in 2001. Both films feature three central characters, each with differing goals but sharing an emotional pain that allows them to develop a strong bond, and both films use a plot device—Nabis "oblivion virus" and the magical Flower Island—promising take away painful memories. Lisa Roogen-Runge of Senses of Cinema found the "oblivion virus" similar to the magic wine used by Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai
Wong Kar-wai BBS is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylized, emotionally resonant work, including Days of Being Wild , Ashes of Time , Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together and 2046...
in his 1994 film Ashes of Time
Ashes of Time
-Critical:When the film opened in Hong Kong it received mixed reviews. Critics found it so elliptical that it was almost impossible to make out any semblance of a plot, something very rare in a wuxia film....
, and also noted the physical scars bore by each of the three main characters in Nabi, in each case connected to their childhood or relationship with children.
Release
Nabi was released theatrically in South Korea on 13 October 2001, and received a total of 5,700 admissions in SeoulSeoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
. It was also screened at the following film festivals:
- 5th Puchon International Fantastic Film FestivalPuchon International Fantastic Film FestivalThe Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival , or PiFan, is an international film festival held annually in July in Bucheon, South Korea...
(12–20 July 2001) - 54th Locarno International Film FestivalLocarno International Film FestivalThe Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
(2–12 August 2001) - 26th Toronto International Film FestivalToronto International Film FestivalThe Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
(6–15 September 2001) - 20th Vancouver International Film FestivalVancouver International Film FestivalThe Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...
(27 September–12 October 2001) - 14th Tokyo International Film FestivalTokyo International Film FestivalTokyo International Film Festival is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biannually from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter...
(27 October–4 November 2001) - 45th London International Film Festival (7–22 November 2001)
- 2nd Asiatica Film Mediale (28 November–9 December 2001)
- 20th San Francisco International Asian American Film FestivalSan Francisco International Asian American Film FestivalThe San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival presented every March is the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asian films, annually presenting approximately 130 works in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose, USA...
(7–17 March 2002) - 12th Festival Black Movie (15–24 March 2002)
- 11th Brisbane International Film FestivalBrisbane International Film FestivalBrisbane International Film Festival held in Brisbane provides a focus for film culture in Queensland, Australia. The festival has taken place since 1992 and focuses on films from the Asia-Pacific region. The event offers films including features, documentaries, shorts, experimental, silent films...
(9–21 July 2002) - 16th Wine Country International Film Festival (18 July–11 August 2002)
- 51st Melbourne International Film FestivalMelbourne International Film FestivalThe Melbourne International Film Festival is an acclaimed annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1951, making it one of the oldest in the World....
(23 July–11 August 2002) - 4th Silver Lake Film FestivalSilver Lake Film FestivalSilver Lake Film Festival ran from 2000 to 2007. It was a 501 nonprofit organization established to provide a showcase for cutting-edge independent film, music, digital, and other arts in Los Angeles, California. The Festival was held annually at various venues throughout Los Angeles’ Eastside,...
(10–18 September 2003) - 4th Era New Horizons International Film FestivalEra New Horizons Film FestivalNew Horizons Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in July in Wrocław, Poland. It has been organised since 2001.- Festival programme 2009 :* Opening gala – Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon...
(22 July–1 August 2004)
Nabi was released on DVD in South Korea on 7 September 2002.
Critical reception
Senses of Cinema
Senses of Cinema is a quarterly online film magazine founded in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Based in Melbourne, Australia, Senses of Cinema publishes work by film critics from all over the world, including critical essays, career overviews of the works of key directors, and coverage of many...
, Shelly Kraicer found much to praise about Nabi, highlighting Kim Ho-jung's "masterful performance as Anna", and adding, "One scene, though, remains unforgettable. As Anna and K help Yuki struggle to give birth half immersed in the sea, pounded by the surf, their ferocious intensity combines with Moon's agitated digital cameras to create a tour de force: this was the most shattering single scene I saw in Toronto." Peter Rist of Offscreen also identified the birth scene as "One of the film’s best", and stated, "There are some gaps in the narrative and too much reliance is placed on dialogue, but the acting is outstanding, especially by the two principal women". G. Allen Johnson of indieWire
IndieWire
indieWIRE is a daily news site for the independent film community. It covers indie, documentary and foreign language films, as well industry news, film festival reports, filmmaker interviews and movie reviews...
found the film to be "worthy of cult status... properly weird and dripping with atmosphere", and despite being "sometimes sluggish", it was nevertheless "typical of the inventiveness in genre filmmaking that has characterized recent Korean filmmaking." Darcy Paquet of Koreanfilm.org praised both the director and two lead actresses, describing Nabi as a "beautiful and strange film [which] offers its viewers a memorable experience".
Lisa Roosen-Runge was less glowing in her report of the 20th Vancouver International Film Festival for Senses of Cinema, saying, "I admit that the revelation about Anna's expired passport did not make any sense to me, and I was confused by the extra non-Yuki character played by the same actress. I also did not find the epilogue completely necessary. Still, [Nabi] is recommended as an unusual film despite the minor caveats." Comments made in the San Francisco Bay Guardian
San Francisco Bay Guardian
The San Francisco Bay Guardian is a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. The paper is owned mostly by its publisher, Bruce B...
were somewhat critical of Moon Seung-wook's direction, saying, "some of his favored technical tactics (in particular, camera work that lurches during moments of emotional upheaval) become heavy-handed", though Kim Ho-jung's performance was singled out as the film's "chief strength".
Awards and nominations
| Year | Awards group | Award category—Recipient | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 5th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival | Best Actress—Kang Hye-jeong | Won | |
| 54th Locarno International Film Festival | Bronze Leopard for Best Actress—Kim Ho-jung | Won | ||
| Young Critics' Award | ||||
| 2002 | 16th Wine Country International Film Festival | Best Sound Design | Won | |
| Best Cinematography | ||||
| Gaia Film Award for Environmental Awareness |
External links
- Nabi at the Korean Movie Database