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Old Films Return With Foreign Dubbing

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

The Korean Film Archive (KOFA) has recovered and restored from overseas five old Korean films, and will offer screenings at its theater in northern Seoul through the end of the month. Interestingly, these popular works from the 1960s and '70s are dubbed in Chinese and English, and will be shown with Korean subtitles.

"Monster Yonggari" (1967) by Kim Kee-duk marked the birth of homegrown monster films and was a big hit at the time, drawing in some 300,000 moviegoers. The original film got lost, however, and all that remained was a 40-minute clip and low quality, English-dubbed DVDs released in the United States and Germany. KOFA located a full, English-dubbed print at MGM Studio, and the 35-milimeter film is now being revealed for the first time, today at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.

Other hit films from the era whose originals were lost will be shown. "Sorrowful Youth" (1967), a melodramatic love story between Korean independence fighters during the Japanese colonial era (1910-45), features the debut of iconic heroine Yoon Jung-hee (Sunday at 8 p.m.). She shows her talents at the height of her popularity in Yu Hyun-mok's "Bun-Rye's Story" (1971), today at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Lee Hyeong-pyo's "The Story of Sim Cheong" (1962) and Kim Soo-yong's "Son Ogong" (1962) portray the experimentalism of the period. The former piece is famous for attempting underwater shoots. The 16-milimeter Taiwanese version, dubbed in Chinese, will be screened Wednesday at 5 p.m.

"The interesting part is that the Chinese dubbing was not faithful to the original lines or story. There are many parts that were reinterpreted or edited to cater to the local tastes of Chinese speaking regions such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc", said programmer Mo Eun-young.

Meanwhile, a 25-minute-long, incomplete version of "You and Me" (1941) by Heo Yeong, a representative piece from the Japanese colonial era, was also found in Japan.

The screenings are part of KOFA's first anniversary event. KOFA is a 15-minute walk from Susaek Station on subway line 6. Visit http://www.koreafilm.org for details.

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