Cinema
A Hot Roof
개 같은 날의 오후
Yi Min-yong · 1995
Synopsis
A relentless heatwave crushes a housing estate of poorly ventilated buildings, and a power cut drives the residents outside. A woman, beaten for a long time by her husband, tries to escape him; he catches up with her and strikes her again in front of the neighbours. The women intervene and, without meaning to, kill him. To escape arrest, ten of them barricade themselves on the roof, while a journalist makes their cause known and two burglars remain trapped in an evacuated apartment.
Context
The film starts from an original story by Song Chae-hwan, according to the Rotterdam festival; the director writes the screenplay with Jang Jin, Lee Kyoung-sik and Cho Min-ho, and Lee Soon-yeol produces it. Ha Yoo-mi, Jung Sun-kyung, Son Sook, Kim Bo-yeon and Song Ok-suk are among the cast. The Harvard Film Archive calls it a pioneer and places it in the line of Korean films about the apartment building, as a chaotic comedy rather than a solemn protest, the roof becoming a place of solidarity and resistance.
Who it is for
One hundred and eight-minute social comedy, chaotic and biting, about domestic violence and solidarity among women.
Prizes and reception
Shown again at the Rotterdam festival in 2015 and at the Korean Film Archive in 2017, in a programme on the city in cinema.
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