Chi-hwa-seon or Chwi-hwa-seon (; also known as Painted Fire, Strokes of Fire or Drunk on Women and Poetry) is a 2002 South Korean historical drama film directed by Im Kwon-taek. It stars Choi Min-sik as Jang Seung-eop (commonly known by his pen name, Owon), a nineteenth-century Korean painter who changed the direction of Korean art.
The film was entered into the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, where Im Kwon-taek won Best Director, shared with Paul Thomas Anderson for Punch-Drunk Love.
In 2020, the film was ranked 13th by The Guardian among the classics of modern South Korean cinema.
Plot
It begins with the Korean artist being suspicious of a Japanese art-lover who values his work. The story then goes back to his early years. Beginning as a vagabond with a talent for drawing, he has a talent for imitating other people's art, but is urged to go on and develop a style of his own. This process is painful and he often behaves very badly, getting drunk and being hostile to those who care about him and try to help him.
These events are set against the struggle for reform within Korea, caught between China and Japan (annexed by Japan in 1910, outside the film's time-frame).
Cast Choi Min-sik as Jang Seung-eop Ahn Sung-ki as Kim Byeong-mun Yoo Ho-jeong as Mae-hyang Kim Yeo-jin as Jin-jong Son Ye-jin as So-un
Reception Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the a score of 78 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Awards
+AwardCategoryRecipient(s)Result23rd Blue Dragon Film AwardsBest FilmChi-hwa-seonBest DirectorIm Kwon-taekBest Leading ActorChoi Min-sikBest Supporting ActressKim Yeo-jinBest CinematographyJung Il-sung55th Cannes Film FestivalPalme d'OrIm Kwon-taekBest DirectorBelgian Syndicate of Cinema CriticsGrand PrixCamerimageGolden FrogJung Il-sung28th César AwardsBest Foreign FilmChi-hwa-seon3rd Busan Film Critics AwardsBest Supporting ActressKim Yeo-jinBest CinematographyJung Il-sungChicago International Film FestivalGold HugoIm Kwon-taek22nd Korean Association of Film Critics AwardsBest CinematographyJung Il-sung
References
Sources Distributor's page
External links
Review at koreanfilm.org