Monday, November 10, 2014

Pluto - Sunday 16th November 5pm

We travel to South Korea for this week's film Pluto.

The film is a biting satire on the country's education system, the pressures it puts upon its students and the lengths they will go to get the grades and university places they (and their 'tiger parents') crave.

The film was shown last year at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and made a lasting impression on the reviewer:

"Usually when I watch a film with an intense atmosphere (horror, thriller suspense genres), every tense effect that the film had over me dissipates when I step out into the natural light outside of the theatre. However, despite walking out of the .. press screening of 'Pluto' at the Edinburgh International Film Festival into extremely bright sunshine, the online exploits I had witnessed and the underlying themes of the film stayed with me long into the night. It took all day for me to fully absorb and come to terms with the meanings of the film and to rationalise everything in my head.

The film helps audiences to understand the pressures of the South Korean education system and is dripping with gritty realism. This is most likely due to writer and director Sin Su-won who has experienced these immense pressures first hand. Shin Su-won graduated from Seoul National University (the same elite university that the characters in Pluto are all vying for a position at) and started a career as a teacher."

Think 'If...' for the 21st Century.