Blu-ray Collection
Lee Myung-se Collection: My Love, My Bride(1990) First Love(1993)
The Korean Film Archive has now released on Blu-ray, both My Love, My Bride (1990) and First Love (1993), two early masterpieces by director Lee Myung-se, who has an unrivaled style and characteristic traits unprecedented in Korean film history. This is the 36th Blu-ray title planned by the Korean Film Archive and produced by Blue Kino.
My Love, My Bride was Lee’s second film. Released in late December 1990, the film attracted audiences of 210,000 in Seoul alone, ranking second overall at the Korean film box office in 1991. The film has been x-x-x-x-evaluated as a pioneering work that showed the box office potential of the genre before the Korean-style romantic comedy boom came with The Marriage Life (Kim Eui-seok, 1992). However, the film’s value is not just in being a pioneering film of its genre. It was the film that marked the beginning of Lee’s distinctive style, including his use of artificial sets and colors, animation and episodic narrative structure. Above all, it was a film that introduced new forms of expression that had never been seen before in the Korean film industry. This was a worthy endeavor that breathed new aesthetic vitality into the atmosphere of the Korean film industry of the time, which emphasized social messages using realism as a model.
First Love was Lee’s third film, depicting a local university freshman’s budding love for the director of her theater club. Despite being a box office failure, it was critically acclaimed as one of his masterpieces, along with Nowhere To Hide (1999), and subsequently acknowledged by audiences. First Love was the ultimate embodiment of Lee’s style, and by extension, of his film philosophy. This film casually blurs the line between the artificial and the fantastic, perhaps between reality and fantasy, showing that for those who fall in love for the first time, the memory is neither a recreation of reality, nor a continuous accumulation of time, but an illogical and unreal chain of the most exciting and interesting moments and emotions. Thus, Lee argues that film is not a representation of reality but can exist fully as its own logic and forms of expression. In this sense, First Love can be regarded as one of the most contentious films, which pushed the boundaries of and innovated the Korean film language of the time.
In this Blu-ray, lead actor, Park Joong-hoon and director Lee Myung-se, as well as film journalist Kim Hyung-Seok, provide the commentary for My Love, My Bride, while lead actress, Kim Hye-soo, director Lee Myung-se, and film critic Lee Dong-jin and director Lee Myung-se participate in the commentaries for First Love, respectively. This means that two versions of the commentary are included for First Love. These commentaries are a comprehensive version that combine detailed episodes about the filming of the time, the director’s directing perspectives and critical commentary, and will be a great help in understanding not only the two films, but also Lee’s cinematic world as a whole. The booklet, written by film critic Jang Byungwon, will prompt us to think twice about the value of these films and Lee Myung-se’s place in the history of Korean cinema. This Blu-ray set also includes a number of special supplements, including trailers for both films, before and after restoration footage, storyboard images of First Love (included in the booklet). Lastly, the images on the Blu-ray were sourced from the restored version in 4K resolution by the Korean Film Archive in 2023. This is a great opportunity to see Lee Myung-se’s unique cinematic style in high definition.
My Love, My Bride was Lee’s second film. Released in late December 1990, the film attracted audiences of 210,000 in Seoul alone, ranking second overall at the Korean film box office in 1991. The film has been x-x-x-x-evaluated as a pioneering work that showed the box office potential of the genre before the Korean-style romantic comedy boom came with The Marriage Life (Kim Eui-seok, 1992). However, the film’s value is not just in being a pioneering film of its genre. It was the film that marked the beginning of Lee’s distinctive style, including his use of artificial sets and colors, animation and episodic narrative structure. Above all, it was a film that introduced new forms of expression that had never been seen before in the Korean film industry. This was a worthy endeavor that breathed new aesthetic vitality into the atmosphere of the Korean film industry of the time, which emphasized social messages using realism as a model.
First Love was Lee’s third film, depicting a local university freshman’s budding love for the director of her theater club. Despite being a box office failure, it was critically acclaimed as one of his masterpieces, along with Nowhere To Hide (1999), and subsequently acknowledged by audiences. First Love was the ultimate embodiment of Lee’s style, and by extension, of his film philosophy. This film casually blurs the line between the artificial and the fantastic, perhaps between reality and fantasy, showing that for those who fall in love for the first time, the memory is neither a recreation of reality, nor a continuous accumulation of time, but an illogical and unreal chain of the most exciting and interesting moments and emotions. Thus, Lee argues that film is not a representation of reality but can exist fully as its own logic and forms of expression. In this sense, First Love can be regarded as one of the most contentious films, which pushed the boundaries of and innovated the Korean film language of the time.
In this Blu-ray, lead actor, Park Joong-hoon and director Lee Myung-se, as well as film journalist Kim Hyung-Seok, provide the commentary for My Love, My Bride, while lead actress, Kim Hye-soo, director Lee Myung-se, and film critic Lee Dong-jin and director Lee Myung-se participate in the commentaries for First Love, respectively. This means that two versions of the commentary are included for First Love. These commentaries are a comprehensive version that combine detailed episodes about the filming of the time, the director’s directing perspectives and critical commentary, and will be a great help in understanding not only the two films, but also Lee’s cinematic world as a whole. The booklet, written by film critic Jang Byungwon, will prompt us to think twice about the value of these films and Lee Myung-se’s place in the history of Korean cinema. This Blu-ray set also includes a number of special supplements, including trailers for both films, before and after restoration footage, storyboard images of First Love (included in the booklet). Lastly, the images on the Blu-ray were sourced from the restored version in 4K resolution by the Korean Film Archive in 2023. This is a great opportunity to see Lee Myung-se’s unique cinematic style in high definition.
Special Features
- My Love, My Bride Commentary by Lee Myung-se(Director) Park Joong-hoon(Actor), Kim Hyung-seok(Film Journalist)
- First Love Commentary by Lee Myung-se, Kim Hye-soo(Actress) & Lee Myung-se, Lee Dong-jin(Film Critic)
- Trailers
- Digital Restoration : Before & After
- Image Gallery
Booklet
- "Restoration Note", The Digital Restoration Team at The Korean Film Archive
- “Lee Myung-se’s Touch, Which Is Said to Be Unrivaled”, Jang Byungwon (Senior Programmer at DMZ International Documentary Film Festival)
- "My Love, My Bride: The Spectacle of Audiovisual Storytelling", Jang Byungwon
- "First Love: An Epoch Exploring the Nature of Firsts, Love, Time, and Genre”, Jang Byungwon
- My Love, My Bride Commentary by Lee Myung-se(Director) Park Joong-hoon(Actor), Kim Hyung-seok(Film Journalist)
- First Love Commentary by Lee Myung-se, Kim Hye-soo(Actress) & Lee Myung-se, Lee Dong-jin(Film Critic)
- Trailers
- Digital Restoration : Before & After
- Image Gallery
Booklet
- "Restoration Note", The Digital Restoration Team at The Korean Film Archive
- “Lee Myung-se’s Touch, Which Is Said to Be Unrivaled”, Jang Byungwon (Senior Programmer at DMZ International Documentary Film Festival)
- "My Love, My Bride: The Spectacle of Audiovisual Storytelling", Jang Byungwon
- "First Love: An Epoch Exploring the Nature of Firsts, Love, Time, and Genre”, Jang Byungwon