Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Blvd
310.443.7000
This event has passed.
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A Flower in Hell
- When
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Friday Jan 18, 2008 (7:30pm)
- Where
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- Price
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$9
- Links
Marking a watershed of wantonness for Korean cinema, Shin Sang-ok's 1958 A Flower in Hell features his nation's first onscreen kiss. The nearly noir tale follows two brothers as they battle for a prostitute's favor in postwar Seoul; one is a city crook pimping and pilfering from US Army warehouses, while the other is a country bumpkin who comes to the city seeking his brother. Starlet Choi Eun-hee is cast against type as the prostitute torn between the brothers' disparate fates, with her charms driving the men to an infamous showdown. Twenty years after the film, Shin and Choi gained unfortunate personal notoriety, when North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il kidnapped them in an attempt to salvage his country's dwindling film industry.
