[old partner] film information_english

Old Partner
 

FESTIVALS & AWARDS
Int'l Competition, 16th Hot Docs Int'l Documentary Festival (2009, Canada)
6th Syracuse Int’l Film and Video Festival (2009, USA)
5th Riverside Int’l Film Festival (2009, USA)
11th Sarasota Film Festival (2009, USA)
Philadelphia Cinefest (2009, USA)
World Documentary Competition, Sundance Film Festival (2009, USA)
Audience Award, 34th Seoul Independent Film Festival (2008, Korea)
PIFF Mecenat Award (Best Documentary), 13th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2008, Korea)

Theatrical released: Jan. 2009 (Korea)

REVIEWS
Their everyday lives are humble, but they give a powerful reflection.
-13th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2008, Korea)

A charming, heartbreaking, existential buddy tale, OLD PARTNER conveys the almost mystical inextricability of human and nature.
-Sundance Film Festival (2009, USA)
 

SYNOPSIS

The story of 30-year companionship between a 40-year-old ox and an octogenarian
The Sound of the Cowbell

Neither time nor civilization can go against their companionship.
I’ll be with only you till the day I die!
Just stay by my side!

80 years old, CHOI has an old ox that he’s worked for 30 years, and the ox aged no less than 40.
However, there’s something special about the way Old CHOI treats this ox, which is so worn-out that it might drop dead any minute. The old man is single-mindedly focused on the ox, instinctively turning to the beast when he hears the cowbell even though he’s nearly deaf.
One spring day, however, Old CHOI learns that his ox only has a year to live, which greatly troubles him.

 

CHARACTER

“Though wordless beast, he is better than any other person to me.”
Elderly farmer: Choi Won-gyun (80)

The elderly farmer wed to his traditional way gets his ox to drag the plow through fertile fields, though he knows a tractor will give a better harvest and more convenience. With his ox, he is not worried about even poverty or aging. 30 years they have lived together for are unbelievably long time regarding an average span of oxen life, but he cannot imagine his life without the royal ox,

 “Smile!”
Farmer’s wife: Lee Sam-sun (77)

After her marriage in the age of 16, she has raised 9 children. She is still energetic with alacrity and ringing voice for her age, but the ox is her husband’s only love. She continues to nag and yell at him but eventually gives up. It is her love chant for her husband. 

“Moo…”
Ox: ox (40)

Nameless, possibly oldest ox in Korea. He has lived with Mr. Choi for 30 years sharing their joys and sorrows. He mutely endures a torrential rain under the collapsed roof not to wake him up, and even follows him without resistance for a cattle market. He is one with deeper love and royalty than any human. What gift has the ox left on the farmer and his wife?     
 
Touching love story with deep undertones will warm up your winter. 

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Do oxen really relate to their owners?
Seeing how oxen have become mere sources of meat nowadays, I wanted to prove the validity of this question.
If that’s possible, I’ll try to show, through that empathy, the various dialogues, facial expressions, and even conflicts between the ox and its master.

Not only that, but the movie will show in a single frame diverse relationships and stories, like in traditional Korean folk paintings, everything that happens when both external conditions (time and civilization) and other relationships (a young cow and Mrs. CHOI) that seek to sever this relationship of empathy between the ox and the old man intervene.

Here, the sound of the cowbell is a medium that allows the ox and its nearly deaf master to communicate and to empathize with each other and will function as a heartbeat, serving as a symbol and a metaphor for their very aliveness.
In other words, if and when the cowbell stops, that means that the mechanism for the empathy between the ox and the old man no longer works and that their relationship has come to its end.

In addition, the sound of the cowbell will function as a spell that awakens the home villages, fathers, and oxen of our childhoods, now dormant in our memories like fossils.

In that respect, this film will serve as yet another representation of the beautiful empathy between our oxen and our fathers and their moving dedication borne in the twilight of their lives, which may very well be the last of their kind in this age.

 

STAFF/CAST
Director/Screenwriter/Editing  LEE Chung-ryoul
Production    Studio Nurimbo 
Producer    GOH Young-jae 
Cinematography   JI Jae-woo
Lighting    JOO Won-gyeong/ LEE Il-hwa
Composer    HEO Hoon/ MIN So-yun
Mixing     KIM Soo-duk
Recording    JUNG Il-gwon
Color Grading    HONG Su-dong

CAST
CHOI Won-kyun as himself (old man)
LEE Sam-soon as herself (old man’s wife)

DIRECTOR’s BIO/FILMOGRAPHY

  LEE Chung-ryoul
Born in 1966, Korea.
Graduated from Korea University, Dept. of Education and has been working as a TV station producer for 10 years. “Old Partner” is his first theatrical release documentary.

Selected Filmography
2003 [Korean’s Code, The Sun and the Moon, Five Elements]HD, color, 55min., TV documentary
2005 [Two Presents Given by A Red Pig] HD, color, 60min., TV documentary
2008   [Talk to Korean Food] HD, color, 55min., TV documentary
2008  [Old Partner] HD, color, 77min.
World Documentary Competition, Sundance Film Festival (2009, USA)
Audience Award, 34th Seoul Independent Film Festival (2008, Korea)
PIFF Mecenat Award (Best Documentary), 13th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2008, Korea)

Original title  Wyo-nang So-ri
Directed by  LEE Chung-ryoul
Production Year  2008
Shooting Format HD CAM
Screening Format HD CAM, DV Cam
Color   color
Running Time  77min
Ratio   16:9
Frame   24p
Speed   1080i, 60i
Sound   Stereo
Language  Korean
Subtitle   English
Country   South Korea
Production  Studio Nurimbo
World Distribution INDIESTORY Inc.
Category  Documentary