Chilsu & Mansu

Chilsu & Mansu

April 28, 2022
Chilsu and Mansu focuses on Chilsu, a smooth-talking billboard painter who struggles to hold down a job, and his evolving friendship with Mansu, a capable and intelligent worker who is held back in life because his father is an “unreformed” Communist sympathizer.

Details About the Film

This film is part of the series SHOW ME: Season 1

Rarely screened in the US, this comedic, neorealist gem is a landmark film for the Korean New Wave. Released on the cusp of South Korea's democratic reform, the film follows two working class billboard painters navigating Seoul's hectic hyper-modernization.

This film is not available with Open Captions, Captiview personal captioning device, and Fidelio personal descriptive audio device.

Director(s): Park Kwang-su
Year Released: 1988
Runtime: 109 minutes
Country: South Korea
Language(s): Korean
Accessibility Options: 

Film Reviews

"Had the film been made any earlier than 1988 it is doubtful that it would have escaped heavy censorship or even have been made at all."
–Modern Korean Cinema

"An undisputed classic of contemporary Korean cinema, considered by many as the first authentic expression of the Korean New Wave."
–Haden Guest, Harvard Film Archive

chevron-down