Three Films of Lee Chang-Dong - Peppermint Candy/Oasis/Poetry

A seminal auteur of Korea's New Wave of cinema, Umbrella Entertainment proudly presents three films by Lee Chang-dong. This collection marks the debut release of the iconic and award-winning films Peppermint Candy (1999), Oasis (2002), and Poetry (2010), newly remastered in 4K and presented on Blu-ray.

A celebrated literary figure in South Korea, Lee's foray into cinema is shaped by his sincerity and sensitivity at exploring intense tales of the human condition and reflections of trauma. Each film in this collection serves as a searing analysis of the state's impact on the individual and Korea's turbulent modern history.

In Lee's sophomore film, Peppermint Candy (1999), a man is haunted by his past decisions, set against the backdrop of South Korea's economic boom. Driven by harrowing melancholy, Lee's scathing critique of Korea's institutional impact on a generation of Korean men is deftly executed through a unique approach reverse chronology storytelling, and accelerated Lee from novelist to international art film sensation.

In Lee's next film, Oasis (2002), the genre convention of melodrama is flipped with stylistic realism and harsh social critiques as an unlikely romance forms between a social misfit and a young disabled woman, both abused by the families.

Lastly in Poetry (2010), an elderly woman at the onset of Alzheimer’s confronts her grandchild’s utter indifference to morality in a unique character study of spiralling distress.