The Korean Film Archive (KOFA) have launched the first two titles of their brand new Blu-ray Collection. Released on December 10th, KIM Ki-young’s The Housemaid (1960) and HA Gil-jong’s The March of Fools (1975) were revealed as spines number 001 and 002 of the project. The films were recently deemed the best Korean films of all time in a KOFA poll of the top 100 Korean films, featuring in a three-way tie for first place with YU Hyun-mok’s The Aimless Bullet (1961).

 

KIM’s The Housemaid, which was released on Blu-ray last year on the prestigious Criterion Collection, features the version which was digitally remastered by the Korean Film Archive and the World Cinema Foundation. The edition also features a commentary from director PARK Chan-wook and film critic LEE Dong-jin, a video essay by Martin Scorsese, a short documentary on Director KIM, his first film The Box of Death (1955) - presented in its only existing version which lacks a soundtrack - and his short film I Am a Truck. All special features are subtitled in English.

 

Never before released commercially with foreign language subtitles (though occasionally featured as a retrospective screening at foreign film festivals), The March of Fools is considered the crowning achievement of director HA, a socially-inclined maverick who passed away prematurely in 1979 at age 37. The release includes two audio commentaries from film critics CHUNG Sung-il and Darcy Paquet, as well as censored clips, documents and the original screenplay.

 

A collaboration between the Korea Film Archive, Blue Kino, Propaganda Alternative Graphics and Plain Archive, the releases also feature bilingual booklets with detailed information and essays on the films and filmmakers in slipcase packaging.