Tickets are on sale for the North American premiere for The New York Asian Film Festival’s upcoming premiere presentation of Kokdu: A Story of Guardian Angels. The live action cinematic presentation enjoins the filmic feats of directors Kim Tae-yong (Memento Mori, critically acclaimed Late Autumn) and music director Bang Jun-Seok (The Throne, Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds, Along With The Gods: The Last 49 Days), along with a 20-piece ensemble from the National Gugak Center.
Kokdu: A Story Of Guardian Angels signals the latest partnership between the Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY), Film at Lincoln Center, and the New York Asian Film Foundation. As for what this all entails, there’s a trailer out and about as of last week to help sample the goods to come and you can view that above. The show has already been touring in select parts of the world now, including Germany and with having generated massive support from audiences, it stands as an ample prospect ahead of its North American debut.
Both a fairy tale and a phantasmagoria, the film follows two children, Su-min and her younger brother Dong-min, who accidentally fall in the realm of the dead after losing their grandmother’s shoes in a thoughtless, Faustian deal. As the children search the netherworld to retrieve the shoes, they encounter a mischievous band of living kokdu, the wooden figurines that guide the souls of the dead to the afterlife.
Melding fantasy and reality, Kokdu weaves between cinematic storytelling and an impressively staged theatrical piece. It explores Korean myths and traditions while dealing deftly with dark themes of death, guilt, and mourning, with a poignant and ultimately uplifting touch. As a spectacle, not only does Kokdu brim with music and dance, it makes the challenging topic of our mortality accessible to audiences of all ages.
The show will perform on June 29 at 7:00pm EST for an audience at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall located at 1941 Broadway, New York, NY 10023. Tickets range from $20 to $50, and you can get yours now at filmlinc.org/kokdu.
