Festival: Death Becomes Him

A grandmother (Han Eun-jin) dies at the start of Im Kwon-taek's quirky family drama Festival. Except she doesn't. She reawakens posthumously — apparently an old habit with her — but then succumbs to death, this time for good. Once she does, the funeral's intricacies begin to unfold, many unfamiliar to many Westerners such as draping calligraphy scrolls in the courtyard, painting the name of the dead on a ceremonial flag, and unmasking the face of the elaborately wrapped corpse for a late guest (black sheep Yong Sun played by a ravishing Jung Kyung Soon). Outside these Korean funeral rites, Festival has much more on its mind.

The main event is intercut by flashes of the past and vignettes drawn from a "Benjamin Button" novel penned by the late woman's son Jun-seop (Ahn Sung-ki), a celebrated author who draws inspiration from his family. This structural device blurs the line between art and reality, no doubt making the investigative work of one The Age of Literature journalist Lee Yong-soon (Oh Jung-hae) exceedingly difficult. What's truth? What's fiction? Is Ahn's character to be trusted? With all that booze flowing? Well, he's certainly dashing. And due to Ahn, a bit of an enigma, too.