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NEWS & REPORTS
MADONNA Receives Top Marks from Cannes Critics
May 28, 2015
- Writer by Pierce Conran
- View8708
SHIN Su-won and SEO Young-hee Return to the Croisette
Following the positive reception granted to The Shameless earlier during the Cannes Film Festival, Korea’s other Un Certain Regard competitor in 2015, SHIN Su-won’s third feature Madonna, bowed on May 20th to a raft of positive reviews.
A dark tale of a caregiver in a VIP ward who tracks down the origins of a homely and comatose Jane Doe being prepped for a transplant, Madonna drew notice for its thematic weight and the performance of Cannes veteran SEO Young-hee (Bedevilled, 2010) and newcomer KWON So-hyun.
Screen Daily wrote that the film painted a ‘dark and unsettling portrait of the issues faced by Korean women marginalised by society.’ The review went on to single out Director SHIN’s contributions, calling Madonna ‘another outstanding feature to add to her impressive body of work further illustrating her growing status as one of Korea’s leading female filmmakers.’
Variety referred to the film as an ‘anguished cry against vicious class inequality and ingrained female abuse in South Korean society,’ but also noted that its ‘unremitting accumulation of suffering finally becomes too punishing.’
The Hollywood Reporter reserved its praise for the film’s stars, pointing out SEO Young-hee’s ‘powerful turn’ and KWON So-hyun’s ‘unquestionably affecting’ performance.
SHIN debuted in 2009 with Passerby #3 before gaining international notice when her sophomore work Pluto stood out from the pack in the Busan Film Festival in 2012 and went to win awards in Berlin and receive distribution in France and the UK, among other regions. She previously won the Canal+ Prize at Cannes for her short film The Circle Line, which was invited to the Critics’ Week sidebar in 2012.
Madonna will hit Korean theaters on June 25th.
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