New Re-Release Trailer for Lee Chang-Dong’s ‘Oasis’ Film from 2002

New Re-Release Trailer for Lee Chang-Dong’s ‘Oasis’ Film from 2002

by Alex Billington
April 1, 2024
Source: YouTube

“It’s about time you grew up.” Film Movement has revealed a brand new official trailer for a 4K restoration and re-release of a cult classic Korean indie film from 2002. Oasis was the third feature made by Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong, who later went on to make a splash worldwide with his film Burning in 2018. In this film Oasis, an irresponsible and childish ex-con fresh out of prison befriends a girl with cerebral palsy and develops a progressively stronger bond with her. Co-starring Sol Kyung-gu and Moon So-ri. Winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director and Best Young Actress at the Venice Film Festival, Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis is a “brave film” that “shows two people who find any relationship almost impossible, and yet find a way to make theirs work.” (From a positive Roger Ebert review.) It was also South Korea’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 75th Academy Awards in 2003. Time to catch up if you’ve never seen it. This one definitely seems to be for cinephiles only, so it’s nice to see it getting a proper re-release nowadays.

Here’s the new 4K restoration trailer (+ poster) for Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis, direct from FM’s YouTube:

Fresh out of prison, Hong Jong-du (Sul Kyung-gu) finds an unlikely soulmate in Gong-ju (Moon So-ri), the daughter of the victim of the hit-and-run accident for which he was initially sent to jail. Wheelchair-bound and suffering from severe cerebral palsy, Gong-ju is kept cloistered in a cheap apartment by her brother, whose only concern is the government assistance she receives. Over a series of clandestine meetings, the two begin an improbable relationship that defies the judgment and the cruelty of the world around them. Oasis, also known as Oasiseu or 오아시스 in Korean, is written and directed by acclaimed Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, his third feature film at the time, after Green Fish and Peppermint Candy and before making Secret Sunshine in 2007. This initially opened in Korea in late 2002 and it premiered at the Venice, Vancouver, and Toronto Film Festivals that same year. Film Movement will re-release the 4K restoration of Lee Chang-dong’s Oasis in select US theaters starting (at the Metrograph) on April 19th, 2024 this spring.

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