Chihwaseon (2003)
Movie Info
Cast
as Jang Seung-Up (Oh-won)

as Kim Byung-Moon
as Kim Byung-Moon

as Mae-Hyang

as Mae-hyang

as Jin-jong
as So-Woon

as Lee Eung-Heon

as Jang Seung-Up as a Teenager

as Jang Seung-Up as a Boy
Critic Reviews for Chihwaseon
All Critics (41) | Top Critics (15) | Fresh (34) | Rotten (7)
It is quietly observant, with a detached eye for the telling moment, and the visual compositions are often exquisite.
[Chihwaseon] rushes through the life of its subject in nimble leaps and bounds, concentrating on the livelier and more spectacular parts and avoiding the dull historical and biographical stretches.
Another masterpiece from one of the world's more neglected great directors, a master artist who here reveals the soul of another.
The movie's attention to anthropological and historical detail means things are slow to come alive. But once they do, the nature of Jang's psychic torture is palpable and unmistakable.
A vividly entertaining portrait.
The film's sexy romanticism and its tragic sense of Korean history will thrill even those who have never set foot in an art gallery.

Audience Reviews for Chihwaseon
Jang Seung-Up is an artist that just can't catch a break. His talent is noticed at first, but he is soon buried beneath an ever increasing number of art students. He is eventually noticed after making a perfect copy of a more established artists painting, after having just one look. This brings about attention, which is also his downfall. He is shunned for outclassing his own teacher, and soon becomes a drunken mess. There's a lot of redemption in this film, almost anyways. Jang is a man that can only excel whilst drinking. This leads to an obviously large amount of problems. Chihwaseon is a very breautiful film, in terms of the arts it presents, and the way it presents itself. The acting is highly emotive and believable, with Choi Min-Sik, carefully balancing the dependent Jang, with touches of hostility and openness. It's only drawback is the predictable nature of the biopic. Take an individual's life, and truncate it to 2 hours, and you're bound to run into similarities with other famous people of the past.
Super Reviewer
Up until recently,a number of films dedicated to the lives and times of exceptional painters,fine artists in a broader scope started emerging out of nowhere.Ladies,gents,I present you the unanimous masterpiece of them all,forget Pollocks and Fridas,Sung-up,a humongous legend in the Joseon dynasty in Korea,a fabulous poetic journey by the hands of an elderly Im Kwon-taek and yet profoundly young,Min-sik proves he is an Actor.

Super Reviewer
Chihwaseon Quotes
There are no approved quotes yet for this movie.