The Age of Success
성공시대
A year after the release of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (1987) with its sardonic credo of “greed is good”, director Jang Sun-woo unveiled what looks three decades on like the Korean response – a vivid, madcap comedy of corporate intrigue and naked self-advancement.
The stage is the bland office of Seoul food manufacturer, Yumi, its corridors stalked by the ambitious Kim Pan-chok (Ahn Sung-ki), a salesman with a gift for self-promotion and a fierce devotion to a macho, militaristic form of capitalist endeavour: “Sleep More Than Four Hours, You’re Doomed,” reads a poster on his bedroom wall. Engaged in a bitter rivalry with another food company, Gammi, Pan-chok takes the opportunity to claw his way to the top via a web of romantic deceit and revenge. Boldly confrontational with a Brechtian tinge, Jang’s film took audiences aback at the time of its release but now stands as an irreverent assault on a business culture that would soon become the international norm. (DL)
Director: Jang Sun-Woo
Writer: Jang Sun-Woo
Producer: Hwang Gi-Seong
Cast: Ahn Sung-Ki, Lee Hye-Young, Choe Bong, Jeong Bu-Mi
Production Company: Hwang Ki-Seong Production
Rights Holder: Hwang Ki-Seong Production
Romance / 1988 / 112 min / CERT. 18 / Colour / DCP / Original Format: 35mm
Selected Filmography
Resurrection of the Little Match Girl (2002)
Lies (1999)
Timeless, Bottomless (1997)
A Petal (1996)
To You From Me (1994)
The Road to the Race Track (1991)
A Short Love Affair (1990)
