Songgong sidae

Jang Sun-Woo (1993): 'The story is a satire on commercial exploitation, advertising and so on. In the 1970s, materialism from America conspired with Korean fascism to deform society, and I wanted to register a protest, that's all.'Jang's first film as solo writer-director (written in 1984) is a raucous satire of consumer culture. Ahn Song-Gi plays aspiring super-salesman Kim Pan-Chok (the name means 'good marketing'), who turns an also-ran food-seasoning company into a market leader but ultimately loses everything by failing to keep faith with his woman adviser Seong So-Bee (the name means 'consumer'). The story turns on the frenetic rivalry between Kim's employers and another firm; the elements of farce and hyperbole rob it of some of its sting, but its heart is manifestly in the right place. Tony Rayns