MOTEL CACTUS

Four episodes take place in Room 407 of Motel Cactus, a love hotel in Seoul. Each episode has couples going through various stages in their relationship ? parting, yearning and reuniting.

MOTEL CACTUS
Original Title:Motel Soninjong
South Korea, 1997
Director: Park Ki-Yong

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Four episodes take place in Room 407 of Motel Cactus, a love hotel in Seoul. An undetermined amount of time passes between the episodes; sometime between the first and second episodes, the hotel redecorates the room.

Each episode is prefaced by a vignette showing one of the characters. The couples go through various stages in their relationship – parting, yearning and reuniting.

Outside the love motel, they have their own plans: study, careers and family commitments. In the motel, they unwind for a few hours, play out their fantasies and escape momentarily from their feelings of loneliness.

Screenplay:
Park Ki-Yong, Bong Joon-Ho

Cinematographer:
Christopher Doyle

Editing:
Ham Sung-Won

Music:
Kim Jae-Won

Principal cast:
Lee Mi-Hyun, Jin Hee-Kyung, Jung Woo-Sung, Park Shin-Yang, Kim Seung-Hyun, Han Woong-Soo

Production: UNO Films / Ilshin Investment Co. Ltd. / 35mm / colour / 91 mins

Director's bio-note: Born in 1961 in Kyungbook Province, South Korea, Park Ki-Yong graduated from the Seoul Institute for the Arts and the Korean Academy of Film Arts, majoring in filmmaking.

He worked as assistant director on feature films, TV commercials and documentaries and has so far produced three features. Motel Cactus (1997), his first feature as director won the New Currents award at Pusan, a Special Mention by the FIPRESCI jury at Rotterdam and the Jury award at Fribourg.

Camel(s) (2001) won the Grand Prize and Best Script Award at Fribourg.