''The Weight'' () is a 2012

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n film about a hunchback mortician and his

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

stepsister. It made its world premiere in the

Venice Days The Giornate degli Autori or simply the Giornate, formerly also known in English as Venice Days, is an independent film festival section held in parallel to and in association with the Venice Film Festival. It is modeled on the Directors' Fortnight ...

sidebar of the

69th Venice International Film Festival The 69th annual Venice International Film Festival, organized by Venice Biennale, took place at Venice Lido from 29 August to 8 September 2012. The festival opened with the Indian director Mira Nair's ''The Reluctant Fundamentalist'', and clos ...

, where it won the 2012

Queer Lion The Queer Lion is the trophy awarded yearly since 2007 to the “Best Movie with LGBT Themes & Queer Culture” among those presented during the Venice International Film Festival.David Opie"Venice Film Festival: A Guide To Every Queer Lion Award ...

, an award for the "best film with a homosexual and queer culture theme." It is the first Korean film to have won the prize. It also won a Special Award at the 2013

Fantasporto Fantasporto, also known as Fantas, is an international film festival, annually organized since 1981 in Porto, Portugal. Giving screen space to Fantasy film, fantasy/Science fiction film, science fiction/Horror film, horror-oriented commercial fe ...

Orient Express Awards.

Jeon Kyu-hwan Jeon Kyu-hwan (born 1965) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Besides being the first Korean film to win the 2012 Queer Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival, ''The Weight'' (2012) also won various awards at film fest ...

was awarded Best Director at the 16th

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, or PÖFF ( et, Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival), is an annual film festival held since 1997 in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. PÖFF is the only festival in Northern Europe or the Baltic region with a FIA ...

, and the Silver Peacock award for best director at the

International Film Festival of India The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually, currently in the state of Goa, on the western coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common pla ...

Cho Jae-hyun Cho Jae-hyun (born June 30, 1965) is a South Korean film, stage, and TV actor. He is commonly dubbed "director Kim Ki-duk's persona" since Cho has starred as leading and supporting characters in a number of films directed by Kim. Early years a ...

won Best Actor at the 2013

Fantasia Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

. Most of director Jeon Kyu-hwan's previous films, including

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

-featured ''Varanasi'' and ''Dance Town'', have dealt with the underbelly of society. ''The Weight'' is his fifth feature-length film.

Plot

Jung is the mortician at the

morgue A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cus ...

who has to heavily rely on medicine for his severe

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

and

arthritis Arthritis is a term often used to mean any disorder that affects joints. Symptoms generally include joint pain and stiffness. Other symptoms may include redness, warmth, swelling, and decreased range of motion of the affected joints. In som ...

. Despite his illness, cleansing and dressing the dead is a noble and even beautiful work to him. Jung is the last living person who silently takes care of the dead. So for him, his life at the morgue is both a reality and a fantasy while the corpses are his models and friends for his paintings, his sole living pleasure. Born with a

hunchback Kyphosis is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can result fr ...

and left at an orphanage, Jung was adopted by a woman who hid him away in the attic only to use him as a child slave for her dress shop. The woman's own child Dong-bae is younger than Jung; she has always wanted to become a woman, loathing her own male body. While Jung feels affection and sympathy for his younger stepsister, he feels burdened by Dong-bae's struggles. Under the weight of life and death carried by the dead bodies that he faces each day coupled with his love-hate relationship with Dong-bae, Jung endures the pain and thirst that he feels like a camel crossing a desolate desert in silence. Then he quietly prepares his biggest, his last gift for his sister.

Cast

- Mr. Jung / Han Hae-woon *

Park Ji-a Park Ji-Ah (; born February 25, 1972), is a South Korean actress. She is a recurring actress in Kim Ki-duk's films, having appeared in five of his works from 2002 to 2008. Her performance in ''Breath'' was described as "terrific" by ''Variety'' a ...

(Zia) - Dong-bae * Lee Jun-hyeok - man in motorcycle helmet *

Ra Mi-ran Ra Mi-ran (born March 6, 1975) is a South Korean actress and television personality. Career Before making her film debut in ''Lady Vengeance'' (2005), Ra Mi-ran spent years acting in theatre. Afterwards, she appeared in more than 40 films but di ...

*Ahn Ji-hye *Oh Seong-tae * Kim Sung-min (cameo) *Yoon Dong-hwan (cameo) *

Darcy Paquet Darcy Paquet (born 1972) is an American film critic, university lecturer, author and actor. In 2010, Paquet was awarded the Korea Film Reporters Association Award at the 15th Busan International Film Festival for his contributions in introducing ...

- minister (cameo) *

Kim Young-hoon Kim Young-Hoon (born October 2, 1978) is a South Korean actor. Filmography Film Television series Web series References External links * * * * * 1978 births Living people South Korean male television actors Sout ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Weight, The South Korean drama films Transgender-related films 2012 drama films 2012 films South Korean LGBT-related films LGBT-related drama films 2012 LGBT-related films 2010s South Korean films