Im Jae-chul, critic who championed art cinema in Korea, dies at 65

Film critic Im Jae-chul / Yonhap

Im Jae-chul, a film critic who championed filmmakers little known to the Korean public, died Sunday. He was 65.

Born in South Jeolla Province in 1961, Im graduated from Seoul National University and joined JoongAng Ilbo, where he mostly wrote about movies from 1988 to 1996. After leaving the paper, he earned a master's degree in film theory from the City University of New York.

Back in Korea, he chaired the steering committee of the Seoul Cinematheque, an organization dedicated to screening films, and served as chief programmer of the Gwangju International Film Festival (GIFF), where he introduced films with little exposure in Korea, along with their directors and film theories, to local audiences.

In a 2002 interview from his time leading the GIFF's programming, Im said, “In this age of visual media, there is meaning in looking back at the genre films that were once popular in theaters.”

Im also founded the film journal "Film Culture" and runs Film Forum, an art house cinema in western Seoul's Seodaemun District that offers film enthusiasts a deeper understanding of the genre.

He introduced and reassessed the works of filmmakers including Hong Kong director Johnnie To and Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa for Korean audiences. Im's reputation won the admiration of Jean-Marie Straub — one of the leading figures of the French New Wave — who granted Film Forum Asian distribution rights to his entire body of work. Since 2015, Im had also run Emotion Books, where he translated and published film-related books.

“Im was among the founding members of the Korean Association of Cinematheques and, as head of the Seoul Cinematheque, devoted his life to promoting film as an art form by introducing a wide range of classic films and publishing books on cinema,” Seoul Art Cinema said on its social media platforms Monday.

“His passion for classic cinema and his commitment to welcoming new and original filmmakers left a lasting legacy.”