Walking in Between: A Bae Doona Retrospective 

ADMISSION: 
Admission is free and open to everyone. Reservations required. RSVP beginning Monday, January 4, at 10 a.m. 

DESCRIPTION: 
A celebrated actress with over 40 film and television credits, Bae Doona is a globally recognized and renowned figure of the South Korean mediascape. Paying homage to her three-decade career, Walking in Between: A Bae Doona Retrospective begins with a roundtable discussion on Korean cinema through the lens of Bae’s filmography followed by a screening of Cloud Atlas (2012), Bae’s first foray in Hollywood.  

The panel will feature Joseph Jonghyun Jeon, Ungsan Kim, and Nam Lee, leading scholars of Korean cinema, who will discuss Bae’s partnerships with global directors and how her work has helped shape conversation about Korean cinema’s global reach. 

Following the conversation, experience the epic, genre-defying film Cloud Atlas, the Wachowski sisters’ ambitious adaptation that spans centuries and continents. The film weaves together six separate stories written in different styles and timelines. Bae stars mostly as Sonmi-451, a clone in a dystopian “Neo-Seoul.” The captivating film and Bae herself traverse many worlds and times, underscoring the lasting impact of storytelling. 

This is One Part of a Series! 
This is the first event in Walking in Between: A Bae Doona Retrospective, celebrating the filmography of one of the most internationally recognized Korean actresses working today. Featuring screenings, conversations, and interviews with Bae Doona and other special guests, the series explores how her work has connected with audiences around the world. 

Related Events: 
Air Doll 
Thursday, February 11, at 7 p.m. 
Ray Stark Family Theatre, School of Cinematic Arts 108 
More info and RSVP 

Take Care of My Cat 
Friday, February 12, at 7 p.m. 
Norris Cinema Theatre 
More info and RSVP 

Bios: 
Joseph Jonghyun Jeon is Director of the Center for Critical Korean Studies and Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine, with appointments in Asian American Studies, Film and Media Studies, and Culture and Theory. He is the author of Racial Things, Racial Forms: Objecthood in Avant-Garde Asian American Poetry (Iowa, 2012); Vicious Circuits: Korea’s IMF Cinema and the End of the American Century (Stanford, 2019); and Bong Joon Ho: Global Entanglements (Illinois, 2024). 

Ungsan Kim is Assistant Professor of Asian cinema in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington. He teaches and researches Korean cinema, inter-Asian cinema, queer cinema, and Asian genre films. He is currently completing his monograph as a Cornell Society for the Humanities fellow. 

Nam Lee is Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University. A former film critic and journalist in South Korea, her research focuses on contemporary Korean cinema, global film authorship, women’s filmmaking, and gender representation. She is the author of Rediscovering Korean Cinema (University of Michigan Press, 2019), The Films of Bong Joon Ho (Rutgers University Press, 2020), and East Asian Remake (Edinburgh University Press, 2023), and has contributed to several edited volumes on Korean and East Asian cinema. Her current work examines cinematic portrayals of motherhood and aging femininity. 

Presented by USC Visions and Voices. Organized by Sunyoung Park (East Asian Languages and Cultures and Korean Studies Institute), Gloria Koo (Korean Studies Institute), and USC students: Jiwoong Choi (East Asian Languages and Cultures), Caitlyn Chung (East Asian Languages and Cultures), Minji Kim (Cinematic Arts), and Jiwon Park (Cinematic Arts).