{ "id": "epvyaaywzx", "slug": "the-ginkgo-bed", "title": "The Ginkgo Bed", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror", "label": "Horror films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.gothic-horror-films", "label": "Gothic horror films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.gothic-horror-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946", "label": "Asia (other) · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Ginkgo Bed (은행나무 침대, Eunhaengnamoo Chimdae) is a 1996 South Korean fantasy romance, Kang Je-kyu's debut feature, starring Han Suk-kyu and Shin Hyun-jun; a reincarnated-love story notable for early Korean CGI, 452,580 Seoul admissions, and Grand Bell and Blue Dragon awards.", "snippet": "The Ginkgo Bed (은행나무 침대, Eunhaengnamoo Chimdae) is a 1996 South Korean fantasy romance, Kang Je-kyu's debut feature, starring Han Suk-kyu and Shin Hyun-jun; a reincarnated-love story notable for early Korean CGI, 452,580 Seoul admissions, and Grand Bell and Blue Dragon awards.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.horror.gothic-horror-films", "markdown": "# The Ginkgo Bed\n\n**The Ginkgo Bed** (은행나무 침대, *Eunhaengnamoo Chimdae*) is a 1996 South Korean fantasy romance film directed by Kang Je-kyu in his feature debut, in which the spirit of a princess dwelling in an antique bed carved from gingko wood reunites with her reincarnated lover from a thousand years earlier while a vengeful general pursues them across time.[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19960059) It was released in South Korea on February 17, 1996, runs 88 minutes, and stars [Han Suk-kyu](https://www.edgepedia.org/han-suk-kyu), Shim Hye-jin, Jin Hee-kyung, and Shin Hyun-jun.[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19960059)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Korean title | 은행나무 침대 (*Eunhaengnamoo Chimdae*)[2](https://koreafilmfest.com/en/film/ginkgo-bed-the/) |\n| Director / writer | Kang Je-kyu, his debut feature film[3](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=334&page=11&pyear=1996) |\n| Release | February 17, 1996, South Korea; 88 minutes[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19960059) |\n| Genre | Fantasy romance, described in Korean sources as an \"SFX melodrama\" rated for viewers 18 and older[4](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/gingko_bed/gingko_bed.htm) |\n| Cast | Han Suk-kyu, Shim Hye-jin, Jin Hee-kyung, Shin Hyun-jun[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19960059) |\n| Box office | 452,580 Seoul admissions, the second highest-grossing Korean film of 1996 behind *Two Cops 2*[5](https://file.koreanfilm.org/kfilm96.html) |\n| Budget | A reported $3.5 million, a comparatively large Korean budget at the time[6](https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/the-gingko-bed.pdf) |\n| Restoration | Digitally restored in 4K in 2025 by the Korean Film Archive (KOFA)[7](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/cinematheque/programs/PI_01646) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nSu-hyun (Han Suk-kyu), a lithographer and college art instructor in contemporary Seoul, is in love with Sun-young (Shim Hye-jin), a surgeon. When he buys an old gingko bed at an open-air market, a bed he had once seen in a dream, his calm life begins to crumble.[8](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010588) Flashbacks reveal that a thousand years earlier Su-hyun was Jung-mun, a court musician whose playing of the kayagum (Korean plucked zither with twelve silk strings) won the love of Princess Mi-dan (Jin Hee-kyung). General Hwang (Shin Hyun-jun), a wartime conqueror who had taken Mi-dan as his prize and demanded her devotion, pursued the pair and beheaded Jung-mun before her eyes.[6](https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/the-gingko-bed.pdf)\n\nThe lovers' spirits passed into two gingko trees growing side by side on a hillside. Hwang, taking the form of a hawk, used lightning to kill Mi-dan's tree, which was then carved into the bed where her spirit dwells.[6](https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/the-gingko-bed.pdf) When Mi-dan's spirit appears to Su-hyun, Hwang's spirit, still obsessed with her after a thousand years, resurfaces in the present and moves to destroy them both.[8](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010588) In one subplot, Mi-dan borrows the body of a patient whom Sun-young has pronounced dead; when the man's donated eyes have already been transplanted and he returns to life, the hospital administrator forces Sun-young to quit, and she later offers her own body for Mi-dan's use in the final confrontation.[6](https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/the-gingko-bed.pdf)\n\n## Production and financing\n\nThe film took three years to produce and cost a reported $3.5 million, a comparatively large Korean budget at the time, visible in its cinematography, lighting, and opening animation. It was shot entirely on location in South Korea.[6](https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/the-gingko-bed.pdf) Korean scholarship records the total production cost as 2.3 billion won, of which the venture capital firm Ilshin Changup Investment put in 900 million won, marking the point at which venture capital began entering the Korean film industry in earnest.[9](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART001934171)\n\nThe film was produced by Shin Cine Communications, with Kang Je-kyu writing the screenplay, Park Hui-ju as director of photography, and Lee Dong-jun composing the score.[2](https://koreafilmfest.com/en/film/ginkgo-bed-the/)\n\n## Special effects and place in Korean cinema\n\n**A VFX milestone.** The Korean Film Archive describes the film as a fantasy spanning a thousand years realized with computer graphics then unfamiliar to Korean cinema, one that proved the commercial viability of CG and is regarded as a starting point of Korean film's visual effects lineage.[7](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/cinematheque/programs/PI_01646) A 2024 academic survey of Korean digital visual effects from 1994 to 1999 lists *The Gingko Bed* (1996) among the VFX-intensive productions that followed *The Fox with Nine Tails* (1994), the first Korean feature to manipulate images digitally.[10](https://kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003070405) AsianWiki's notes likewise call it one of the first Korean films to reap full benefit from special effects, with effects used in harmony with the film rather than at an experimental stage.[11](https://asianwiki.com/Gingko_Bed)\n\nThe film's success also fed the broader moment of 1996, when debuts by [Hong Sang-soo](https://www.edgepedia.org/hong-sang-soo), Kim Ki-duk, Yim Soon-rye, and Kang Je-kyu coincided with the launch of the Pusan International Film Festival. Commentators have used the film to argue that Kang's later blockbuster *Shiri* (1999) was not an isolated event but grew from ground already prepared.[5](https://file.koreanfilm.org/kfilm96.html)\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nThe film was one of the year's biggest Korean hits. Figures compiled from the Korean Film Council put it at 452,580 Seoul admissions, second among Korean films of 1996 behind *[Two Cops 2](https://www.edgepedia.org/two-cops-2)*, and one of only two Korean films in the overall top ten that year.[5](https://file.koreanfilm.org/kfilm96.html) The Korean film database at koreafilm.co.kr instead records 680,000 Seoul admissions and first place in the first half of 1996; the two figures do not agree and are reported here as each source states them.[4](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/gingko_bed/gingko_bed.htm)\n\nGeneral Hwang, the supporting villain played by Shin Hyun-jun, grew popular enough to eclipse the leads, and Lee Dong-jun's score, which blends Western and traditional Korean instrumental elements, sold nearly 200,000 albums.[7](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/cinematheque/programs/PI_01646) • [2](https://koreafilmfest.com/en/film/ginkgo-bed-the/)\n\nThe film's awards included:[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19960059) • [4](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/gingko_bed/gingko_bed.htm)\n\n- 34th Grand Bell (Daejong) Awards: Best New Director (Kang Je-kyu) and Best Actress (Shim Hye-jin)\n- 17th Blue Dragon Film Awards: Best New Director (Kang Je-kyu), Best Cinematography (Park Hui-ju), and Best Music (Lee Dong-jun)\n- 16th Youngpyeong Awards: Best [Cinematography](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinematography) and Best New Director\n- 32nd Paeksang Arts Awards: Best Cinematography (Park Hui-ju)\n\n## Critical assessment\n\nDiane Carson, a film studies instructor at St. Louis Community College at Meramec who reviewed the film for *Education About Asia*, described a fast-paced, emotionally aggressive style in which technique often overwhelms substance, with grisly horror and flashy effects juxtaposed awkwardly against the film's spiritual and mythic material. She judged its gore no worse than most contemporary horror and more restrained than some, but concluded that the pervasive violence limits classroom use and that even upper-level instructors should watch and prepare carefully before showing it.[6](https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/the-gingko-bed.pdf) The Florence Korea Film Fest notes that international criticism pointed to an unsurprising plot and uneven pacing, while praising the cinematography and score.[2](https://koreafilmfest.com/en/film/ginkgo-bed-the/)\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe reincarnated-lovers premise the film popularized recurred in later Korean cinema, in titles such as *Bungee Jumping of Their Own* and *The Classic*, and scholars have treated *The Gingko Bed* as an early landmark of the Korean image-fantasy genre alongside works like *Goblin*.[5](https://file.koreanfilm.org/kfilm96.html) • [12](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002824913) In 2025 KOFA restored the film in 4K from the original 35mm negative and the sound of the duplicate negative, screening it in its 4·K-Classic program with a talk by director Kang Je-kyu and actor Shin Hyun-jun.[7](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/cinematheque/programs/PI_01646)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Gingko Bed (1996), Korean Film Council database](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=19960059)\n2. [Ginkgo Bed, The, Florence Korea Film Fest](https://koreafilmfest.com/en/film/ginkgo-bed-the/)\n3. [The Gingko Bed, Busan International Film Festival archive, 1st (1996) Korean Panorama](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=334&page=11&pyear=1996)\n4. [은행나무 침대 (1996), Koreanfilm.co.kr database](https://www.koreafilm.co.kr/database/movie/gingko_bed/gingko_bed.htm)\n5. [Darcy's Korean Film Page, 1996](https://file.koreanfilm.org/kfilm96.html)\n6. [Diane Carson, film review of The Gingko Bed, Education About Asia, Vol. 4 No. 1 (Spring 1999)](https://www.asianstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/the-gingko-bed.pdf)\n7. [4·Korean Classic Films: The Gingko Bed, Cinematheque KOFA](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/cinematheque/programs/PI_01646)\n8. [The Ginko Bed, Cinematheque KOFA current programme](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010588)\n9. [자본의 다양화와 투자사의 영역 확장, KCI](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/landing/article.kci?arti_id=ART001934171)\n10. [한국영화 디지털 시각효과의 서막: 1994~1999, KCI](https://kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART003070405)\n11. [Gingko Bed, AsianWiki](https://asianwiki.com/Gingko_Bed)\n12. [1990-2010년대 한·중 영상 환상물의 전개와 특징, KCI](https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/ci/sereArticleSearch/ciSereArtiView.kci?sereArticleSearchBean.artiId=ART002824913)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Gothic horror films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-ginkgo-bed", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-ginkgo-bed.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Ginkgo Bed\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-ginkgo-bed. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Ginkgo Bed](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-ginkgo-bed)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-ginkgo-bed](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-ginkgo-bed). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Ginkgo Bed\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-ginkgo-bed. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Ginkgo Bed is a 1996 South Korean fantasy romance, Kang Je-kyu's debut feature, starring Han Suk-kyu and Shin Hyun-jun; a reincarnated-love story notable for early Korean CGI, 452,580 Seoul admissions, and Grand Bell and Blue Dragon awards." }