General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Green Chair (녹색의자)

Green Chair (녹색의자) is a 2003 South Korean erotic drama film directed by Park Chul-soo, starring Suh Jung, Sim Ji-ho, and Kim Hye-ok, which was completed in 2003 but released in South Korean cinemas on June 9, 2005 after a year and a half on the international festival circuit.¹^•² It follows Mun-hee, a 32-year-old divorcee played by Suh Jung, and Hyeon, a 19-year-old high school student played by Sim Ji-ho, whose affair the film portrays as criminal, although South Korea's actual sexual consent threshold at the time was 13.³^•⁴^•¹³

Key fact	Detail
Director / writers	Park Chul-soo; screenplay by Kim Jeon-han, with Park also credited as writer¹^•⁵
Production and release	Completed 2003; released June 9, 2005; production by Habdong Film Company and Park Chul Soo Films, distributed by Mirovision¹
Cast	Suh Jung (Mun-hee), Sim Ji-ho (Hyeon), Oh Yun-hong (Su-jin), Kim Hye-ok (Hyeon's mother)⁶
Premise	A divorcee caught having an affair with a high school student receives 100 hours of community service; after release the pair resume the relationship²
Rating	청소년 관람불가 (18+, no minors admitted)¹
Festival showings	Sundance 2005 drama competition and Berlin Panorama section, among others⁷
Domestic admissions	About 11,022 (Cine21 records 11,178)³^•⁸

Spoilers

Story and structure

Mun-hee is arrested for having sex with a minor, since at 19 Hyeon is one year below the age of majority, which was not the age of sexual consent, then set at 13, and is sentenced to 100 hours of community service.⁴^•¹³ On her release she finds Hyeon among the reporters, tells him to go home, and he refuses; after a long argument they agree to stay together for a while, tying up a reporter, and check into a love motel where after five days in bed Mun-hee begins to doubt the relationship but finds it hard to end.¹^•² The Korean press framed their liaison as "reverse compensated dating" (역 원조교제), and their bond is pushed into a social issue rather than a private love.³

The film's first half shows the couple repeating the same round of sex and meals in the motel and at the home of Mun-hee's friend Su-jin, shot bluntly without varied angles, artificial sweat, or faked moans.⁷ In the second half it leaves realism behind: the climax stages an imaginary dinner for Hyeon's coming-of-age party, attended by Mun-hee's ex-husband, Hyeon's parents, a detective, a journalist, and other characters who judge the couple's union while the film asks the audience whether they could throw stones at the lovers.⁷^•² South Korea's age of sexual consent at the time was 13,² but the party marks Hyeon's coming of age at 20 under East Asian age reckoning, not the sexual-consent threshold.¹³

The title

No green chair appears anywhere in the film.⁷ Pressed about it at the 2005 Los Angeles Korean Film Festival, Park Chul-soo said "Nothing in the film is related to green or chairs," and explained that when his producer called asking for a title he was sitting in a chair looking at greenery outside the window.⁴ Korean reviewers read meaning into the words anyway: one suggested that "green" stands for the passion of a woman and man indifferent to worldly prejudice, and "chair" for a space of rest free of outside scrutiny, while Park himself said green holds fantasy, the chair holds a complex, and "the green chair is inside my consciousness."⁷

Release and reception

The film's explicit content and strong artistic leanings made it a problem for its investor, which withheld release after completion in 2003; the Korean Film Archive's reviewer names the investor as Hapdong Film, which judged the film too bizarre for commercial potential and shelved it.²^•⁹ A year and a half later, interest from festivals such as Sundance and Berlin rescued it, and it screened on the international circuit in early 2005 before a domestic theatrical release in the summer.⁹^•² It was one of five Korean films invited to the 2005 Sundance festival alongside Woman Is the Future of Man, Oldboy, and others.¹⁰ It later opened the Los Angeles Korean Film Festival with Park in attendance.⁴

Domestic box office was small, on the order of 11,000 admissions, and Cine21's three critics scored it between 4 and 8 out of 10.³^•⁸ Suh Jung later said preview audiences laughed through the film, wondering whether it was a comedy.¹¹ The Korea Film Archive's English-language profile calls it the most important film of Park's latter career, noting that Suh's provocative role recalls Moon So-ri's in A Good Lawyer's Wife (2003) while going further, and that each successive bed scene draws the viewer closer to the couple's emotional and social predicament rather than serving as spectacle.²

Production details

Kim Jeon-han wrote the screenplay and also appears as a journalist.¹^•⁶ Cinematography is by Lee Eun-kil, lighting by Min Duk-gi and Kang Kwang-ho, editing by Oh Young-hwan, and the music is credited to Baek Hyun-jin, listed in Korean sources with the EoEoBu Project (어어부 프로젝트) alongside Jang Young-gyu.⁸^•¹² Runtime is reported inconsistently across databases: 100 minutes (KOFIC), 98 minutes (Cine21), and 103 minutes on the 2005 Korean DVD.²^•³^•⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Erotic thrillers and dramas

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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