"Heartbreak manifests itself as a vengeful fungus in The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra. Syeyoung Park’s imaginative debut feature blends the body horror of early David Cronenberg with the witty eccentricity of Quentin Dupleux and adds its own flavours of melancholy and wistfulness." - Allan Hunter, Screen International
"Tonally and stylistically, the film is pitched somewhere between the bizarre and manic ickiness of Tetsuo: The Iron Man and the dreamy haziness of the cinema of Wong Kar-wai but even that intriguing analogy doesn't completely do justice to The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, a film which manages to deliver on the uncanny and uncertain promise of its title." - Pierce Conran, Screen Anarchy
"... it achieves something magical and illuminating." - Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film
The first feature from exciting new Korean filmmaker Park Syeyoung, The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra is an urban ghost story about the human encounters of an abandoned mattress and the strange mould growing on it. As the mattress is moved around Seoul and deteriorates, it becomes host to a mysterious creature who feasts on the vertebrae of its victims. Before his feature, Park Syeyoung was already known as a prolific maker of original short films, and in this programme we also present his first short Cashbag, a nocturnal tale of a young man on a desperate search for money.
