The Varied Colors of Korean Women Directors

NEWS & REPORTS
Feature

Feature

NEWS & REPORTS

The Varied Colors of Korean Women Directors

Jul 10, 2018

Writerby Pierce Conran
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Overdue Opportunities for Underrepresented Voices

Every year, only a handful of women directors get a chance to make and release a commercial film and even fewer are lucky enough to experience success, yet as we find ourselves just over the halfway point of 2018, a pair of women directors sit within the year’s top ten performing local titles, with E.oni’s The Accidental Detective 2: In Action at number three and YIM Soon-rye’s Little Forest at number eight.

With any luck such a state of affairs won’t be considered unusual in the near future and below we’ve compiled a few names that are currently bucking the system or threatening to do so in the near future, both in the commercial and indie realms.

E.oni (MISSING, The Accidental Detective 2: In Action)

As one of the most successful and active women directors in Korea, E.oni made her debut with the well-regarded melodrama ...ing in 2003. After 2007’s Love Exposure, she didn’t return to the director’s chair until 2016 with the thriller MISSING. The film combines UHM Ji-won and KONG Hyo-jin as a career-driven divorced mother and her nanny. One day the child and nanny disappear and the mother desperately tries to find her. During her search, she uncovers mysteries about her babysitter. Released towards the end of the year, MISSING became the most successful film directed by a woman in 2016, with 1.15 million admissions.

Following quickly on that success’ heels, E.oni signed on to direct the sequel to Chuseok hit THE ACCIDENTAL DETECTIVE (2015). Reuniting KWON Sang-woo and SUNG Dong-il, as the amateur cold case investigator and the grizzled detective he partners with, The Accidental Detective 2: In Action opted for a different release window, which proved to be a fortuitous decision as the sequel soared past the original’s total. Guided by E.oni’s keen commercial sense and swiftly staged set pieces, the film has, as of this writing, accrued 3.06 million viewers, making it only the third film to soar past the three million viewers mark this year, following the drama Keys to the Heart and LEE Hae-young’s Believer, not to mention the second most successful film directed by a woman of all time.

YIM Soon-rye (Forever the Moment, Little Forest)

Of course, the title of the most successful Korean film directed by a woman remains with veteran filmmaker YIM Soon-rye, who has been continually active within the industry since drawing critical acclaim with her debut Three Friends in 1996. Her commercial peak came in 2008 with the release of the handball drama Forever the Moment, featuring MOON So-ri, which scored with audiences to the tune of 4.02 million admissions.

Director YIM returned to theaters with her ninth feature earlier this year. Released in February, Little Forest is an adaptation of the Japanese manga of the same name, penned by IGARASHI Daisuke, which earlier served as the source for a two-part Japanese film adaptation. KIM Tae-ri, the breakout star of PARK Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (2016), features as a student who escapes city life and returns to the countryside, where she resides alone in her mother’s home, tending to the land as she grows and cooks her own food. Offering an escape to youth viewers caught up in their busy lives, the film struck a chord with viewers and wound up with 1.51 million admissions.

YIM’s next project may be a period biopic about painter LEE Jung-seob, which was revealed to be in development by production company Mirovision during the Cannes Film Market in 2016.

MOON So-ri (The Running Actress)

One of the most acclaimed and well-known actresses in Korea, MOON So-ri scarcely needs an introduction. Star of the indie works of Hong Sangsoo (In Another Country, 2012) and LEE Chang-dong (Oasis, 2002) and an array of prestige commercial titles such as IM Sang-soo’s A Good Lawyer’s Wife (2003) and PARK Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (2016), she has covered all the ground there is to cover as an actress in the Korean market. Over the last few years she’s turned her attention to directing and in 2017 she unveiled her first feature work, The Running Actress.

A collection of her three short films to date, The Running Actress features MOON playing herself, which is to say a famous actress dealing with middle-age crisis and a change in the opportunities that are coming her way. Self-deprecating, sharply scripted and deftly staged, MOON’s acquits herself as adeptly behind the camera as she does in front. Earlier this year, MOON visited the Udine Far East Film Festival where she presented her film to a packed theater audience.

JEONG Ga-young (Bitch on the Beach, Hit the Night)

Already being touted as the female equivalent of Hong Sangsoo, young cineaste JEONG Ga-young debuted to local acclaim with her frank and surprising debut Bitch on the Beach (2016), which had a low-key premiere at the Seoul Independent Film Festival in 2016. Just under a year later, her star was given a bigger chance to shine when her follow-up work, the disarming drama Hit the Night (2017), debuted at the Busan International Film Festival in 2017.

Just as she did in her debut, JEONG takes on the main role, playing a woman who meets a young man in order to interview him as research for a script she is writing. However, her intentions may be amorous as well as professional. Hit the Night was an immediate hit, earning the Actor of the Year Award and Vision-Director’s Award at BIFF. The film is currently enjoying success on the global festival circuit, having screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Taipei Film Festival and the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) among others.

JEON Go-woon (Microhabitat)

Member of the KwangHwaMoon Cinema, a collective of young filmmakers who have taken turns working in different capacities on each others’ feature-length films, JEON Go-woon made her debut in the director’s chair with the sterling indie drama Microhabitat, which was first unveiled at the Busan International Film Festival. E Som of YIM Pil-sung’s Scarlet Innocence (2014) plays a young housekeeper who lives with a strict daily budget. However, when the price of cigarettes doubles overnight following the enactment of a new government regulation, she is forced to choose between her cheap accommodation and her daily vices, which include a glass of fine whiskey. She chooses the later and becomes a vagabond, drifting across the couches of her former college band mates.

With a distinct visual flair, sharp script and several strong performances, Microhabitat has quickly drawn a spotlight on JEON, with many hoping to see her make the move to the commercial arena. The film has so far screened overseas at the Göteborg International Film Festival and New York Asian Film Festival, among others, while it will screen at the Fantasia International Film Festival this month.

Future Voices

Adding to this mix of old hands and new voices are fresh ranks of filmmakers ready to make their mark on the Korean film industry. Two of them hail from last year’s smash hit A Taxi Driver (2017), as both UHM Yoo-na and CHO Seul-ye, who are working on their debuts, had a hand in crafting the political drama’s script.

SHIN Min-a will play a professional diver in CHO’s Diva, which begins production soon, while production is currently underway on Mal-mo-i (Korean title) with YOO Hae-jin and YOON Kye-sang, a period drama about the creation of Korea’s first dictionary.

Meanwhile, films in post-production include Yeongju (Korean title), a thriller featuring KIM Hyang-gi by CHA Sung-duk, who was a scripter on LEE Kyoung-mi’s The Truth Beneath (2016), and House of Hummingbird, the feature debut of short filmmaker KIM Bo-ra which takes place against the backdrop of the Seongsu Bridge Collapse of 1994.

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