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- Trend-Catching and Trend-Setting Documentary Films
- by CHANG Yeongyeop / Oct 12, 2017
- Daring New Projects Capture Reality and Paint Bigger Pictures
“Welcome to one of the most exciting countries in the world today. Korea is the best place for producing documentaries: The reality here is stranger than the fictional worlds that writers dare conceive,” joked Director BYUN Young-joo during the 2016 Docs Port Incheon, Korea’s most renowned documentary film festival. In fact, quite a number of Korean film industries have made similar remarks during the past year, as a new state administration came into power following the unprecedented impeachment of former President PARK Geun-hye. Could there be a more interesting time and dynamic setting for documentaries than modern-day Korea? While narrative films in Korea struggled to outsmart this fantasy-like reality, documentary producers tried to capture the distorted social landscape as well as its forgotten values. They focused on the controversial, hot-button issues but their approach to those subjects seems rather private and covert—a noteworthy trend in the recent South Korean documentary field. In addition to capturing current events and issues with biting criticism, documentary filmmakers also experimented with form and perspectives. The first evident example of this trend is Director LEE Chang-jae’s OUR PRESIDENT, which attracted 1.85 million admissions—a blockbuster performance for indie films in Korea—after its release in May. This film depicts the miraculous victory of the late President ROH Moo-hyun during the primary election of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) after he had repeatedly failed to be elected as assemblyman and mayor. He began the race with the lowest rating at two percent but managed to become a presidential candidate against all odds. The director details this story like a heroic epic. Tearjerker interviews are inserted here and there throughout the film (including one by incumbent President Moon Jae-in), which testify to how humane the late president was. In other words, the film stimulates people’s aspiration for politics espousing reconciliation and compassion. The film spotlights these old values that are lacking in Korean society and this attempt succeeding in creating a breakthrough that allowed a Korean documentary to be widely consumed by the general public. This tells why this documentary deserves our attention.
Contrary to OUR PRESIDENT, which paid attention to the near-mythical success of a politician, Mis-President directed by KIM Jae-hwan presents how a prominent political family can be idolized. It was praised as being “the most controversial documentary of 2017” when it premiered at the Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF) in April. The film closely examines the lives of the followers of the former impeached President PARK Geun-hye and dives deeper to figure out why she and her late father, former President PARK Chung-hee, have been virtually worshipped by the older generation. The director sheds light on a group called ‘Parksamo,’ a Korean abbreviation for a group who loves President PARK Geun-hye. Members of this group enshrine every word from her and her father as if practicing ancient rituals. One farmer dresses up neatly every morning to bow to a picture of PARK Chung-hee. Another ardent fan carries a photo of PARK and his wife YUK Young-su in his wallet. “During the time of PARK Chung-hee’s leadership, these people were young and influential and they do not want to see those days fade away and become meaningless,” explained the director. The success of the two documentaries demonstrates how politics is an inspiring subject matter for Korean documentary filmmakers. Koreans’ aspiration for social change has resulted in a nostalgic craving for their ‘heydays’ and these names of the past. OUR PRESIDENT and Mis-President are biting trend-catchers in this regard.
Some filmmakers investigate the paradoxes and taboos that exist in Korean society from the perspective of the younger generation. A prime example is Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno by JUNG Yoon-suk which has traveled widely across the world, from the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Marseille International Festival of Documentary Film to the BFI London Film Festival and the New York Asian Film Festival, among others.The film spotlights the namesake punk band Bamseon Pirates (JANG Sung-kun and KWON Yong-man), which sings satirical criticisms on various social issues including the life of irregular workers, youth unemployment, and the establishment of a naval base on Jeju Island. The latter half of the film focuses on how band manager PARK Jung-guen is arrested for violation of the National Security Law after lampooning North Korea on his social network page. “What has happened to freedom of expression?” the film seems to ask.
Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno ’s unique format also sets it apart from others. From time to time, the director covers the screen with red letters in a tacky font against the background of the band’s daring, albeit noisy, rhythm. These eye-catching, ruddy words not only serve as a kind interpreter for the band’s almost inaudible lyrics but are also used as a mirror that reflects the band’s trajectory for self-criticism. The movie is a music documentary in nature, but it is all about ‘language’ in the end. Numerous ‘words’ hovering around the screen, including the band’s provocative comments to the audience before the performance and the red letters like those often used in North Korean TV programs, manifest the changing attitude of the younger generation who seek to surmount the taboos in Korean society with the power of language. The so-called ‘386 Generation (those who were born in the 1960s, spent their college years in the 1980s, and were in their 30s during the 1990s)’ often stigmatizes today's youths as being politically indifferent and socially lethargic, and this stereotype is overturned in this rebellious and provocative film.
It also successfully offers a new perspective on how today’s Korean youths perceive society. PARK Moon-chil’s Blue Butterfly Effect, which competed at the Jeonju International Film Festival, heralds the return of investigative journalism-style documentaries that move swiftly to cover ongoing issues. In July 2016, the Ministry of National Defense announced plans to deploy a U.S. missile defense system, THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), and citizens consecutively carry out a string of peaceful protests. The subjects of this documentary are particularly interesting, as they are ordinary mothers living in Seongju, where THAAD is to be deployed. They initiate an “enlightenment movement” to call the villagers together and spread the latest information, in an effort to secure a safe environment for their children. Mothers are usually not associated with protests, but their collective presence strongly resonates with viewers. Also, it suggests the new possibility of social networks. A total of 1,318 villagers talk about and share information on a group messenger application, and this evidences the possibilities of the new communication venue, a novel platform inside a smartphone.These four much-talked documentaries clearly suggest one thing: Korean society is craving for a change. Korean documentaries once preferred to sketch a life of an individual or a given topic at the microscopic level in the past, but they are working hard to draw a bigger picture of their subject matters.
In this respect, it is also worth mentioning Dancing with Jikji, co-directed by WOO Kwang-hoon and Canadian filmmaker David Redman and executive-produced by esteemed Korean filmmaker Chung Ji-young (Unbowed-2012, National Security-2012 ). In the film, Redman comes across the world’s oldest book printed with movable metal type, Jikji, during his sojourn in France as a student. He then travels across five European countries to track down traces of this old metal type technology. The story may have sounded banal if it had been narrated from a Korean’s perspective, but it is actually quite intriguing as it is told by an outsider. The two directors, moreover, opt to film the piece like a road movie that makes historical questions personally engaging. Powered by impressively meticulous interviews, the film challenges the widely held belief that Johannes Gutenberg independently invented the movable-type printing technology. But the film quickly distances itself from making “Whig historian” conclusions and asks more personal, yet universal, questions about the journey.Their determined attitude shows that social injustices or questionable notions of history will not be overlooked or intentionally ignored anymore. Nonetheless, these five films tell the stories before the inauguration of a new administration, which undoubtedly sets the stage for more questions and issues worth documenting. One thing that remains clear. For some time, documentary filmmakers won’t be able to find a more exciting country than Korea to find inspiration for their work.
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