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Having slowly stepped into the spotlight in recent years, the Korean documentary scene has proven to be a versatile beast, not to mention one that has encountered significant commercial success at home (particularly the blockbuster performance of My Love, Don’t Cross That River) and critical acclaim abroad. With four feature-length credits under his belt, including a pair of major independent hits, director LEE Chang-jae can surely stake a claim to being on the front lines of Korea’s non-fiction movement.

 

Though not as well known on the festival circuit as Kelvin Kyung Kun PARK (A Dream of Iron, 2014) or PARK Chan-kyong (MANSHIN: Ten Thousand Spirits, 2013), LEE has demonstrated a keen sensibility that has tapped a nerve in modern Korean society. His body of work wheels in the hard lives of ordinary Koreans in their different walks of life, but his approach boasts a universality and a far warmer touch than some of his more socially-aggressive peers. Thankfully, unlike many of the documentaries produced by broadcasters in Korea, he achieves this without a hint of mawkishness. With a steady gaze and calm, thoughtful narration, seeking not to embellish with his balancing of precious moments with the mundane, he captures life as it is and as we know it.

 

 

 

 

Following his debut Edit (2003), which was screened at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), and his 2006 follow-up Between, invited to the Tallinn Black Nights and Thessaloniki International Film Festivals, LEE found his first major audience at home with On the Road (2012). On the heels of its Jeonju International Film Festival premiere, the female Buddhist monk narrative was seen by some 50,000 viewers, a huge tally for a non-fiction work in Korea. Contemplating the lives of women who decide to leave the material world and seek awakening in the buddhist faith, On the Road directs its lens towards trainee monks and their reasons for pursuing their new paths as well as their difficulties during their transition to the faith.

 

 

In 2014, LEE’s fourth film The Hospice screened at the Busan International Film Festival and shortly thereafter also proved a hit with audiences, reaching 40,000 spectators. A portrait of palliative care in Korea, LEE’s film exists in a world familiar to many Koreans who have suffered the trials of slowly losing a loved one. Though exploring the often bleak realities of terminal illness, The Hospice refrains from simply being a sobering affair as it finds hope for its protagonists, even as the door slowly inches to a close on their lives.

 

A filmmaker with a desire to dig into the heart of people’s lives and a delicacy to do so softly and effectively, LEE Chang-jae likely has many more engaging stories to share with us.

Both On the Road and The Hospice are available on the KOBIZ Online Screening service.