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Photo ⓒCine21

 

 

Hard enough? I guess every low-budget, small and independent film is hard to make, and Lebanon Emotion was probably among the hardest. We worked on minimum scale, with one camera and one recorder. I had like seven crews at most, only four of them working during the 15 days out of 22 days of shooting. So it was hard enough for all of us: It’s not exactly that I have a cheerful personality while shooting, nor was the film cheerful but depressing. And the weather was freezing cold! Actors, who had to wander around the winter mountain even in their light clothing, joked with each other when seeing me on the film site in the morning, saying like, “I saw the devil!” They also did the make-up themselves, of course, while I did the special make-up. I had a little experience in it from the days when I worked as an assistant director and a prop man. But when you see the film on a big screen, the special make-up effects obviously looks like a fake. 

 

 

I came up with this film in a kind of strange way. Back in December 2011, I had this strong feeling that I must shoot a film, or I might not survive that winter. By then, I had been practically staying in bed at home for almost 2 years since my mother passed away in May, 2010. I got married later that very year, but still spent most of my time in bed, cut off from the outside world. My mother’s unexpected death shattered all of us in the family and it was almost too much to bear. If I wasn’t going to make a film, I was to spend most of the winter by myself, and that was something I couldn’t take any more. So I told my wife that I needed to make a film to survive that winter. We were expecting a baby, which also motivated me to make my debut feature. Then I just told my friends, actors and crews who had been working with me constantly, that I’d like to shoot a film from next month. And I didn’t have even a script ready, not to mention, a secured budget for the film! I wrote about 10 pages long synopsis in one month and just started to shoot the film from January.

 

 

For quite a long time, I have questioned myself; why did it happen to me? How can I live with it? What is this feeling I have? That’s when I heard about CHOI’s poem from KIM Joong-hyeon, who directed Choked and had been my classmate from the 26th class of Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA). Yes, we’re from the ‘hidden’ class of KAFA, right behind the 25th class which turned out directors like JO Sung-hee (A Werewolf Boy) and YOON Sung-hyun (Bleak Night). Anyway, we were having a drink and whining on this and that, when Joong-hyeon suddenly said, “We should call it ‘Lebanon Emotion’.” I asked him what on earth it meant and he showed me the poem of the same title on the spot, which I absolutely loved. It sounded perfect to describe questions without answers or stream of emotion which cannot be defined clearly in our lives. The poem came to my mind later again when I was trying to choose a title for my film before shooting, so I met the poet about a year and half ago to ask her permission to use it. She was excited to hear that her poem had become an inspiration for a film and readily gave me the permission. We still meet each other from time to time and she did like the film. It would have been great if I could return her favor somehow, maybe with a little more success of the film.

 

 

I guess I was lucky this time in Moscow. At first, Lebanon Emotion wasn’t exactly a film festival’s favorite in Korea. The film didn’t make into any festival until this year’s Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF). The saddest thing for a director would be to have no opportunity to meet the audience. It is still difficult to secure screens for an independent, low-budget film like Lebanon Emotion. The film is now being occasionally screened at small art houses, but will not get more than some 20 screens maybe for a week or so even it gets released. By a little more success, I meant to have more opportunities to meet the audience and show the film, and hopefully, to give some credit to the poem in return as well. But I do feel lucky, having my film screened at JIFF and winning an award in Moscow. I don’t have a distributor for this film yet, don’t know whether it can be released at all, but do sense a little more hope now. I have made a contract with a production company for my next film after Moscow. It seems Lebanon Emotion helped me to face my wound to heal, not to mention, to gain back my confidence in filmmaking.