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I am More is a musical documentary that reveals the life and love of More, a drag artist, on a full-color screen. Against the backdrop of popular songs embroidered in the 1980s and 1990s and folk music by Lee Lang, More talks, dances, and plays her life on the stage of a historic theater in New York, in the middle of Seoul Plaza, on a rural road in Muan, South Jeolla Province, where she was born and raised. I am More is Director Lee Ilha's 3rd feature documentary following A Crybaby Boxing Club and Counters, who studied and produced documentaries in Japan. After being introduced at the DMZ International Documentary Film Festival and screened at the Busan International Film Festival and the Seoul Independent Film Festival, the film is released to meet the audience.

- After ending your life in Japan continued from 2000, you finally settled in Korea in 2018. How were the past 4 years in Korea? 

= I worked hard on making films during that time. I made I am More, and now I'm working on something else. As I lived in Japan for a long time, I could feel differences in ideas and thoughts in Korea. For example, I felt it strongly on the road. I usually ride a motorcycle when I'm not working, but it's too hard to ride it in Korea. (Laughs) There are some things I can adapt to easily, while some things are hard to adapt for me.

- It is said that you saw 'More' for the first time in a photo of photographer Shimazaki Rodi in the previous film Counters. The picture showed More with her legs spreading out in the dressing room of a club in Tokyo, Japan, and what kind of impression did you get from it? 

= It was intense. The picture seemed to be a statement to the world. I wasn't unfamiliar with drag artists themselves. In the Japanese entertainment industry, drag artists are active, and I have LGBTQ friends.

- How did you feel when you met More in person?

= I didn't feel anything intense when I met and talked with her for the first time. Rather, I could feel her different charm. I thought the photography was like a statement, but I felt More was more of a beauty seeker. The first driving force behind the film is 'beauty'. I developed the story while interviewing and talking, and in the process, I was able to know a little more about More.

- The film features a variety of Korean urban and rural landscapes, including Seoul Plaza, subways, rice fields, the sea in Muan, South Jeolla Province, etc. What kind of scenery did you want to capture?

= I was most mindful of the beauty that comes from the sense of difference. It's the heterogeneity between places and More. I wanted to capture the places somehow typical Korean and rustic, but very colorful at the same time, and the spaces where our daily lives are reflected. I imagined unique pictures would come out if something foreign was attached to those landscapes. The best example is a marketplace. As I lived abroad for a long time, the traditional marketplace in Korea gave me strange and mysterious feelings. It felt like a place that used to be lively, but now it's faded. I think I looked for such places a lot. Gwanghwamun Square was chosen because of the symbol the place has. Even a place like a temple gives different feelings from the ordinary ones we usually visit.

The film started based on the concept of a 'musical documentary' from the beginning. As a joke, I set the genre of it as a 'soft fantasy musical documentary' because I was working on it, thinking it could be a fantasy film. In addition, I took a strategy that music and dance should lead the movie from the front. I thought the film had to show the physical beauty of More, and that should be the ground that could establish this film. Thinking it would be better to show the performances than deliver messages through lines, I put dance and music forward.

- It is said that you also wanted to capture the 4 seasons in Korea in the film.

= There is a tremendous beauty that nature gives. It is an irresistible beauty. More suffered a lot to capture such natural beauty. For example, one day, it snowed in the morning, so we prepared for the shoot, but the snow stopped in the afternoon, and then we had to withdraw. But luckily, I was able to film all the scenes I wanted, including the snow scenes.

- Following your previous films, the demonstration scenes appear in I am More, too. If the scene in Counters is a fierce site full of physical fights, the demonstration vibe in I am More is a bit different. Amid protests against the Queer Parade and the Queer Culture Festival in one place, music from the 1980s and More's dance are added to the scenes, making them rather witty.

= Yes, that's the exact vibe I wanted to express. However, the Gwanghwamun Square scene is very sad in a way. The scene is supposed to be very sad, but the song is also cheerful, and the weather is bright, which makes us just laugh. It is up to the individual audience how to feel the scene. In terms of its symbolism, I couldn't miss Gwanghwamun Square, where all political issues in Korea collide.

- Tell us about the narration. It sounds like the narrator is reading lines for a play. 

= I brought the feeling of More's reading performance, Ali Baba and 30 Friends of Friends (working title)(2019). I actually thought of several versions for that. I thought about the film Sympathy for Lady Vengeance version or how it would be if a man with a thick voice narrated it. But I liked the original one the best. I wanted a sense of difference and a vibe somewhat weird and snobbish. I thought such an image would suit the film best. Most of the narration was written by More because it was her own story. Although the film doesn't have a lot of narrations, I thought More's words would be the most effective to narrate between sequences.

- What did you have in mind the most during the editing process, compressing the filming for about 3 years into 81 minutes of the film? 

= My motto is 'to make a fun film.' This is what I mean by 'fun' in my films. Movies have entertaining elements and charms that appeal to emotions. I think the cinematic 'fun' for the audience is to feel such elements and charms in the theater and leave the theater after purifying their minds. Rather than analyzing movies and setting difficult standards, just having fun itself really matters to me. I always make films for it. Rather than delivering a serious message through the film, I just wanted to make a movie the audience could have fun with for 2 hours while watching it.

- How did you choose the music used in the film? 

= First of all, I chose pop songs that could be familiar to young people like the MZ generation, but they didn't know exactly where they heard them. In a word, a bit old-fashioned but very popular songs. The songs such as 'Oh! Korea!,' 'Dam-Da-Di,' 'Tuning,' and 'The Year 2000' played a functional role in the film, and I took lots of motifs from the lyrics of Lee Lang's songs. They seem alien to More but make great harmony at the same time. So, I mainly chose such songs. We also made some rocking songs for the opening and ending of the film.

- Tell us why you chose the music in the 1980s. 

= The word 'tacky’ or 'old-fashioned' doesn't match the music perfectly, but there's that kind of feeling in the music. However, it's not 'newtro' music, either. I chose songs that seem rustic but fancy at the same time. And I'm used to the songs, too. In particular, 'Oh! Korea!' is a song that sarcastically criticizes Korean society that they sang 'splendid.'

- Tell us about the dance sequence directing. How much weight did you want to put on the dance scene? 

= I didn't plan the percentage of dancing scenes. From the beginning, I thought music and dance should hard carry the film all the time. So I thought it would be nice if music and dance came out in the middle of the story. Since the story and the music are not separated but one, I didn't think about dividing the weight of them. Particularly, I think Lee Lang's music has been melted in the story.

- In some close-up shots, More makes eye contact with the camera herself. 

= It wasn't a difficult choice. This film is all about dancing, showing body movements, facial expressions, gestures, listening to music, and pursuing what you can feel through the experience rather than explaining its story in words. When I first decided on the concept, I thought this film could be a 'statement toward our society.' So to speak, I've dragged the Drag Queen underground into our society. I wanted them to have fun in the bright society. That's why I think More was trying to say, 'This is what I feel' while staring at the audience.

- One of the most representative scenes mentioned above is the scene where More lip-syncs to 'Tuning' sung by Han Youngae. The animation using traditional Korean patterns meets More's acting and it seems to overwhelm the audience. 

= That was the concept I talked about while having a meeting with the animator. The lyrics of 'Tuning' is about telling God our situation in the world and asking Him to tune us. I asked the animator to express from the growth of all things on earth to our prayers for entering heaven. As a reference, I gave the animator the scenes where plants grow and animals play around. I also said the scenes should be very impactful.

- At the press conference, you said, 'A stylish film has never died.' What does a 'stylish film' mean to you?

= The film is a genre that you see with your eyes on a huge screen. Nevertheless, there seems to be a point where films are too reliant on narratives. There were times when styles were in the spotlight in the film industry, but now they seem to be disregarded, and even some people say styles in films have died. However, I always try to find a new style. It was also a new style for me to combine the documentary with the musical style, too. Since we haven't had a musical documentary in Korea, I decided to make one through the film. Frankly, I didn't have the concept of a musical documentary in my heart when I started filming it. After meeting More, I thought about how to make a film and how to develop the story and decided to do it in a musical documentary style.

- What kind of film are you working on now? 

= I'm filming a story about young Korean politicians now. It's called Youth Political White Paper (working title). and the story is about a far-left young politician and a far-right young politician, who are entering politics. We're at the final stage of shooting it now. I think I can shoot the next film in Japan. Although I live in Korea, I can film my work anywhere in the world.