NO REGRET

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DATABASE

NO REGRET

Jul 02, 2019

Writer by Pierce Conran
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2006 | 114 MIN | Drama, Romance

DIRECTOR LEESONG Hee-il

CAST LEE Yeong-hoon, KIM Nam-gil, KIM Dong-wook

RELEASE DATE November 16, 2006

CONTACT Fortissimo Films

Tel +31 20 627 32 15

Fax +31 20 626 11 55

Email info@fortissimo-hk.com

Queer themes have steadily but surely become part of the fabric of contemporary Korean cinema, but though there is still a long road ahead, it wasn’t all that long ago that homosexuals characters were virtually absent from the screen in the country. To this day perhaps the most important queer work to emerge was LEESONG Hee-il’s feature film debut No Regret, a dark indie romance that became a sensational low-budget hit in early 2006, drawing in excess of 40,000 viewers, an enormous figure for an independent film in the mid-2000s, not least one featuring pronounced queer themes.

LEE Soo-min is an orphan who has grown into a young man with a chip on his shoulders who work two jobs, as a designated driver and factory workers, in order to eke out a living and eventually send himself to school. Late one night, one of his fares hits on him but he rebukes the handsome, well-to-do man. Shortly after he is played off from his job but a chance visit by the same young man, who happens to be the factory owner’s son, saves him from the chop. However, too proud to accept the help, Soo-min quits anyway and strikes out on his own, eventually landing a job as a male escort in a gay gentleman’s club. Here he commits himself to his work to pursue his dream, but the young man he keeps rebuffing finds him once more.

Not only was No Regret directed by LEESONG Hee-il, who has remained one of the biggest names in queer cinema in Asia, it was also produced by KIMJHO Gwang-soo, another director and influential queer figure who became the first Korean celebrity to stage a gay marriage in Korea.

LEESONG’s debut is a tight character study filled with memorable and tender moments and great performances. An extremely rare example of queer cinema when it was released, the film is bold and frank in its depiction of homosexuality, opting not to hold with its on-screen sexuality. It also features several local queer codes, such as when Soo-min leaves his factory job and looks for new employment. The establishing shot of the neighborhood he visits in the new scene is a low angle view of the Jongno Tower in the heart of Seoul, as clear indication to those in the know that he is about to visit the old Jongno 3-ga area, a small safe haven for gay men in an old district of Seoul.

The film features KIM Nam-gil’s first major role in a film, helping to launch him as the star of The Pirates (2014), Pandora (2016) and MEMOIR OF A MURDERER (2017) he would soon become. It also includes an early appearance of KIM Dong-wook, as a new rookie worker at the male escort bar, who later appeared in both of the Along with the Gods box office smashes.

Several months after its release in Korea, No Regret was invited to the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007. This began a relationship with LEESONG and the Berlinale, as two of his critically acclaimed follow-ups, White Night (2012) and Night Flight (2014), both screened at the prestigious German fest.

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