In the late 1980s, at a time when Korean filmmakers prized realism above all else, one new director dared to buck the trend with his debut, a cinematic fever dream that wore its influences on its sleeve and showed that fantasy could elevate social realism. That film was the eclectic Gagman (1989) and its director LEE Myung-se, who would become known as Korea’s foremost stylist for works such as Nowhere To Hide (1999) and The Duelist (2005).

Lee Jong-sae (AHN Sung-ki) is a comedian working in a crummy nightclub who dreams of becoming a film director. He shares this dream with his friend and barber Do-suk (BAE Chang-ho), whom he convinces to sell his shop to finance a project, in exchange for playing the lead role. Also in the picture is Sun-young (HWANG Shin-hye), a young woman Jong-sae meets by chance when she uses him in a cinema to get away from some thugs. Together, the trio embark on an amateur crime spree to raise the funds they need to make it in the movie business.

With its breathless energy and surreal touches, Gagman was unlike anything that had come before it in the industry. Of course, compared to LEE’s later stylized masterpiece his debut was the product of a limited budget and rushed production. LEE got his chance at bat after serving as an assistant director on half a dozen films by BAE Chang-ho (he also co-wrote 1987’s Our Joyful Young Days). After LEE failed to acquire funding for what he hoped would be his debut, BAE encouraged him to write one more script. That script would become Gagman and the young LEE cast BAE in the role of Do-suk, which earned the hit director many notices as a scene-stealer. The film was shot in just 21 days during the month of July, 1988 and employed many borrowed props (often from earlier BAE films such as The Flower on the Equator) and many cheap or free locations, such as the comic book store that LEE was a regular costumer at.

Owing to the strong relationships he had cultivated with top actors during his years working as an assistant director, director LEE was able to attract major performers for his debut, including the top leading man of the era, AHN Sung-ki. Already a versatile performer, AHN shot Gagman shortly after PARK Kwang-su’s seminal Korean New Wave film Chil-Su And Man-Su (1988) and JANG Sun-woo’s wicked corporate world satire The Age of Success (1988). But with his Chaplinesque moustache and slapstick movements, Jong-sae was a character the likes of which had not yet been seen in Korea.

It is also fitting that the young stylist debuted with one of the top cinematographers of the era, YOU Young-gill. Known as a master of earthy and lyrical colors and framing, YOU combined his experience with realist dramas with LEE’s post-modern inclinations. The pair would continue to work together through much of the 1990s and YOU became known for working with important debut directors, such as on his final works, LEE Chang-dong’s Green Fish (1997) and HUR Jin-ho’s Christmas in August (1998).