Announcement of Korean Competition Finalists

We would like to express our gratitude to all who submitted their works to the contest for the Korean Competition at the 23rd JEONJU International Film Festival.

This year, 9 films were selected for the Korean Competition, including 8 feature films and 1 documentary film. The films to be screened in "Korean Competition" at the 23rd JEONJU International Film Festival are as follows.

Korean Competition Selection (9 titles, in Korean alphabetical order)

1) Mother and daughter (KIM Jung-eun)｜ Korea｜2022｜118min ｜DCP｜Color

2) When I Sleep (CHOI Jungmoon)｜Korea｜2022｜116min｜DCP｜Color

3) The Hill of Secrets (LEE Ji-eun)｜Korea｜2022｜122min｜DCP｜Color

4) Archaeology of love (LEE Wanmin)｜ Korea, France｜2022｜168min｜DCP｜Color

5) Missing Yoon (KIM Jinhwa)｜Korea｜2021｜108min｜DCP｜Color

6) Saving a Dragonfly (HONG Daye)｜Korea｜2022｜85min｜DCP｜Color

7) Jeong-sun (JEONG Ji-hye)｜Korea｜2021｜105min｜DCP｜Color

8) Drown (LIM Sangsu)｜Korea｜2021｜101min｜DCP｜Color

9) Havana (HONG Yongho)｜Korea｜2022｜101min｜DCP｜Color

“Korean Competition” Review

The 23rd JEONJU International Film Festival received 124 films in the Korean Competition section. One of the most prominent trends in this year´s entries was the theme of the family. As the covid situation continues for a longtime, the critical eyes at the outside world seem to be shifting to the inner world of individuals such as family and love. Among the films dealing with family, the first film that caught my eye is LEE Ji-eun´s The Hill of Secrets. Set in the 1990s, the film´s main character, a girl, is ashamed of her parents, who sell salted fish in the market. Her parent´s presence becomes an even bigger hang-up for her when the girl gets recognized by winning an award in a writing contest at her school. As her repeated lies about her parents collide with her truthfulness, which should be the basis for her writing, she falls into deep trouble. Another family film, Kim KIM Jinhwa´s Missing Yoon, tells the story of a mother and daughter searching for YOON Sin-ae, a singer who suddenly disappeared. The mother is a singer who always thinks of YOON Shi-nae and whose job is to mimic her way to sing, and her daughter is an ‘‘attention seeker” who wants to get more views in social networks even by secretly filming close people. As they go through sorts of hardships to find the missing star, they realize once again that they are precious to each other.

The woman story is presented as a variant of the family story. KIM Jung-eun´s Mother and Daughter is presumed to be based on "Nth Room" case as a motif. The main characters are a daughter suffering from her personal video being leaked online and her mother. As the title suggests, this film focuses a little more on the mother than the daughter. As the mother understands her daughter´s experiences and feelings, she gradually realizes her true "position as a mother" and eventually rebuilds her family. JEONG Ji-hye´s Jeong-sun is similar to Mother and Daughter in that the film revolves around a video leak incident, but it is different from the latter in terms of the film composition and the situation of the main character. The main character, Jeong-sun, is a mother and middle-aged woman who works in a factory. Focusing on the facial expressions and gestures of Jeong-soon, who is a party to the case, rather than the family issues, the film intensely depicts a woman who has endured human disgrace and humiliation alone. CHOI Jungmoon´s When I Sleep tells the story of three women who accidentally run into trouble on the road. The relationship between three people who are friends or family centered on one woman turns out to be insignificant due to an accidental incident on the road, but in the end, it becomes the beginning of a true relationship between them.

LEE Wanmin´s Archaeology of Love is an unusual love story of a woman who tries to stick to her principles. In the film, the story of an archaeologist woman´s love affair with a man 8 years ago is interwoven with the story of her trying to start a new love while still not completely free from the love for the man. Like an archaeologist who understands the essence only by looking at the relics after many years have passed, she cannot really understand the ongoing love and people living in the present. HONG Yongho´s Havana is a legal thriller genre on the surface, but it contains a heartbreaking love story. It is, on the one hand, is a sober court drama dealing with a woman accused of brutally murdering her husband, a lawyer trying to prove her innocence and her husband´s family chasing after her inheritance, and on the other hand, a passionate melodrama centered on a man who helps the woman in secret.

Drown, directed by LIM Sangsu, is a psychological thriller film centered on a man, who runs a motel while caring for his elderly mother who has dementia. He experiences great psychological stress from his mother, who rings the bell to call him too often, and from the people outside the motel who despise him. This film unfolds a creepy story in a situation where it is difficult to tell whether it is the man´s illusion or what actually happened, leading those who see it into the huge allegory of “Paroho lake”.

This year, where the documentary films leave something to be desired in both quantity and quality compared to the previous ones, Saving a Dragonfly by HONG Daye is the most prominent work. Director Hong asks earnestly about the meaning of the university through the stories of herself and her friends in the film. In high school, she started filming on camera because she didn´t want to lose herself in the difficulties to prepare for college. But her worries persist even after going through the repeat examinees period and entering college. The film is made with a desperate desire to save herself and her friends, like a dragonfly drowning in the water.

This year´s entries have become more diverse in terms of subject than in previous years, and many films showed an attempt at the genre. But overall, it must be admitted that the quality of the films has gone down. Their approach to the subject matter became less serious, and quite a few films missed the point even on good subjects. The diversification and expansion of platforms such as OTT and Web-Series may also be related to this trend, but the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic is believed to be the biggest cause. The creative conditions have also deteriorated, and the situation that prevents creators from focusing on something must have had a negative impact on their creations. I hope that next year, the corona crisis will end, and we will be able to meet a greater number of controversial films. Lastly, there is one piece of hopeful news. The power of women directors continued to be strengthened, and this year, their number has grown noticeably. Of the nine films selected for the Korean competition, seven are directed by women. I sincerely hope that this trend that started in Jeonju will continue and that women directors will make a huge leap in the commercial film industry.

Programmer MOON Seok