Co-Presented by the Hong Kong Arts Centre and Seoul Independent Film Festival
Encouraged by the welcoming response from audiences last year, the Hong Kong Arts Centre (HKAC) and the Seoul Independent Film Festival co-present a new edition of Women Direct. Korean Indies! – Korean Women Independent Film Series at the Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre from 24 June 2022 to 13 August 2022. The programme continues to bring you indie films by Korean women filmmakers!
The liberal and ambitious spirit of Korean film development has allowed its creators to explore a great variety of stories and styles, and women are taking the stage to express themselves with films that are more widely available on global film distribution and festival circuits, gaining recognition and enriching different cultures.
This year, the selection carries on with telling stories of Korean women of different generations and their life choices – overcoming misfortune and stigmas to bring about new discoveries, enlightenments and connections with the hope of addressing realities that do not only involve women, but everyone – such as women's changing priorities in their role, the phenomenon of holojok (the growing number of people who prefer to be left alone in one-person households), ageism, sexism, labour exploitation, historical tragedies, etc. Directors will attend after-screening talks to share their insights and experiences in filmmaking.
Connie Lam, Executive Director, Hong Kong Arts Centre, expressed, “South Korea has come to the forefront of cinema in the recent few years, and its film industry has set an example for how openness can encourage diverse and profound storytelling, while women filmmakers continue to garner attention at festivals around the world. This year, we are honoured to present another series of the latest independent films by emerging Korean women filmmakers, to provide a deeper look into how stories of different communities and individuals are brought onto the big screen.”
Women Direct. Korean Indies! – Korean Women Independent Film Series
Ten Months 십개월의 미래
24/6 (Fri) 7:45pm
Director: Sun Nam-koong
Nominated for Uncaged Award for Best Feature Film, New York Asian Film Festival 2021
Nominated for Ka'u Ka Hoku Filmmaker Award, Hawaii International Film Festival 2021
Seoul International Women's Film Festival 2021
Jeonju International Film Festival 2020
Cast: Choi Sung-uen, Seo Yeong-ju, Eden Yoo
South Korea | 2020 | 92' | In Korean with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
Expect the unexpected
Mirae is a mid-career game engineer pushing thirty, and has just quit her corporate job to be part of an ambitious start-up. She is full of hope for the future – until one day, her hangover turns out to be pregnancy, and she is shocked as the timing of her last sexual activity does not correspond. Abortion is illegal in South Korea; pre-marital pregnancy is taboo; her boyfriend proposes to her; her parents urge her to get married… all the odds are against her – she does not want a baby and wants to move overseas for a major work project. What is Mirae going to do?
When Sun Nam-koong was pregnant in 2015, she wanted to explore the common concept of motherhood and started writing her debut light comedy feature. That was before the #MeToo movement and the decriminalisation of abortion in South Korea in 2021. Sun has directed several short films that were popular with audiences and won awards.
Ghost Walk 밤의 문이 열린다
26/6 (Sun) 3:00pm
Director: Yu Eun-jeong
Nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Buil Film Awards 2020
Seoul International Women's Film Festival 2021
Seoul Independent Film Festival 2018
Cast: Han Hae-in, Jeon So-nee, Gam So-hyun
South Korea | 2018 | 90' | In Korean with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
What does it mean to live?
Hye-jeong is a factory worker living on the outskirt. She leads a solitary life and shuts people out. Once in the dead of the night, a little girl approaches her for help. Frightened by the mysterious encounter, she ignores her, but the girl keeps appearing near her doorstep. Later, Hye-jeong finds out that she has herself become a ghost after a case of murder that she does not recall. She goes back in time, and catches glimpses of scars and sorrows of her neighbours – from difficulties at home and with finances, realising that their deaths are closely related. Although she has become a ghost, she understands more.
This film asks about the meaning of life – the deep fears of people who face day-to-day problems which might be ordinary but overwhelming. Director Yu Eun-jeong's debut feature has been described as “promising” by various critics. She has sensitively and intimately delineated these portraits of souls that are living in our time – who are isolated, forgotten and disappearing silently. Her shorts entered various film festivals.
Home Away From Home 집에서, 집으로
26/6 (Sun) 7:45pm
Director: Jee Hye-won
Seoul Independent Film Festival 2021
South Korea | 2021 | 95' | In Korean with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
Home is where the heart is
A 70-year history of overseas adoption of orphaned Korean children has scarred and stigmatised Korea and its many people. For the first time in 43 years, Anna, whose Korean name is Kim Myong-hee, recalls her memory as an adoptee who was sent to rural America when she was 14. Her past could have been traumatising and debilitating for most, but Anna is strong-willed and motivated. She returns to Deokjeok Island, a remote island in South Korea, to her earlier foster parents, Suh Jae-song and In Hyun-ae, who raised her like their own daughter. Together with a Catholic priest, Suh and In sent around 1,600 children to the US for adoption, in the hope that they could have a bright future, although some of those were not as fortunate as the others.
This deeply moving work marks the third documentary feature of International Emmy Award nominee Jee Hye-won, whose oeuvre of many TV documentaries has won multiple awards.
Boundary: Flaming Feminist Action 바운더리
16/7 (Sat) 2:30pm
Director: Yun Ga-hyun
Best Korean Documentary Award, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival 2021
Spotlight, Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022
Seoul Independent Film Festival 2021
South Korea | 2021 | 107' | In Korean with English Subtitles | DCP | Colour
My existence is more important than your sexual desire
After the Gangnam Station femicide in 2016, director Yun Ga-hyun and her friends' activism switches its focus from labourers to women. These friends are Yun, an activist and politician; Kim Se-jung, a public labour attorney; and Mi-hyun, a women and gender studies scholar. They founded a feminist group, Flaming Feminist Action, to address women issues. Their attempts at breaking conventions to provoke people to think about patriarchy and misogyny include shaving their heads, freeing their body hair and nipples, and standing for political election. Four years on, this film is their video diary – passionate, dreadful and soggy – like an impressionable summer.
Yun's second documentary is serious feminist resistance. Peppered with humour and tenderness, it also shines with women camaraderie. The director's first feature documentary The Part-Time Workers' Union participated in various film festivals in South Korea.
Sister J 재춘언니
30/7 (Sat) 3:00pm
Director: Lee Soo-jung
Mecenat Award, Wide Angle – Documentary Competition, Busan International Film Festival 2020
SIFF Committee Award, Feature Competition, Seoul Independent Film Festival 2020
Gwangju Independent Film Festival 2020
Jecheon International Music & Film Festival 2021
South Korea | 2022 | 97' | In Korean with English subtitles | DCP | B&W/Colour
To be, or not to be
Affectionately called Sister J by the director, middle-aged Lim Jae-chun was laid off after having worked for a guitar factory for 30 years, then has been spending more than 10 years in a tent as a sit-in while struggling for reinstatement. Sister J is no longer the shy man he used to be, together with his fellow workers and other people who believe in their cause, Sister J acts in theatre, plays guitar, writes and sings to voice their protest. The director captures his transformation through creativity and labour activism.
Lee Soo-jung started her film career as an assistant director to Korean film master Im Kwon-taek. She became the first generation of independent filmmakers in the 1980s. Sister J is her fourth feature documentary and her previous works also entered multiple film festivals.
The Slug 태어나길 잘했어
12/8 (Fri) 7:45pm
Director: Choi Jin-young
Most Promising Talent Award, Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021
Nominated for Best Film, Grand Prix, Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021
Korean Cinema Today – Vision, Busan International Film Festival 2020
Seoul Independent Film Festival 2020
Fantasia International Film Festival (Canada) 2021
Cast: Kang Jin-ah, Park Hye-jin, Hong Sang-pyo
South Korea | 2020 | 99' | In Korean with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
Thinking back and forth
Thirty-something Chun-hee is neither comfortable in her own skin nor in her own house. Her parents have died after the IMF crisis when she was a teenager, which leaves her under the care of resentful relatives. She is also constantly embarrassed about her heavy sweat due to a medical condition. With a soft and empathetic nature, she gets on with life in a warm and accommodating manner. Until a day when she gets struck by lightning, her young self keeps appearing in flesh and bone, and they chat and live with each other. What do they want to tell each other?
Choi Jin-young's first feature has won critical acclaim. Lead actress Kang Jin-ah carries the character of Chun-hee with natural and versatile sensibility and grace. Choi's many short films also garnered success at many different festivals.
An Old Lady 69세
13/8 (Sat) 2:30 pm
Director: Lim Sun-ae
KNN Award, Busan International Film Festival 2019
Nominated for New Currents Award, Busan International Film Festival 2019
Future Lights, Taipei Film Festival 2020
Seoul Independent Film Festival 2019
Seoul International Women's Film Festival 2021
Cast: Ye Soo-jung, Ki Joo-bong, Kim Tae-hun
South Korea | 2020 | 99' | In Korean with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
A woman is never an old woman
Quiet and reserved 69-year-old Hyo-jeong is raped by a 29-year-old male nurse aide during physical therapy. She has no family nor friends, and turns to her co-habitant Dong-in to confide the crime. The case is reported to the police but no one believes her. The aide later claims that it is consensual sex, shocking both Hyo-jeong and Dong-in. Since no one can help her, Hyo-jeong has taken matters into her own hands.
Welcomed by audiences and critically acclaimed, Lim Sun-ae's debut directorial feature about stereotypes and violence against women and the elderly is unusual and enigmatic. Her short films have screened at various festivals. She has also worked as a storyboard artist for several feature films.
Soup and Ideology 수프와 이데올로기
13/8 (Sat) 7:30pm
Director: Yang Yong-hi
White Goose Award, International Competition, DMZ International Documentary Film Festival 2021
Nominated for Best Documentary, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2021
Seoul Independent Film Festival 2021
Japan, South Korea | 2021 | 119' | In Korean with English subtitles | DCP | Colour
A secret that can be told
Following Yang Yong-hi's highly regarded and intriguing documentaries Dear Pyongyang and Sona, the Other Myself on her life as a Zainichi Korean (a long-term Korean resident of Japan who traces their roots to Korea under Japanese rule), Yang continues her story on her family and identity in this latest documentary. One day, Yang's mother told her about the experience of being involved in the Jeju Uprising against the division of Korea between1948 and 1949, which made her leave Korea for Japan. In 2018, 70 years after the massacre in Jeju, Yang and her Japanese fiancé took her Alzheimer's-ridden mother to Jeju Island.
Yang Yong-hi is an established director with multiple awards under her belt. The title Soup and Ideology refers to her belief that even if we have different values or ways of thinking, we should eat and live together without killing one another. She hopes her film can be a positive force for mutual understanding in differences.
Outline
Date: 24/6 – 13/8/2022
Venue: Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre (UB, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road, Wanchai)
Programme Enquiries: 2582 0282 (10:00 – 18:30 Monday to Friday)
Co-Presenters: Hong Kong Arts Centre and Seoul Independent Film Festival
Event Website: https://hkac.org.hk/calendar_detail/?u=IaTUZbNxlTQ
Tickets are available now on POPTICKET
