Produced by Cinema DAL, “Corydoras” is a 2021 documentary film by Ryu Hyung-seok screening at the 2023 edition of the London Korea Film Festival. The story follows Park Dong-soo, a 40-year-old man with cerebral palsy who left his facility ten years ago to live independently.
Corydoras is screening at London Korean Film Festival
Abandoned by his family, Park Dong-soo has been living in care centers for people with a disability since he was nine years old. Wandering from one center to another, he gets through life by writing poetry. Once thirty, he left his life in care centers to find a rental apartment where he could live on his own. He compares himself to corydoras, a fish species known for clearing algae from the bottom of fish tanks. Dong-soo believes that the boundaries of his body imprison his spirit, and his activities are limited due to his disability, much like a fish stuck in a tank. After he buys some for his fish tank, he is curious about the purpose of his challenging life and starts dreaming about his former homes. This leads him to search for his poem's remnants, hence the places that inspired his writing and defined most of his life. He goes back to the institutions where he was raised and faces, once again, the traumatic experiences he had there.
Check also this interview
Re-visiting the places of his youth, hence the care centres, he relives moments of pure hell but, also, a few loving relationships with caretakers and friends from the said environments. He exposes harsh realities like mistreatment, regarding which he states he, along with other disabled people, has been treated “like a piece of meat”. But at the same time, he cherishes the experience of growth and sharing with friends from the past, who also used poetry as a way to cope with their condition. Although sad, at these tough social gatherings, he recalls these moments with positivity. He later shares with his disabled activity assistant: “I don't want to look down in front of people. So I always smile”. Dong-soo doesn't want to censor himself, but at the same time, he fears the idea of looking pitiful in front of others. All these feelings get out in the open, as neither the direction nor the people involved want to create a fabricated narrative.
During this reconciliation with the past, he also visits a pastor to talk about God's motives for creating those with disabilities. Through moments of reconciliation, prayers and grocery shopping, Park Dong-soo shows the audience the ups and downs of a life he wishes wasn't constrained by cerebral palsy. While doing so, he explains how poetry got him through life and tries to relive his passion as he intends to understand his purpose. The audience gets to know both the dark and dreamy side of the protagonist.
While narrating Dong-soo's experiences, the director explores different topics regarding not only disability but life itself. The search for beauty, the questioning of religion, lost love, and poetic escapism are just a few of the different subjects dear to Dong-soo and the documentary itself. “Corydoras” depicts simple moments that manage to share more than the daily activities of a disabled body: it tackles loneliness, longing, anguish and joy. This documentary works as a journey through the human soul where a person with a disability finds their life purpose.
Its storytelling is slow-paced and isn't accompanied by any music, but by the sound and noises of pure reality. The camera alternates between first-person perspectives, thanks to which one sees the world through Dong-soo's eyes, and close and still shots of his everyday life. What stands out most is the color work, as it guarantees an intimate and poetic depiction, totally in line with the narrating depth the documentary aims at. The rhythm is almost non-existent, but the directing makes up for it with beautiful and thoughtfully constructed photography as well as the captivating nature of the subject portrayed.
Dong-soo is a dreamer and introspective at heart. He states that he bought Corydoras to be surrounded by beautiful things. Likewise, he wishes to find a world of sole beauty, a world he gets to create through his poetry. Due to his imagination and intoxicating nature (as one of his friends and former fellow poet Cho Hyun-duk describes), he is interested in navigating the depth of the human psyche and reality. And that's also the goal of Ryu Hyung-seok's work: not limiting his documentary to a life description but a chance to understand more about how humans live, think and relate to each other.
“Corydoras” is, in other words, not a mere narration of a disabled man's life condition in contemporary South Korea. The story captures Dong-soo's life honestly, without a romanticized note of his experiences or covering up his hardships. He gets to speak his mind and has power over the narration. This documentary is genuine and a pure tale of curiosity, tackling not only a social condition but that of humanity.
