Great ideas and off-the-cuff inspirations can come to you while watching makgeolli slowly fermenting and bubbling up. This is exactly what happened to both Kim Da-min, writer and director of “FAQ”, and Dong-chun the young protagonist of it. The more coherent Korean title translates in fact “The Makgeolli Will Tell You” as the film will eventually reveals, and was inspired by a class on how to make this traditional Korean rice wine. Kim Da-min was puzzled by the vitality of the microbes and when curiosity and effervescent creativity get together, they produce excellent outcomes.
FAQ is screening at Fantasia International Film Festival
Dong-chun (Park Na-eun) is an 11-yer-old girl who, like almost all her peers, is overwhelmed by an exaggerated number of cram school courses. Despite being only in elementary school, her parents, especially her mum Hae-jin (Park Hyo-ju), are already stressing out about the university admission exams and anxiously trying to guess what extravagant extra curriculum subjects could help Dong-chun to secure a place. The poor girl is not helped by her shy character and has developed an almost paralyzing stage-fright that prevents her from participating to academic competitions and make her parents proud and happy. What really bothers Dong-chun is not “what” she is doing, but “why” she is doing all this, and asking her parents or other adults doesn’t shed any light on her doubts. And her imaginary friends (two big, spirited plush-toy characters, straight out of kids TV) cannot help her either.
One magical night on a school trip, a bottle of makgeolli – the typical Korean rice wine – rolls straight to her feet, as if to make a contact with her, and when the liquid starts to fizz slightly due to fermentation, she has the certainty that the makgeolli is talking to her. Back at home she is on a quest to translate the wine language that seems to utilize the Morse code, but neither in Korean nor in English. When, out of the blue, her mum sends her to a new cram course of non-other than Farsi language – after hearing that in the future it will be a good leverage in college admission (!) – coincidentally Dong-chun discovers that the makgeolli’s Morse code, read in reverse, delivers some sentences in Farsi that make a bit of sense!
Check also this interview
This delightful and totally bonkers coming-of-age tale takes its inspiration – other than makgeolli-making – from the growing parental obsession in South Korea (and not only) with cram courses, known as “hagwons, driven by the intense competition for admission to prestigious universities, and rooted in the belief that academic success is essential for securing a good job and social status. However, this places immense pressure on the children, having a negative impact on their mental health and often resulting in being more harmful than useful. Moreover, director and writer Kim Da-min seems to point out also that students are often left in the dark; no explanation is given to them about the final purpose of this taxing process of learning, killing their motivation and will to study.
Dong-chun’s mum Hae-jin is a key character in the play, she is comically making any possible mistake with her daughter in an attempt to get the best results from her. Confused and stressed, she runs like a headless chicken, unable to answer any of the questions that Dong-chun asks, clumsily concealing her disappointment and secretly devouring books like “Awaken your introverted child’s potential” and watching any video about “Successful College Entrance Prep” and “The Right Age to Start Studying Abroad”. However, she is far from being a mere caricature, as she serves also as a critique and sour reminder of another facet of South Korean society, where women are often relegated to a disadvantaged position. In a heart-breaking – as well as totally out of place – vent to her daughter, she laments that after studying at university on full scholarship, after working hard at a big company and earning $60,000 a year, what was she left with, after having a baby? A serious post-partum depression and a daughter who is a mediocre achiever! Not to mention that she also shoulders the entire duty of caring for her mum who thinks her hard-working son Yeong-jin (Kim Hee-won) cannot be disturbed (she doesn’t know he is leaving off-grid as a penniless hippie). And yet, she and her husband are less responsive to Dong-chun’s needs than a bottle of makgeolli.
Park Na-eun playing the little Dong-chun is a delight, a rather fortunate find in a very long casting process. She embodies with grace and spontaneity that age of passage from childhood to pre-teen, a unique mix of cuteness and baby-ness, but also sarcasm, curiosity and appetite for knowledge. Creatively filmed like a children program, with soft lights, pastel colours and unusual camera angles at child-height or looking down from adult’s perspective, “FAQ” delivers a punchy message with a smile on its face through an imaginative storyline, and climaxes with an unexpected divisive finale (I suspect some people will find it sad, despite the director’s intentions).
Kim Da-min is a talented and diverse storyteller, whose works span across various genres and themes. She signed the script of the extremely successful Netflix series “A Killer Paradox”, a comic and dark tale of murder and retribution, and her feature film debut “FAQ” is a testament to her creative force.
