This year, we had the most difficulty selecting the titles for the Korean Competition section because we received 134 submissions, the most number of projects submitted to date. Luckily, the three programmers split up the number of titles evenly for the section this year. Overall, I can’t say the quality of the submissions is superior to last year, but the 10 films selected after fierce competition are stronger and more solid than ever.
Once again, films with female-led narratives continue to be strong. Regardless of the director’s gender or the film’s genre, many titles in Korean Competition tell stories centered around females which often penetrate their inner worlds. Until now, many of such “female-oriented films” focused on exposing discrimination and social damage on the surface level. But in comparison, many of the films this year tell their stories through the presence of women in their ordinary daily lives. Perhaps this is a movement in which female-oriented films, which have exploded in numbers since the #MeToo Movement, are trying to evolve. Autumn Note (KIM Sol) is a film with such a tendency as we get a slice of the life of a woman who will soon participate in a piano recital. In a similar aspect, Sister Yujeong (CHUNG Haeil) dissects the relationship between a pair of sisters when a child is abandoned at a high school, while in Deprivation (KIM Solhae, LEE Dojin), the mind of a woman who is obsessed physically and mentally towards getting pregnant is exposed. Such tendencies can also be spotted in documentaries like My Missing Aunt (YANG Juyeon) where the director sets off to find their aunt who disappeared from their family history, as well as Blanket Wearer (PARK Jeongmi), where the film follows the director’s journey as she lives a life without money to ultimately find herself. A Chronicle in Spirals (KIM Yiso) could be categorized as an experimental film, and it also tells a story centering around discourses on women.
As always, many films also tell stories of families. Mother’s Kingdom (LEE Sanghak) successfully creates tension without relying on genre conventions while depicting the story of a man whose mother suffers from dementia. Silver Apricot (JANG Man-min) tells the story of a woman who sets off to search for her father to demand the money he owes her mother after their divorce. These two films use contrast to expose the nature of families. The theme of family is covered in some of the female-oriented films mentioned earlier as well. The issues female characters face in Sister Yujeong, Deprivation, My Missing Aunt all operate under the umbrella theme of families.
It might sound like we’re boasting, but some key titles to pay attention to in Korean Competition are fruits of JEONJU International Film Festival’s industry program, JEONJU Project. MIMANG (KIM Taeyang), Blanket Wearer and My Missing Aunt are projects from JEONJU Project’s Work In Progress that were selected for Korean Competition. MIMANG is a film that delicately captures moments of love over the course of several years in front of the backdrop of Seoul, and after it was selected for JEONJU Project, it screened in the Discovery section of the Toronto International Film Festival last year. This poses all the more reasons why the industry should give more attention to this year’s Work In Progress projects.
It’s also important to take note of the directors who continue to maintain close and valuable relationships with the festival. Director KIM Sol who was awarded the Grand Prize at the 20th JEONJU International Film Festival for Scattered Night (2019) returns with Autumn Note, while NAMKOONG Sun whose film Ten Months (2021) received a lot of buzz when it played at the 21st festival in the Korean Cinema section returns with Time to Be Strong. NAMKOONG’s new film tells the story of a retired idol who belatedly joins a high school field trip. But behind the laughs drawn out in Time to Be Strong, there’s a dark shadow looming over. This film is also the 15th Human Rights Movie Project by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.

Programmer MOON Seok

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