Korean Indie Shorts at the Toronto Korean Film Festival

The Toronto Korean Film Festival and Reel Asian International Film Festival co-presented Korean indie shorts on Wednesday. The shorts are eligible for a prize and the awards ceremony will take place on the final day of the festival July 1st.

As with the first evening of shorts on Tuesday (Korean-Canadian shorts) I was surprised by how much I enjoyed these films considering that I usually stick to feature length films. It made me consider that in a lot of ways making a short film is more difficult than making a feature film. A story that might be told in 90 mins has to be condensed into just 10 or 30 mins and yet still convey the same emotional impact.

Nan Jian Wan Zi
Bom spends the morning of her birthday meticulously making a special Chinese dish (Nan Jian Wan Zi) for her crush but at the last minute he phones her to say that his band practice is more important and he won't be coming for the meal. Seconds later someone is pounding on her door and it is one of her crush's bandmates (Bom's least favourite). He has come by to use her bathroom and upon seeing the delicious food that she has prepared decided to stay and eat it. Things continue to go wrong for Bom but she ultimately discovers that love can come from the most unexpected places. Directed by Moon Choi who also stars as Bom.


Ari 
A slow dance on the beach, time seems to stop as she performs. Each movement an expression of the inner peace and feeling of freedom felt by the dancer as she does what she loves to do. The film begins indoors and moves to a remote beach the sand of which comes right up to her doorstep. Directed by Baek Ki-hwan.


Etude Solo 

A man is sent to a school to tune a piano in preparation for an outdoor concert being given by the students. there he unexpectedly finds his first love is a teacher. He flashes back to their piano lessons together and of their separtion when she leaves to study abroad. In lieu of payment from the school he asks to be allowed to play piano at the children's concert. His performance expresses all of the bitter-sweet memories of his first love and the pain of those years lost between them. Directed by Yoo Dae-eol.

The Ordinary People

A disgruntled office worker is plagued by nightmares in which he is chased and beaten in the subway station. During the day he experiences strong feelings of Déjà vu and his perception of reality bleeds into memories of his recurring nightmare. Is he having a nervous breakdown or are the pharmaceuticals he takes each morning to blame? Either way you will never look at penguins in quite the same way again. Directed by Go tae-min.

Mark’s Festival 

An Englishman named Mark visit's his Girlfriend Jenny's hometown in rural Korea. I would say that he suffers from culture shock but in reality the character is just suffering from being a chronic asshole. Yes Jenny's hometown is remote and the food and culture might be strange and new to him but he is unnecessarily rude and even racist towards not only Jenny but to her hospitable parents and her childhood friends. You find out as the film progresses that they have been dating for 3 years and yet Mark knows next to nothing about Korean culture and when asked if he will marry Jenny always replies with, 'We're still getting to know each other'. Most upsetting for me was a scene where Mark is  on a bus and reminiscing about his relationship with Jenny. What should be something heartfelt is actually him admitting that he only started dating her because he has a fetish for Asian women and if this wasn't bad enough he goes on to elaborate saying that he likes that they are supposed to be submissive. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. This was made all the more upsetting for me by the fact that Jenny is not only beautiful but also very intelligent and naturally kind and anything but submissive. You can't help but wonder why the hell she is with Mark. In the end -SPOILER ALERT- they get back together and have a traditional Korean wedding in Jenny's hometown. I was disappointed that she got back together with this man who so clearly did not deserver her or her wonderful family. 

Just to end on a more positive note, I loved the depictions of Jenny's hometown and the wedding scene with the beautiful traditional bride and groom's outfits and decorations. Directed by Jang Yujin.

Sera

In this dark comedy by Lim Woo-seong, a woman and her lover have come to a slump in their relationship. they sit in a bar drinking and the woman recalls how things were different at the start of their relationship. The man asks her if she wants to 'start over' and moments later he receives a mysterious text message that reveals something very unexpected about the woman. 

Metamorphoses

A hilarious and  unconventional vampire story. just for the record Garlic has no effect on Korean vampires and neither do crucifixes (provided that they are Buddhist). A comic book artist goes to the park to get inspiration for his work and also to try to talk to a jogger that he has a crush on. He eventually gets the inspiration that he was looking for but there is an unexpected cost. Directed by Oh In-Chun.

Review: Korean-Canadian Shorts at TKFF

Numbers by Robert Hloz on Vimeo.

The Toronto Korean Film Festival and Reel Asian International Film Festival co-presented shorts made by Korean-Canadians. The shorts are eligible for a prize and the awards ceremony will take place on the final day of the festival July 1st. As a voter it was really tough to make a decision since I really enjoyed all of the shorts that were screened. I also enjoyed having the directors in attendance and found the post-screening Q&A to be fascinating since I know very little about the logistics of filmmaking.

Like many people I'm not as receptive to shorts as I am to feature films, however, I would like to say that these wonderful films changed my mind!

D.C. al Fine
Lee Bansuk directed and starred in this short as well as acting in the TKFF promotional video and in Open Invitation (also part of this competition).
The film is about Mr.Ji who at first seems like a typical thug. He works as a loan shark for a local Korean gang and has no qualms about removing the fingers of those who fail to payback their loans on time. However, we soon discover an entirely different side to Mr. Ji, a passionate musician who misses his girlfriend still in Korea. His dream is to bring her to Canada so that they can open a music shop together. Unfortunately these two separate lives are bound to collide and when they do the results are inevitably tragic.
 During the Q&A director Lee Bansuk explained that he made the severed fingers featured in the film (they were very convincing). He also works at the festival and the other night was even doing traditional Korean calligraphy. Guests had their names written on beautiful rice paper for free. It was a nice souvenir of TKFF. He has also done a great interview with Planet of Snail director Yi Seung Jun. You can watch the interview here.


A Drummer's Passion
Kwon Soon Keun leads a low profile life in Toronto but 50 years ago he was the drummer of ADD-4 a rock band often referred to as the 'Korean Beatles'. When a YouTube video of one of his recent performance goes viral it attracts millions of viewers including director Kim Mingu who tracked him down to make this documentary short. Even if you have never heard of ADD-4 or have no interest in retro Korean rock music you will still be carried away by the passion and infectious energy of Kwon Soon Keun. It is hard to believe that he is 71, his love for the drums obviously keeps him young. This film shows that no matter where you are or whether or not you even have an audience, doing what you love to do is important. Kwon Soon Keun may not have the glamorous life he once had as part of  ADD-4 but he has his drum kit and that's all that really matters.


In Retrospect
Directed by Chris K.Kim, this is a beautifully animated short using the rotoscoping aimation technique. This film is only 3 mins long but captures perfectly the degeneration of a romantic relationship including the radically different perspective of events leading to the break-up. The man sees the relationship with rose coloured glasses whereas the woman remembers the exact same events but without the man's insensitive behaviour omitted. They meet by chance in the street which triggers this series of flashbacks.


Numbers (video above)
This short directed by Robert Hloz, manages to capture such a huge story in just 10 minutes. This could easily be expanded into a feature film but is perhaps just as well perfect in it's conciseness. A man and woman meet in Hyang Univeristy (presumably Seoul campus). The man can see random numbers above peoples heads but has no idea what they mean. Suddenly he is drawn to a mysterious woman who seems to see these same numbers. What can she tell him about this bizarre ability and does he really want to know? I loved the concept for this film and the beautiful saturated greys and blues of the crowded streets where this is set. Simple things in the film like steam rising from a bowl of hot ramen were very beautifully shot. Also the world-weariness of the woman is captured perfectly without being melodramatic. The way she knocks back soju seems to say everything about her sadness and the mysterious numbers.


My Granpa
Director Zong eui-yong's moving tribute to his late grandfather. In just 11 mins the life of a man, the impact he has had on different family members and the bond between grandfather and grandson is captured perfectly. There were elements of this film that reminded me of my own family. I was especially moved by Zong eui-yong description of being bullied as a child and taking comfort in the VHS tapes his grandfather would mail to him from Korea. He says in the film that while he was indoors as a result of this bullying these Korean dramas and films sent by his grandfather were his only connection with the outside world.


Open Invitation
Loosely based on the experiences of director Park Jaewoo, Open Invitation is about a Korean international student (Doo-young) in Toronto who is called for his mandatory 2 year military service and will do absolutely anything to avoid it. Compounding all of this is the fact that his room mate is from a well-off family and has permanent residency thus avoiding the military service. There is one scene where Doo-young watches his room mate stay up all night playing video games and he wonders to himself, did he really come all the way to Canada just to do this? 
Doo-young tries a variety of things to avoid the military service including trying to pull out his teeth, trying to injure his shoulders and knees doing Judo, trying to find a Korean girl with permanent residency to marry him and even impersonating his room mate (the results of which are hilarious).


This previously screened as part of the TIFF Student Showcase.


Death Buy Lemonade (video below)
A hilarious and cute dark comedy about lemonade and death. Death encounters a stubborn little-girl at her lemonade stand and the results are unexpected and comic genius. The animation style of this is beautiful and reminded me of sketches done in coloured chalk or conte. Director Lee Kyubum also did the Taste Kimchi Cinema promotional video for TKFF (the one that plays prior to every screening and is brilliant!) and is currently working on the show Sidekick for YTV.

Death Buy Lemonade from Cartoon Brew on Vimeo.