Jeonju Cinema Projects boost Korean cinema
The release of “The Poet and the Boy” on September 14 coinciding with its international premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, which is currently taking place underscores the success of Jeonju Cinema Projects this year.
Since 2014, each year the Jeonju International Film Festival supports three features, which then premiere at the festival that takes place annually at the end of April or the beginning of May.
Prior to 2014, the festival produced a set of three shorts and combined them into an omnibus film, but the decision to finance features has paid dividends. In 2014, all three features Gyorgy Palfi’s “Free Fall,” Shin Yeon-shick’s “The Avian Kind” and Park Jung-bum’s “Alive” were successful.
The features were strongly embraced by critics and they all experienced further festival exposure. “Free Fall” was invited to Karlovy Vary and Goteborg festivals, “The Avian Kind” was screened at the Moscow International Film Festival and won Best Screenplay at the Wildflower Film Awards, while “Alive” travelled even further going to a host of film festivals such as Locarno, Hong Kong and won the Grand Prize at the Wildflower Awards.
Although the following two years couldn’t reach the same level of success, Kim Hee-jung’s “Snow Paths” was critically well-received and features an impressive Park So-dam in a leading role just before the success of “The Priests” turned her into a star.
In 2016, Lukas Valenta Rinner’s “A Decent Woman” was also invited to the Toronto Film Festival, while Kim Soo-hyun’s political comedy “Beaten Black and Blue” attracted very strong praise from some local critics.
This year, however, all three projects produced by the festival were Korean, but it marked a strong year in terms of the overall quality with “Our President,” “The First Lap” and “The Poet and the Boy” all gaining success.
Local commercial success had eluded the projects but Lee Chang-jae’s “Our President” changed that.The documentary premiered at the festival at the beginning of May, and was released just a few weeks later on May 25 and accrued a whopping 1.8 million admissions, a gargantuan figure for an independent documentary.
It explores how the late president Roh Moo-hyun won the Democratic Party primary to become the presidential candidate in 2002 and includes interviews with the current President Moon Jae-in who worked with Roh as his chief secretary for civil affairs, along with liberal politician Ahn Hee-jung.
Timing evidently worked in the film’s favor with the film being released shortly after Moon was elected, but the film was planned ahead of the presidential scandal that ultimately led to the ousting of Park Geun-hye. Therefore, there were concerns that the film could face problems securing a release, but a distribution deal was secured with CGV Arthouse, the day Moon became president on May 10.
Indeed, the film is part of a trend, which has seen political films striking a chord with audiences. “Spy Nation,” a documentary that premiered at Jeonju last year, pulled in 143,000 viewers last October, and another documentary about the late president, “Moo-Hyun, Tale of Two Cities” also attracted over 190,000 cinemagoers last year. This summer’s big box office hit “A Taxi Driver” along with the popular documentary “Criminal Conspiracy” currently on release are also part of this trend.
Kim Dae-hwan who is fast emerging as one of Korea’s most promising young directing talents helmed the superb “The First Lap.” Not only was he invited to the Locarno Film Festival, but Kim took home the Best Emerging Director Award, a significant moment for Kim and his career, but also for the Jeonju Cinema Projects.
The film, which follows a young couple who face pressure from their families to get married after dating for several years, is a beautifully understated drama that reflects much of the talent Kim exhibited in his impressive feature debut “End of Winter” that premiered in the Busan film festival’s New Currents section in 2016.
“The First Lap,” which stars Kim Sae-byuk and Cho Hyun-chul is scheduled to be released before the end of the year.
The announcement last month that Kim Yang-hee’s “The Poet and the Boy” was heading to the Toronto Film Festival to be screened in the festival’s discovery section highlighted what a terrific year it has been for the trio of Jeonju Cinema projects.
“The Poet and the Boy” stars the director and actor Yang Ik-june (“Breathless”) as a married poet who begins to develop feelings for a young man who works in a donut shop on Jeju island.
Featuring an impressive performance by Yang — quite different from his fiery role in “Breathless” — it is a compelling feature debut by a talented female filmmaker. Although, there is still much work to be done to ensure there are more female voices in Korean cinema, it is encouraging that three of the projects to date have been directed by women.
The year 2017 has been a weak year for Korean cinema overall both critically and commercially, but the Jeonju Cinema Projects have bucked this trend and excelled this year that is sure to fuel interest in upcoming films from the Jeonju Film Festival’s signature program.