Forum of Independents - Competition 2008 / Written / South Korea 2007
Man A is trapped inside a story from which he is trying to escape. But the screenplay keeps sending him back to the beginning, forcing him to move in the direction dictated by the story-teller. This complex film by remarkable South Korean filmmaker Kim Byung-woo examines the issues of a character’s identity with regard to his creator or the actor playing him, and explores the relationship between fictional space and reality.
Critics often write about the viewer’s experience of a film, where the actor enables him to “get inside a character”. But is this real empathy or is the relationship the audience has with fictional characters more akin to subjugation or sadistic manipulation? These and other issues are examined in this self-reflexive South Korean film conceived as a complex meditation on the identity of the character in a fictional story. Man A wakes up to find he has an injury, he’s in a bath in a strange place, from where he is directed to another place against his will. He then encounters the alter ego of his creator, the actor who plays him, who enters the story as a parasite, and he meets other characters along the way whose own goals are also unrelated to the prescribed screenplay. The film was made in a small studio which, itself, becomes a set inside the film; it reflects upon all levels of the filmmaking process, from the script and actual shooting, to the given film style and the “eye” of the camera.
87 min / Color, HD CAM
International premiere
Director Kim Byung-woo
/ Screenplay Kim Byung-woo
/ Dir. of Photography Kim Ji-hoon
/ Editor Kim Byung-woo
/ Producer Kim Byung-woo
/ Cast Lee Jin-seok, Kim Bo-young, Lee Sang-hyuk
/ Contact Kim Byung-woo
Kim Byung-woo (b. 1980, South Korea) completed his studies this February at the theatre and film department of Seoul’s Hanyang University, yet he already has two feature films to his name. His debut Anamorphic was screened in 2003 in the main section of the PiFan International Fantastic Film Festival. Kim’s latest film, Written (2007), was premiered in the Vision section at the 12th International Film Festival in Pusan.
Kim Byung-woo
Prime APT 8/1902 GuUi3Dong, 143-761, Seoul
Republic of Korea
Phone: +82 11 936 307 83
E-mail: [email protected]
Kim Byung-woo
Film Director / Producer
Kim Ji-hoon
Director of Photography
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