If You Were Me 2 (2005) - 다섯 개의 시선 (Da-seot Gae-eui Si-seon)

2007/10/17 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

Seo Dong-il is an aspiring documentary director, struggling to make his dreams come true on a sporadic income.
Jang Cha Hyun-shil is a successful cartoonist who has battled the stigma of being a divorcee. Cha is her grandmother's surname, which she uses along with her father's surname to express her independence and feminist spirit.
Jung Eun-hye is an 18-year-old girl with Down's syndrome who dreams of someday dancing in the spotlight.
These three people have different dreams, different skills and different surnames but they are all part of one family.
Seo, 36, and Jang, 43, got married in 2005, shortly after their son, Eun-baek, was born they had already lived together for about a year. Eun-hye is Jang's daughter from her previous marriage. Their house in Yangpyeong, Gyeonngi, has a cow shed nearby, a view of the mountains and a stream and it is usually filled with smiles and laughter.
But this sylvan world, with its conservative rural values, is a place where being differen...

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2006/01/28 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

The image of defectors has been humanized, and no longer reflects the anti-communist education most

January 28, 2006 ㅡ North Korean defectors are the latest trend in Chungmuro, South Korea's movie-making district. More than 1,000 defectors flee to the South each year. Last year's releases, "Wedding Campaign" and "Typhoon", feature defectors as main characters, as do the soon-to-be-released feature "South of the Border", and the short "A Boy with the Knapsac", one of five short films included in "If You were Me 2". This isn't the first time Chungmuro has dealt with the defector issue, but in the past there was definitely a sense of ideological prejudice in movies like "Double Agent", in which North Koreans were portrayed as spies, and "Lost in the South Mission: Going Home", which ridiculed them. But times have changed, and Chungmuro's perception of defectors has become humanized.

Defectors enter the world of movies
As a scene is filmed in the lobby of Moak Hall at Sori Ar...

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2005/09/22 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

By Joon Soh
Culture Editor

Two years ago, the Human Rights Commission of Korea funded six directors to make short films about discrimination. The result, titled "If You Were Me", was an insightful collection of works that looked at such diverse topics as the plight of the disabled, obsession with physical appearance and the mistreatment of migrant workers.

The film received critical praise and invitations to local and international festivals, and despite a noticeable lack of commercial success, the commission decided to fund two sequels to the project: "If You Were Me 2" and "If You Were Me : Anima Vision".

"If You Were Me : Anima Vision", released in theaters today, brings together six different animators and animation teams to tackle issues similar to the original film. None of the directors involved are what you would call popular on the mainstream level, but then again, there really isn't any animation filmmaker in Korea who is.

The most familiar name here would probab...

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2005/04/28 | Source | Permalink |  Digg |  del.icio.us | Stumble It! | Share this news

April 29, 2005 ㅡ Jeonju may be just another small city in the country, but this town in North Jeolla province has turned hip since yesterday with the start of the 6th Jeonju International Film Festival.
When it started in 2000, the festival's mandate was to be a forum for "alternative, digital and underground films". This year, cinephiles can immerse themselves in a feast of 173 films from around the world through May 6.
The film festival shines with not only interesting but also politically aware retrospectives, under the theme "freedom, independence and communication". The festival starts with "Digital Short Films by Three Filmmakers 2005", featuring shorts by Apichatpong Weerasethakul of Thailand, Song Il-gon of South Korea and Shinya Tsukamoto of Japan.
One of the most innovative sections created by programmers is "Discovery: Magreb Cinema", where films from Morocco and Tunisia will be shown in Korea for the first time. Festival programmers say they planned the section to...

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