The author of the brilliant, highly original feature film “The Korean from Seoul” speaks
Such an eccentric film, endowed with a satirical streak with a strong anti-capitalist imprint, was selected for the Feature Film Competition of the Indiecinema Film Festival‘s second edition. But only now have we managed to contact the young director originally from Australia, who is currently in South Korea for work.
Just in time for the special evening that Indiecinema dedicates to independent Australian cinema, scheduled for Thursday 3 October (8pm) at the Circolo ARCI Arcobaleno in Rome!
A strange bridge between Australia and Korea
In your movie, selected for Indiecinema Film Festival, an eccentric connection between Australia and Korea is immediately established through the protagonist. How did this idea come about? Are there autobiographical reasons behind it?
In terms of the narrative, the main character just had to represent some minority group. I took advantage of the fact that I’d planned on making a life in Korea by just making the character supposedly Korean and shooting some footage in Seoul while visiting the country. The irony of all this is that although there were a lot of diverse Asian cast members, none were actually Korean (with one miniscule exception).
You directed “The Korean from Seoul”, but you are also one of the main characters. What was it like tackling this dual role, in front of and behind the camera?
I don’t think I’ve ever really created any kind of performative project that I didn’t include myself in, so the whole process feels pretty natural to me. There are two main reasons that I act in my own projects. First, I don’t consider myself a great actor but I’m very competent with doing stunts and I love having a reason to do stupid stuff in front of the camera, like the ridiculous fight scenes. I think one of my main motivations for doing film is simply coming up with ludicrous, often physically chaotic situations for actors to interact within, and then figuring out how to justify its inclusion within a broader narrative. The second reason is that using yourself to fill a character is a friendly practice for those working on a micro budget. It also makes re-shoots easier for those that aren’t the most organized, like myself.
A heterogeneous cast and different levels of satirical thought
Can you also tell us something about the rest of the cast?
Ben Carew, who played William Knoll while helping me out a lot with location sound and general crew work on most scenes, is a good friend that I met at RMIT university. He really helped me a lot with getting many of the scenes shot. He was actually very reluctant about playing the character as he didn’t think he could do it justice, but there is a lot of unanimous agreement out there that he did a brilliant job. Andrew Pocock, who played Cliff Knoll, is also a good friend from RMIT who helped out a lot. Pui-Mei Doherty, who played Chien Ling, was a fellow work colleague at the time who, despite having absolutely no aspirations with being in front of a camera, was just nice enough to stop by my “studio” as an “actress” a couple of times after work. I think I gave her a bottle of vodka for her troubles. The character who fights Nam-Hong in the last scene was just a guy we met on the street called Ivo. I don’t think I ever had contact with him again. Although there were many cast members who were actually seeking specific acting roles, I think you get a general idea for how much of the movie’s cast came to be.
The selection committee of our festival greatly appreciated both the ironic tone of many situations and dialogues, and that anti-capitalist spirit, hostile to today’s wild neo-liberalism, which we seem to have captured at more than one moment. What can you tell us about it?
I like irony because it’s a great way to sublimate antisocial thoughts, assuming one has the means and the wherewithal. In terms of the anti-capitalist spirit, The Korean From Seoul was purposefully vague, but the fact that most of it takes place within a supposedly large trading company sets the stage for corporate environments and practices taking the brunt of the satire. I don’t really consider myself qualified to be taking informed pot shots at political systems, but I like to imagine the behavior and thought processes of the parties pushing the limits of such systems.
An experimental film that reminded us of Lars von Trier
Regarding the eclectic, autarchic, anarchic, experimental style of many scenes, what can you tell us instead?
I touched on this a little earlier in regards to being attracted to the performative aspect of bizarre situations. I love throwing a bunch of variables together and just seeing what happens. It’s also rather convenient when the process of making the film somewhat correlates to the subject matter — in this case the satirizing of nonsense corporate cultures, impossible work conditions and puzzling social sensibilities. Another aspect of it is simply making up for the absence of having a fully-developed script. You have to work with what you’re good at, and I most certainly wasn’t a competent storyteller at the time. Having a bunch of sugar bottles thrown at you helps with the process of improvisation.
Which authors and film genres inspire you most? Some of us, in your work, were pleased to see something reminiscent “The Boss Of It All”, a Lars von Trier’s movie…
I saw a few of Lars von Trier‘s movies a long time ago but I haven’t seen The Boss Of It All. I promise to make an effort to watch it. I used to go out of my way to find unique and interesting films, but I kind of lost interest in such matters a long time ago. I came up with a list of things that I think bear some responsibility for my work. Satirists: Australia’s Shaun Micallef and Britain’s Chris Morris. Movies: Harmony Korine‘s Trash Humpers and Neil Blomkamp‘s District 9. Author(s): Australia’s Peter Carey. Television: Mike Clatturburg‘s Trailer Park Boys.
Distribution, independent cinema and festivals
Was this film of yours then released in theaters or did it travel more through festivals? And have you already had contact with the Italian public before our event?
The Korean From Seoul was finished in 2015. I tried to send it to film festivals but no-one accepted it so I left it to rot. Then in 2020, long after abandoning any interest in any of this artistic stuff, I found myself bored to death due to a long series of national Korean holidays from work. So I figured that 5 years was long enough to be able to revisit the film with fresh eyes. I re-edited it to make it more tolerable to humans and it was accepted into a variety of festivals, half of which were most-likely scams. I think this would be the first time that it’s played in Italy. Moreover, I uploaded it to Filmhub and it’s available for streaming on a variety of platforms, most notably Prime Video and Tubi.
Before the film, what was your cinematographic training? And after shooting it, have you already filmed it or are you planning new works?
I received very broad training from studying Fine Arts (media arts) at RMIT in Melbourne. Though it did cover a lot of general technical aspects of audiovisual production and narrative, it focused more on video and sound art, rather than filmmaking. The real benefit of this course was befriending and building collaborative relationships with the likes of Ben and Andrew, amongst others.
I am currently in the process of planning new work. I’ve written a completed script and I’ve had a lot of correspondence with an interested production company, but I can’t go into further detail until anything is confirmed. All I can guarantee is that I won’t be making any more independent content.
Finally, more generally, how is the situation for independent cinema in Australia?
I wouldn’t have a clue, sorry. I’ve been living mostly in Korea for the last 7~8 years and I don’t really follow much of what happens in Australia.
