Bitter, Sweet, Seoul (2014)

BTS World Tour: Love Yourself in Seoul

Shot at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul during the BTS World Tour ‘Love Yourself’ to celebrate the seven members of the global boyband and their unprecedented international phenomenon.

A Dream of Iron

Korea's past was whale worship; its present is industry. Is the future whales AND industry?

The Remnants

In October 2015, the evicted residents who had imprisoned on a false charge of killing a policeman assembled in a place for the first time after the Yongsan Disaster six years ago. They had occupied a watchtower against unreasonable redevelopment policies and in protest against violent suppression used by riot police in 25 hours of their sit-in demonstration. Their colleagues had died from an unknown fire, and they became criminals. The delight of meeting again lasts only briefly. The ‘comrades’ rip out cruel words while blaming each other.

The Empire of Shame

A documentary about the continuing case of Samsung semiconductor plant. The film is a story about nameless people wearing white coat, hat and mask worked in a clean room exposing eyes only.

A Long Way to School

Plot unavailable

Cats' Apartment

At the eastern end of Seoul, in a huge apartment complex, it has long been a paradise for cats and people to run around and give love and joy together. However, there are people who are worried about cats who are not leaving the place which will be demolished soon, ahead of reconstruction. "I want to ask. Do you want to keep living here?" For the happy farewell of cats and people, a beautiful struggle begins!

The Basement Satellite

In his Mangwon-dong basement art studio, a media artist Song Hojun dreams of making a satellite and shooting it out to space. He wants to make his dream real through OSSI(Open Source Satellite Initiative) movement. He tries to build a BIY satellite, and to sell 10,000 T-shirts for the 100 million won budget. His seemingly reckless and utterly ambitious project begins. Would his dream become real?

Spy Nation

YU Wooseong who had been working as a civil servant is on trial for espionage following his sibling’s confession. A reporter who has been laid off begins following the traces of a spy story manipulated by a government agency. The clues lead to a confession and false evidence that society and the press have turned their back on.

Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno

Grindcore punks Bamseom Pirates make music suitable for a sick society.

Citizen Roh

In 2008, late President Roh Moo-hyun returned to his hometown Bongha village after his retirement and was joined by supporters as he recreated his hometown and began to clean up the Bonghae Mountain, cultivating Bongha Mountain, and cultivating environmentally friendly rice.

PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Peace in Motion

Plot unavailable

Candle in the Wave

Project 1 _ Hong Hyung-sook The children who are enthusiastically painting and cutting a doll. What stories will be told at the Square? - Project 10 _ Kim Jeong-geun The janitorial worker from the Busan Subway Station, Kim Young-ja talks about how she hopes to see a clean world, just like how she cleans everywhere in the subway.

President′s 7 Hours

The film traces PARK Geun-hye's life back to the 1970s, when the leader-follower relationship began between PARK, who became the first lady of the Yushin regime, and CHOI Taemin, the leader of a pseudo-religion. It then examines the Sewol ferry incident, CHOI Soonsil Gate, candlelight rallies, and finally the impeachment.

Light A Candle, Write A History - Candlelight Revolution

Plot unavailable

The Teachers: pink, nature trail, ridge between rice paddies, plum

We no longer see children running around playing in the alleys of Seoul. Starting from elementary school, children go to private classes after their school. However, we see these people who are making efforts to protect children’s right to be a child and play like a child.

Haewon

According to a survey by the U.S. military government in 1946, 78% of the South Korean people wanted socialism and only 14% capitalism. By appointing the pro-Japanese collaborators and the rightists, Rhee Syngman, who had not received the people's support, massacred those groups and civilians that were political stumbling blocks. In dealing with the Jeju 4.3 uprising in 1947 and the Yeosun incident in 1948 and The Korean War having broken out, massive civilian massacre became regularized.

Welcome to X-world

Three people live in Doosan Apartment in Guro-dong. Me, mom, and my grandfather. Even though it has been 12 years since dad died, we are still living under the same roof. I thought it was because of the financial situation that we could not move out of grandfather’s house. But when I found out that mom already had enough money to get a house, I became confused. Why didn’t mom move out from the “x-world” when she could? From a marriage that didn’t work out well, to a father-in-law with a temper. Why has she been enduring it, unchanging, for all the time I had witnessed her life to become a woman against marriage? One day when my anxiousness was at its peak, grandfather suggested that we live separately. Mom, reluctant to leave Guro-dong that she’d been living in for 20 years and her marriage life, will she be able to find herself and move out well?

The Reservoir Game

An investigative reporter seeks to expose the whereabouts of a slush fund belonging to the former president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak.

Seoul 1988

A documentary covering the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul.

Maboul de Séoul

Plot unavailable

Seventeen Tour 'Follow' Again to Cinemas

Rewriting history every step of their way, SEVENTEEN’s first Seoul World Cup Stadium concert and encore tour [SEVENTEEN TOUR ‘FOLLOW’ AGAIN TO SEOUL] is coming to big screens worldwide this August! From the eagerly awaited full thirteen-member performances to the premiere of “MAESTRO” and unique unit performances of “Spell”, “LALALI”, “Cheers to youth”, the film captures these unforgettable moments with cinematic cameras from multiple angles, ensuring an immersive experience. This concert film begins with a powerful daylight performance that transitions into an event brimming with a diverse array of music. Culminating under a night sky illuminated by CARAT lightsticks, it captures the essence of SEVENTEEN’s record-breaking nine-year legacy. Relive the exhilaration of the concert in ScreenX, 4DX, and ULTRA 4DX for an unparalleled experience.

Myeoneuri: My Son's Crazy Wife

In our 3-year marriage, we have fought on every holiday, on parents' birthdays, during ancestral rituals, and even on Christmas. We argue all the time. The tension between my wife and my mother is killing me.

Jongmyo: A Shrine For Human Beings

Jongmyo is the royal ancestrial shrine of the Josecon Dynasty. Considered as one of the most sublime and moderate architecture of the Joseon Dynasty. Jongmyo was designated as World Heriage by UNESCO in 1995.

Reach for the SKY

Can one day shape the rest of your life? A feature documentary on the South-Korean education system.

A War of Memories

Recording Nguyen Thi Thanh, the only survivor of Phong Nhi Phong Nhat massacre, where civilians were killed during the Vietnam War. Having lost all of her family at the age of eight and survived by herself, she is an open witness to the massacre of Vietnamese civilians and demands an official apology from the Korean government.

Kim Jong-boon of Wangshimni

The life of Kim Jong-boon, who has been a peddler in Wangshimni for 50 years, is admirable. At the age of 83, she no longer has to earn a living at her street stall, but she keeps working because she still has customers.

Two Doors

The documentary Two Doors traces the Yongsan Tragedy of 2009, which took the lives of five evictees and one police SWAT unit member. Left with no choice but to climb up a steel watchtower in an appeal to the right to live, the evictees were able to come down to the ground a mere 25 hours after they had started to build the watchtower, as cold corpses. And the surviving evictees became lawbreakers. The announcement of the Public Prosecutors’ Office that the cause of the tragedy lay in the illegal and violent demonstration by the evictees, who had climbed up the watchtower with fire bombs, clashed with voices of criticism that an excessive crackdown by government power had turned a crackdown operation into a tragedy.

Several Successful Situations; Simultaneous & Successive

I enjoy religion, I appreciate belief systems and how they offer structure to people's lives. I also appreciate how spirituality manifests itself in Asian cultures as this almost earthbound presence guiding people through every day life and when they need an extra bit of help they need only ask whichever deity holds dominion over their desire. Here is an experimental film I made with videos from my iPhone. Shot across Taiwan and South Korea. An experimental film I made with videos from my iPhone. Shot across Taiwan and Korea. My aim was to explore success in how it pertains to every day life, the satisfaction of small moments, spirituality, superstition, and daily rituals.

Gureombi, The Wind is Blowing

The story of the ancient and sacred Gureombi Rock. The story of the people of Gangjeong Village who rise up against the construction of a US/Korea Naval base on their holy and precious land. The winds of peace, like the winds of Jeju Island, are blowing.

Repatriation

In 1992, political prisoners from North Korea settled in the South Korean town where filmmaker Dong-won Kim lived. Sent to South Korea as spies during the war, they spent 30 years in jail. How did they endure the many years of torture? What will become of them now that they have been released? Twelve years in the making, Repatriation is a very personal view of a country divided by an ongoing cold war.

Quo Vadis

The church is the body of Christ. In Greece, the church embodied a philosophy. Then in Rome, it became an institution. Spreading throughout Europe, it became one with the culture there. Traveling to the US, the church became a business. And when it arrived in Korea, it became a conglomerate. The top five largest churches in the world are located in Korea. However, Christ has long been absent in the nation. So then, what is the church? Who is Jesus Christ? What kind of world do Christians want? If the church is indeed the body of Christ, then we must ask the questions point-blank. Where do we stand in all this? And where exactly are we headed? Korean churches—“Quo Vadis?” Korean society—“Quo Vadis?”

Land of Sorrow

Plot unavailable

Factory Complex

The drastic economic development in South Korea once surprised the rest of the world. However, behind of it was an oppression the marginalized female laborers had to endure. The film invites us to the lives of the working class women engaged in the textile industry of the 1960s, all the way through the stories of flight attendants, cashiers, and non-regular workers of today. As we encounter the vista of female factory workers in Cambodia that poignantly resembles the labor history of Korea, the form of labor changes its appearance but the essence of the bread-and-butter question remains still.

Arirang

Documentary on director Kim Ki-Duk looking back at his film career.

Miracle on Jongno Street

A story about 4 gay men who try to lead a normal life in Korea, the conservative and harsh country for LGBT in Asia. In the middle of making a queer film Jun-moon, a director, loses his self-confidence due to social scrutiny regarding his sexual orientation. Byung-gwon, a gay rights activist, has been participating in movements to establish equal rights for homosexual laborers. Young-soo, a chef who moved from the countryside 15 years ago, lived a lonely life but he finds happiness after joining a gay choir. Yol, who works for a major company, dreams of the day him and his partner, can have a legal wedding with overcoming the prejudice against people living with HIV/AIDS.

Unforgettable: The Korean War

Documentary directed by Tom Kleespie inspired from Korean War veterans who recall memories both painful and patriotic, putting a human face on an often forgotten conflict. Stories include wartime recollections, such as one soldier's first moments seeing a MiG fighter up close, and veterans' often-tragic experiences returning home, where Americans largely neglected to welcome them back.

Propaganda

An anti-western propaganda film about the influences of American visual and consumption culture on the rest of the world, as told from a North Korean perspective.

Project Cheonan Ship

Interpreting an event of ROKS Cheonan corvette, torpedoed and sunken by North Korea, this documentary rebuilds the event with a different insight. No one can tell if the investigation of Cheonan has reached compelling conclusion. But the film tells and reveals how unreasonable Korean society is.

Talking Architecture, City: Hall

A documentary film about Seoul City Hall Construction. The construction project has a hard going in every way. A city plan, excessive administrative notions, a design and all got mingled up. Can the project sail, yes?

State of Play

A feature documentary about the world of South-Korean professional gamers. Every year thousands of South-Koreans flock to the game stadiums in Seoul to watch the Pro League, a live sports event where professional gamers compete to be the best at one single video game: Starcraft. It’s a title many young South Koreans dream of. The game itself is more than a decade old, almost ancient in the fast developing world of video games, but in South Korea it has become a national past-time. Like most specator sports, this world of eSports rapidly evolved in a multi-million dollar business. In this story, we follow 3 boys in different stages of their career as a Pro-Gamer in South Korea. For some it will be a struggle to stay on top of their game, for others it might be the turning point of their lives

Foulball

Plot unavailable

North Korea: All the Dictator's Men

North Korea has nuclear weapons. How did it manage to get them quietly? Donald Trump is under the impression that as US president he could convince Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, to disarm his nuclear weapons and make peace with South Korea. But how was it possible that one of the poorest countries in the world could acquire the knowledge to produce nuclear-tipped rockets?

A Long Farewell

Dunchon Jugong Apts. at the edge of the metropolis, Seoul. It has been over 10 years since discussions of rebuilding these old apartment complexes began. The inhabitants tell us about their soon-to-be-demolished houses and apartments. Some of them have spent long spans of time here and some of them short. Some people are now raising daughters in the house they lived in since their childhood, some families came from other places and struggled to adjust. Each add their different forms of love to this space in their own way. As the long-postponed reconstruction nears reality, the day-to-day scenery of the apartment complexes and households is quietly coming to a close.