It’s been nearly ten years since I made Alive. It was my second film, and when I look back on it now, I remember all the difficulties our staff and actors went through. I would like to thank the staff and actors who devoted themselves to completing the film until their bodies and minds were ragged for two months while we stayed in Pyeongchang. The scenario took four years to complete, and the shooting script was finalized after 50 drafts. After my experience with The Journals of Musan, I deeply distrusted myself. For every scene and shot, I was too doubtful of myself to give the OK signal—and as a result, some scenes were stopped after 80 takes. Every time I watch Alive, I think of the difficulties the staff and actors went through and myself being so fatigued I couldn’t shoot anymore.

 

In a sense, I was chasing after a mirage. I did everything I could to make a good film—to discover a movie that was more realistic and closer to the truth. After we finished filming and were doing the post-production work, I realized that making a film might be risking my life to challenge God. I remembered the words of one of the poets I admire: “An impossible love for the impossible.” I think that making a good film may be something like that: An impossible love making impossible efforts to create something impossible. I made two more feature films after Alive, and I’m currently working on a script. I still haven’t made a good film. I’m constantly grappling, wandering, and spinning in my place, but I write this hoping that I never lose sight of the truth in all the confusion of those desires and falsehoods. Finally, I sincerely thank the JEONJU IFF for their endless dedication to the Sisyphean myth that is independent film and art cinema. PARK Jungbum

The Journals Of Musan (2010), Alive (2014), Height of the Wave (2019)

A Struggle for Understanding
Alive begins with the scene of the protagonist chopping wood in the forests of Gangwon Province amid the bitter midwinter cold. The painful feeling of that cold weather represents the pain of life, conveying the film's theme tactilely. The roots of suffering for the characters Jeong-cheol (Park Jungbum) and Suyeon (Lee Seungyeon)—a house destroyed by a landslide and the death of their parents—are present throughout the film as a symbolic given subject concerning the end of a community. In the wake of a community's collapse, Suyeon and Jeong-cheol each attempt to overcome the situation in different ways, either through escape or fighting. But the siblings' psychological approaches to pain are similar to self-punishing. As Suyeon beats against her naked back with a branch, Jeong-cheol builds a house alone in the mountains as if fighting to the death. They are overwhelmed by guilt over their failure to protect others and their fear of death. At the beginning of the movie, Jeong-cheol's act of going to his senior's house and tearing the door to dispel the suspicions of his coworkers that he is having an affair with the senior who has fled with company money. His action relates to his desperate psychological state and the knowledge that he can destroy others for the sake of his and his family's survival.

 

However, through its length, the film shows how capitalism's logic—and its need to trample others to survive—ends up plunging Jeong-cheol into ever lower depths. It is a brutal food chain of repeated hope and despair, at the end of which he reaches an awareness of compassion for others. Myeonghoon (Park Myeonghoon), who has left for Seoul with Suyeon, cries out desperately to Jeong-cheol when he comes to take her away: “Can't you see that she's sick?” Toward the end, Jeong-cheol installs a light on the darkened road with his young nephew for the day when his sister might return, and he reattaches the door of the senior's house. This transformation, as Jeong-cheol arrives at a new understanding of the pain of others and attempts to offer some solace, ironically leaves a tiny bit of hope in his life. CHOI Eun Young

 

Production Secondwind Film (bonlumiere@naver.com), Sanda Pictures
Distribution Little Big Pictures (sales@little-big.co.kr)
International Sales FINECUT (cineinfo@finecut.co.kr)

2014 Locarno Junior Jury Award (2nd place)

2014 Mar del Plata IFF Silver Astor Best Actor (Winner)

2014 Singapore IFF Special Mention (Asian Feature Film, Winner)

2014 TOKYO FILMeX TOKYO FILMeX Competition (Nominee)

2015 Florence Korea Film Fest Jury Prize (Winner)

2015 Asia Pacific Screen Awards Jury Prize (Winner), Best Film·Best Director (Nominee)

2015 Buil Film Awards Best Actor (Nominee)

2015 Munich IFF CineVision Award (Nominee)

2016 Wildflower Film Awards Korea Grand Prize (Winner), Best Narrative Director·Best Screenplay·Best Actor (Nominee)