I spent all day looking for the spring, and spring was nowhere in sight 
I wandered the mountains until my straw shoes were frayed 
I stopped searching for spring and returned home
The apricot blossoms were in full bloom by the fence

The motif for Somewhere in Between came from an old Chinese poem by an unknown author. The poem might seem like a common proverb, without anything special about it—but there was a time when it pierced me to the core. So I just started writing a script and putting together the film and talked about it with some people. I thought I had it figured out. But when I revisited that poem for the first time in years, I was embarrassed to see myself still wandering around the mountains in search of the spring, unaware that my straw shoes were fraying. I can't say whether I will find the apricot blossoms on my fence, but I must get down the mountain before it's too late. JEON Jeehee

Somewhere in Between (2018), Somewhere in Between: Director’s Cut (2020)

Our Own Tale of Cinema
At a time in Korea's history when the national judicial examination was becoming a thing of the past, the character Gitae (Lee Donghwi) finishes up his long period of study and returns to his hometown of Beolgyo. Bereft of dreams, passion, and ambition, he has nothing left with him except student loan text messages and an elderly mother (Shin Sinae) whose worries for him leave her unable to sleep. Desperate to find employment, Gitae scrapes out a living with a job at the ticket counter of the Gukdo Theater, an old second-run theater in his neighborhood. There, he meets a sign painter named Mr. Oh (Lee Hanwi).

The feature debut of director Jeon Jeehee, Somewhere in Between is a film much like the signs at the cinema theater in the movie: crude yet somehow charming. It is as unaffected in its attitude as the character of Mr. Oh, and in focusing on the homecoming of a former national examination student, it takes on a more natural quality in that it does not make a point of avoiding the sort of conflicts and scenes that one might expect from such a story. The awkward meetings with friends, the sibling squabbling, and the inevitable goodbyes with cherished loved ones are blended in as part of Gitae's film. Toward the film's end, the characters sit side by side in front of the theater, wordlessly smoking cigarettes. The image conveys the film's message: ‘That's how life is.’

As it placidly captures moments from Gitae's life, the film is naturally suffused with nostalgia for things that have been or are soon to be lost. Whether it is the national examination system that once consumed so many young people's lives, the old theater that is seldom visited anymore, or the unknowable futures that people face, the film accepts even the dreariness and loneliness as parts of life. Yet it does not lose sight of the hope that survives like a wildflower: the idea that ‘life is beautiful (as the slogan on the marquee for Peppermint Candy reads) and that there will be A Better Tomorrow (to quote the title of the John Woo film). PARK Jeong Won

Production MYUNG FILMS LAB (mfl@myungfilm.org)
Distribution MYUNG FILMS LAB (mfl@myungfilm.org)
International Sales MYUNG FILMS (jhbaeck@myungfilm.com)

2021 Wildflower Film Awards Korea Best Supporting Actor (Winner), Best Actor (Nominee)