Animation director gets career reboot after marriage
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"Little King," animation movie directed by Kim Hye-mi, combines Korean traditional musical storytelling pansori and animation. / Provided by artist
By Park Jin-hai
Kim Hye-mi
Animation movie director Kim Hye-mi had a long hiatus starting 2004. During the past ten years, she married and became a mother.
Breaking her lull was “Little King.” With the 11-minute short animated movie, telling the story of a boy who cut ropes connecting floating boats constructed as a bridge for King Jeongjo’s procession, Kim returned to her old job in 2014.
“I took such a long break. When I went back to my work, I was worried if I could be as good as I was in my old days. My self-esteem was rock-bottom,” said the director during an interview with The Korea Times, Monday.
Combining detailed artwork and the fresh mix of Korean traditional musical storytelling pansori and animation, Kim received the grand prize at the 2015 Indie-AniFest. During her acceptance speech, Kim, overwhelmed by her emotion, hesitated a while before thanking and expressing how happy she was.
“It is based on a real story, when the king built a floating bridge to visit the tomb of his father, being put to death at the hands of his grandfather. Thinking of the music that matches the animation, I wrote pansori lyrics myself and asked pansori singer Shin Jung-hye to perform the singing. It was a lot of work and took much time, but it paid off seeing what was created at the end,” she said.
If “Little King” is about filial piety, her recent work “Snap Shot Memory” tells about the relationship between a father and daughter. What she is working on now is her first full-length animated movie “Climbing.”
Kim, who has been editing the script, says marriage and all the new relationships sprung from it have been reflected in her work. “Animation is a medium that connects various emotions and thoughts of a person to animated images. Through my new project Climbing I wanted to talk about pregnancy,” the director said. “In this project, a female professional climber’s anguish and fear have been depicted in a surreal manner after learning she got pregnant. Bearing a child is perceived as a blessing for a woman. But I thought that it could be a great fear, too. I wanted to look at the issue of pregnancy from a different point of view.”
The director said she has done mainly Indie animation projects, because she loves the various experimental artworks it lets her try. “Some say that compared with Hollywood or Japanese animations, ours is less unique. But, I think there are many young and talented animation directors and I believe they can help expand the territory of Korea-made animations through various platforms,” she added.
Her latest animation “Snap Shot Memory” will be screened during the Indie-AniFest 2017 from Sept. 21 to Sept. 26 at theaters in Seoul, including Seoul Animation Center and CGV in Myeong-dong.