The Jury is out, literally

A scene from Kim Dong-ho’s directorial debut film “Jury.”

Busan film fest founder and movie industry heavyweight making his directorial debut at 76

Kim Dong-ho BIFF honorary director

By Yun Suh-young

In the glamorous world that is movies, it’s the award juries who appear to have the most thankless jobs.

There will always be many fans at film festivals who grumble about how judges never get it right. It often seems also that filmmakers tolerate judges rather than respect them, considering them to be snobs who show up once a year to offer their opinions and make obnoxious comments, with no real accountability for anything they say.

When Kim Dong-ho, a Korean movie industry icon and founder of the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), decided to make his directorial debut at the age of 75, the struggles of the people who judge movies naturally came to mind.

In his humorous 24-minute film, ``Jury,’’ Kim takes viewers behind the scenes of a Korean film festival and casts a warm eye on the group judging the movies, as well as the artists who make them.

Veteran movie stars Ahn Sung-ki and Kang Soo-yeon play themselves and Jung In-ki takes the role of a movie director joining them on a judging panel.

Their polished delivery is balanced by the directness of non-professional actors Tony Rayns and Katsue Tomiyama, who play the role of token foreign judges, combining to make a lighthearted film that also manages to be an authentic portrayal of the real-life movie scene.

First revealed at the 10th Asiana International Short Film Festival (AISFF) held in Seoul in November of last year, Jury was also invited to the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival in February this year where it received positive reviews. The movie will open in local theaters on Thursday.

"I was glad the audience liked the film at Berlin. I was surprised that the foreign viewers were laughing at the same scenes the Koreans did,’’ Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.

"I think this is really the first case for a short film to premiere and be released in cinemas on this scale so, in this sense, the meaning is significant. But I have to admit I am worried about the distributors and theaters if they don’t sell as many tickets as they hope to. About 10 theaters have already decided to show the film.’’

While Kim is probably the oldest rookie filmmaker in the history of Korean films, his wealth of experience as the director of BIFF and a judge at several international film festivals in the past 20 years proved an asset in Jury.

The verbal jabs exchanged between Kang, Jung and Rayns ― which leave Ahn scrambling as an indecisive peacemaker and Katsue completely lost in translation ― show the jurors as people who bleed movies but are also more delicate because of it.

Kang likes one movie for the grand prize while Jung backs another. Rayns, a movie critic in real life, doesn’t see cinematic quality in any of the films in the festival, but the pain of the job is, as Kang repeatedly reminds him, that "somebody has to win.’’

Ahn probably has his own thoughts but is reluctant to express them as his role as the head juror also requires keeping everyone happy and sending them home as early as possible. Eventually, it’s the daydreaming Katsue who attempts to save the day.

It took Kim only three days to shoot the film.

"Filming was fun because I worked with the best crew. I didn’t know when to yell ‘cut’ at first, but I got used to it after a few hours. Everything went smoothly and quickly ― probably too quickly,’’ Kim said, laughing.

"I made everyone arrive at 6 a.m. and shooting began at 7 a.m. That would have been torturous for some people, as filming usually begins in the afternoon here, but I wanted to wrap things up before sunset. It costs more to film at night.’’

Kim founded the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) in 1996 and now serves as honorary director of the annual event after retiring as director in 2010.

"I’ve participated as a juror more than 30 times at international film festivals. There’s a lot of clash of opinions when we attend as jurors at film festivals. Sometimes the decision isn’t made until dawn,” said Kim.

"Of course, I never remember a case where the tension became so great that jurors end up throwing tantrums and beating each other up. That scene in the movie is pure fiction of course.’’.’’

In Jury, Kim’s ideas about movies are spoken directly through Katsue, a film producer in real life, who declares "movies are dreams and they are supposed to reflect dreams.’’

“The notion about films being ‘dreams’ came first from reading Edgar Allan Poe’s poem that has the following phrase: ‘All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.’ I saw this phrase being said by a character in an Australian movie and it stuck with me,” said Kim.

Kim said his debut as a director was something he has desired for a long time.

"I really started thinking about debuting as a director since 1997 while visiting international film festivals. When directors received applause after the screening, I felt that the festival was not for actors and actresses, but for directors. I thought, ‘Shouldn’t I try that out?’”

He then began watching films in the directors’ point of view and even appeared in cameos in several movies. In Jury, Kim also briefly appears on the screen along with veteran director Im Kwon-taek.

One notable feature of the movie is that all the cast members volunteered to act without pay.

“Ahn is festival director at AISFF so he readily agreed and Kang also served as a juror at the 9th festival,” he said.

“I needed two foreign jurors in the movie ― one English-speaking and the other Japanese-speaking. I almost finalized getting a Korean actor to do the Japanese role but I got in touch with Tomiyama, who gladly accepted to play the role although she had no previous acting experience. She paid for her own air tickets here. As for Tony, I asked him to play the role when he came to film his own documentary in Korea. He also played his role without pay.”

Kim plans to make two more 20-minute-long films about the guests and volunteers at film festivals and then put all three together as a 60-minute omnibus film.

“After the two short films, I’m going to try out a full-length film. Just one and then I’m going to retire before I go bankrupt,” said Kim, smiling sheepishly.

The 76-year-old’s dream is on-going.