KOREA SEASON – DISABILITY IN KOREAN CINEMA

All around the world, the spectrum of film themes and film forms that portray impairments continues to expand. Disabled actors are increasingly being cast in roles as disabled characters, and we are also seeing growing diversity in the types of impairments portrayed in these films and stories. In the 2022 film The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic, for example, scenes that show the blind lead, Jakko, are filmed in focus, while scenes that show the world around him are mostly a blur. The 2021 film CODA (an abbreviation that stands for “Child of Deaf Adults”), which tells the story of a hearing daughter to two d/Deaf parents, made headlines when d/Deaf actor Troy Kotsur won the 73rd Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as father Frank Rossi. 

However, in the case of Korean films, it is still extremely rare for Disabled characters to be portrayed by Disabled actors. A notable exception is Disabled actor and painter Jung Eunhye, who played Young-hui, an artist with Down syndrome, in the 2022 television series Our Blues. In a majority of cases, though, theatrical films about disability treat the characters’ impairments as little more than symbols of hardship or simple plot devices. 

At this year’s Korea Season, we will introduce four films that address the theme of disability. These two fiction films and two documentaries are works that each ask, in their own way, for the audience to engage with the idea of disability more deeply.

Innocent Witness tells the story of Ji-woo, an autistic teenage girl, as she stands witness in a murder trial. The script was written by Moon Ji-won, the writer behind last year’s world-famous drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and bears some similarities, in that it deals with both autism spectrum disorder and the legal system–in fact, Innocent Witness could be considered a prequel to the story of Extraordinary Attorney Woo. ( Moon Ji-won stated in an interview that when she was asked to write the script for Extraordinary Attorney Woo, she approached it as if she were writing the story of Ji-woo, the lead of Innocent Witness, growing up and becoming a lawyer.) In the film, Ji-woo states that although her dream is to become a lawyer, that may never become her reality–however, she can become a witness instead. However, her suitability in the role of “witness” is rooted in a debate over her trustworthiness, which is inevitably linked to prejudice against Disabled people. The film effectively links themes of trust, solidarity, prejudice, and understanding with the reality of being disabled in today’s society. 

Corydoras seeks to expand on these themes by documenting the odyssey of Park Dong-soo, a disabled man with cerebral palsy who left his facility ten years ago and has been living independently ever since. Park’s story is one of resilience and determination, as he has overcome many challenges to build a life for himself outside of the institution. The documentary explores Park’s memories of the care home and his doubts about freedom, while also celebrating his achievements and his unwavering spirit.

Nocturne is another documentary film that connects disability with the realms of family history and art. The film delves into the psychology of a family who continues to fall out and reconcile. It shows the younger son’s observations of his mother, who tries to support her older son’s disability by encouraging his art, and his cold realisation of the deep emotional rift that exists in the family.

Finally, My Lovely Angel tells the story of a man who finds new meaning in his life as he learns to communicate with a child who has audiovisual impairments, which are still not widely known or understood. The film focuses on the way the two characters communicate, and shows the way their communication creates an almost utopian world between them. Despite the dramatic setting, delicate performances by the two lead actors makes the audience believe in the power of intentional communication.

Choi Eun Young

Programmer for Persons with Disabilities Film Festival in Korea

KOREA SEASON – INDIE TALENT

Korean independent filmmakers continue to turn out an impressive number of new features every year, despite a lingering downturn at Korea’s box office and cuts to public funding. With surprising regularity, large numbers of talented new directors emerge and make names for themselves each year. The Indie Talent strand is devoted to highlighting such new voices, as well as the works of established directors who are pushing themselves in new directions.

Independent cinema is an important complement to the mainstream industry because it provides space for different approaches to storytelling and characterization. This can be seen in the assortment of characters who appear in the four films chosen for this section. One of the “rules” that screenwriters working in the mainstream industry are expected to follow is that main characters generally must be likeable, dynamic and exude a positive energy. There’s perhaps nothing wrong with this in itself, but the end result is that protagonists all tend to fall within the same set of familiar, recognised types.

The heroes of independent films tend to be more like us: lacking confidence, susceptible to mood swings and exhibiting a messy blend of positive and negative traits. The decisions they take can sometimes be frustrating to viewers, but in the end, it is often their weaknesses that make them appealing. Take for example the character of Seol-hee in director Lee Kwang-kuk’s A Wing and a Prayer. In the very opening scene, she’s grilled in a job interview about her dreams and ambitions for the future, and she answers quite honestly that she has none. Her roommate Hwa-jeong is frustrated to no end at her lack of initiative, but we come to see Seol-hee in a different light when she encounters someone who needs her help. Indecisive, directionless heroes are hard to find in mainstream cinema, but Seol-hee emerges as a memorable and fully three-dimensional character nonetheless.

Jisu, the protagonist of director Shim Hye-Jung’s Flowers of Mold, gives an alarming impression when we first see her. Her habit of rifling through trash to discover secrets about her neighbours seems unhinged, not to mention morally problematic. Despite this, there’s something fascinating about the contradictions in her personality and the way she goes about her daily life. Gradually, the film gives us greater access into her mind and heart to help us understand her actions. 

Director Lee Jeong-hong’s A Wild Roomer is very much about ordinary, flawed, contradictory human beings. The protagonist Gi-hong is no exception, being an interesting conversationalist but slightly lazy and prone to making gaffes. In place of a clearly structured plot, A Wild Roomer focuses instead on his various encounters with a range of similarly eccentric people. 

Finally, A Letter from Kyoto delves into all the complicated tension, affection and misunderstanding that can exist among three grown sisters and their mother. This work fits into the category of films whose characters feel more real than fiction, in part because director Kim Min-ju never strives unnaturally to make the characters likeable. If we do end up liking them after all, it’s because we recognise so much of ourselves in their struggles.   

Darcy Paquet

The six films introduced in the Women’s Voices programme of the London Korean Film Festival illuminate the theme of “women in relationships,” using diverse formats to explore the various difficulties women face in their interpersonal interactions. These difficulties are strongly rooted in reality, which can invoke a sense of frustration, but through the deep concerns and numerous formats presented in these films, audiences are able to view the world through new perspectives and with new possibilities. 

In recent Korean films, there is a noteworthy tendency to focus on the relationship between mother and daughter, in particular a mother-daughter relationship that is entangled by complex emotions among other family members. These mothers and daughters hate and love each other, feel comfort and discomfort with each other, and see their pasts and futures in each other. Some movies that explore these aspects of the mother-daughter relationship include both dramas like The Apartment with Two Women or Missing Yoon and documentaries like Welcome to X-World, among others.

A Table for Two, featured in this festival, is a documentary film that examines the deep and intimate foundations of the mother-daughter relationships by focusing on a daughter, Chaeyoung, who suffers from an eating disorder, and her mother, Sang-ok, who is raising Chaeyoung alone. Director Kim Bo-ram originally set out to explore why so many young Korean women in their teens and 20s show symptoms of disordered eating, but after meeting Chaeyoung and Sang-ok, discovered that such symptoms are often closely related to both social conditions and close interpersonal relationships. The film also portrays those individuals who listen carefully to the concerns of the main subjects and support them in renewing their relationship.

The festival also features three short films, My Annoying Mother, A Room of Two Women’s Own, and My Little Aunt, all three of which take mother-daughter relationships as their main theme.

My Annoying Mother features a young woman named Gayoung, who dreams of becoming a film director, despite opposition and discouragement from her mother. She feels that a mother should cheer for, encourage, and help her daughter, yet her mother belittles her and criticises her skills and studies. To express her feelings, Gayoung chooses to make a movie about how much she hates her mother. The film My Annoying Mother maintains a bright and cheerful atmosphere until the end, and the use of film and direction as a plot device allows audiences to explore both sides of the mother-daughter relationship.

A Room of Two Women’s Own is a short film about housework, which is essential to our lives but is rarely respected as a “job.” In the film, writer Ji-young is struggling to keep up with her housework. There are two people in her life who want to help her out: her mother, and a ghost in her apartment named Muyoung (a Korean word meaning “nameless”). The film explores Jiyoung’s desire to rewrite her relationship with her mother while distancing herself from the things her mother takes care of for her.

Finally, My Little Aunt tells the story of the friendship between 12-year-old Soyoung and her aunt Ji-ran. It focuses on the idea of “liberation of the chest,” and happily depicts portraits of women of different generations set against the backdrop of Jeju Island. The women in this film display a sense of freedom despite their expectation of disharmony from the men in their lives, and the film depicts the life of and subtle changes in Soyoung’s mother, who is fairly conservative in personality. These three short films each explore the topic of “care” in their own way.

The final films of the program are animated short films That Summer and How to Get Your Man Pregnant. 

That Summer is the story of two girls who met and fell in love as teenagers. Their romance is set against a watercolour-like background that makes their love story seem soft and dreamlike. At age twenty, the two girls head into the city, but struggle to find their place in the world as they search for money, dreams, relationships, and their own queer identities. The film demonstrates how closely the personal, intimate act of love is linked to the social conditions that surround them.

Finally, How to Get Your Man Pregnant uses the lens of science fiction to examine the practical problems of pregnancy and childbirth. The contrast of the witty dialogue with the serious setting in which male pregnancy is possible enables both pleasant laughter and a thoughtful consideration of the issues presented. 

These films showcase the wide variety of ways in which films can express the problems that women face socially, as well as the concerns that plague them in their interpersonal relationships. Through these six colourful works, audiences have the opportunity to listen closely to the voices of female creators that are resonating in Korea.

Son Sinae

As the strand devoted to contemporary Korean film, Cinema Now surfs the Zeitgeist and rides the Hallyu’s crest, capturing the present in cross-section. This synchronic approach to a national cinema ensures two things in conflict: continuity, and novelty. For while the strand’s selection represents the cutting edge and the (roaring) current of Korean cinema today, the discoveries at that coalface have surfaced only because of what has been previously mined – and so every year Cinema Now uses the ever-shifting prism of the present to look backwards as much as forwards. 

Walk Up, for example, is a return – not just of the Festival’s old friend Hong Sangsoo, but of his typically simple seeming narrative format that conceals within it something more complex. Here, appropriately enough, Hong’s subject is time itself, which makes several abrupt leaps forward, even as the location – a semi-residential, multi-stor(e)y building – never changes. In this structure we see characters – including ageing film director Byungsoo (Kwon Haehyo), who would appear to be a stand-in for the director himself. Looking back in a different way is Lee Hae-young’s beautifully stylised Phantom, a classic whodunnit/spy adventure set during the Japanese Occupation, yet coming with all manner of kickass modern sensibilities. 

Park Sang-min’s sophisticated metamovie I Haven’t Done Anything uses a ‘screenlife’ format to show washed-out actor Oh Tae-kyung (played by the real Oh) drawing on his best known role from the past (a bit part in Oldboy (2003)) as he attempts to reinvent himself (or someone similar) as a Youtube influencer. This one builds from arbitrary-seeming chaos to an elegant conclusion that is as perfect as it is unexpected and cynically confronting. It is also, at 90 minutes, relatively short in duration for a Korean film these days. Even more compact and economic, despite a boldly involuted narrative structure, is Chang Hang-jun’s taut neo noir Open The Door, which looks back over the disintegrating lives of a migrant Korean family across two generations in New Jersey, while inverting its own episodic chronology to suggest inevitable, indeed Irreversible (2002) tragedy born out of early optimism, with every opened door closing on a brighter future. 

Similarly retrospective is Min Yong-keun’s postmodern portrait Soulmate, which not only looks back over many years of two women’s evolving friendship both as schoolmates and fellow artists, but is also a seamlessly relocated remake of an earlier Chinese film. Like the photorealist sketch at its centre, this is a (cinematic) trompe l’oeil, tricksier than it first seems. Also dealing with schoolgirl friendship, though otherwise very different, is Lim Oh-jeong’s punkishly anarchic Hail To Hell, in which two suicidal teenagers, out for revenge against their tormentor, find themselves at war with a doomsday cult, before seeking salvation on their own terms. There is simply nothing else out there like this. Meanwhile Lee Sol-hui’s Greenhouse shows a middle-aged carer and mother whose mental illness – along with a chain of bad decisions – lead her to spiral downwards in her increasingly inextricable professional and personal lives. The palpable tension here is pure Hitchcock. 

Anton Bitel

The composer of Parasite, Okja, Broker and Squid Game discusses his career.

BFI Southbank –Saturday 30 September 2023 18:10 – NFT1

Book your tickets here!

Award-winning composer Jung Jae-il is has created some of South Korea’s most popular scores. He has worked on titles such as Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Broker, Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Squid Game series and collaborated with Bong Joon Ho on Okja and Parasite. At this event, he will talk about the growing appeal of Korea’s cultural output overseas and discuss his critically acclaimed career.

In partnership with the Korean Cultural Centre UK and K-Music Festival 2023.

On 1 October the talented Jung Jae-il comes to the Barbican to perform alongside the London Symphony Orchestra. He will also perform pieces from his latest album.

Book at the Barbican website.

Please read the following job description and candidate specification carefully, telling us in your cover letter what brought you to apply for this role, and with what kind of professional skills you can contribute to the film festival.

Please submit your application (cover letter and CV) via email. Your cover letter should outline why you are interested in the role, as well as the skills and experience. The closing date for applications is 15th September 2023

Once applications have been processed, selected candidates will be invited to attend an interview.

For further information on the role please contact info@kccuk.org.uk.

We look forward to receiving your application.

(1) Terms and Conditions 

• Employer: Korean Cultural Centre UK
• Salary: £ 832/4 weeks (2 days/week basis) in September, £2,080/4weeks (5days/week basis) in October and November
• Term: 19 September – 1 December 2023. (Period of work is flexible, based on festivals needs) The position is offered on a temporary basis, it is a part-time post, covering the period in preparation, build up, operation and debrief of the 2023 London Korean Film Festival.
• Hours: 16 hours (2 days) per week in September, 40 hours(5days) per week in October and November. This will involve some weekend and evening work, and hours can be flexible to accommodate this.
• Notice Period: There is a 2-week probationary period, and if successful the candidate will be confirmed. Upon confirmation, either party will provide 2-weeks’ notice should they wish to terminate the agreement prior to the end of the contract
• Right to work: The successful applicant will be required to provide documentation that proves their right to work in the UK
• References: Offers of employment are subject to the receipt of two references
• Application: To apply for this position, send your CV and cover letter to info@kccuk.org.uk with ‘LKFF 2023 Marketing Coordinator’ in the subject line.
• Start date: 19 September 2023

(2) Job Description

The Marketing Co-ordinator is a core member of the festival team. The successful applicant will be creative and insightful, showing the ability to present both in-depth promotional content and fresh ideas that link Korean cinema with film culture in the UK.

(3) Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• To support the Festival Director to develop an overall strategy with regards to print distribution and offline promotion, and to ensure LKFF 2023 attracts large audiences.
• Managing and creating content for online platforms – e.g. the LKFF social media accounts, LKFF website
• To oversee the distribution of LKFF print marketing including ordering, payment and effective distribution of printed materials
• To design and deliver online campaign strategies for the festival including strand-specific e-newsletters, social media, festival & venue websites.
• To manage festival volunteers for the distribution of materials and other marketing tasks.
• To communicate regularly with a PR agency to build relationships with LKFF press lists and journalists, ensuring they are informed about upcoming films and events at LKFF.
• To identify and consider potential opportunities for cross-promotion and advertising with relevant external partners.
• To collaborate on all areas of marketing for the successful promotion of the festival, offering constructive, creative ideas to help generate ticket sales.
• General marketing and communications support, and any other duties relevant to the post as required by the festival team.

(4) Personal Specification

• At least three years’ experience of working in a film festival or similar cultural event in a marketing and/or press officer role
• Understanding of various screening formats, experience handling audio-visual content
• Experience working to budget on large scale cultural projects and working with multiple external agencies and partners
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise and to manage and meet changing deadlines
• Excellent attention to detail and confidentiality
• Good IT skills including MS Office, skilled in Excel
• Demonstrable commitment to the principles of diversity and inclusion and its practical application and integration in the work environment
• Ability to work flexible hours (there is a requirement to work outside contracted hours, including some evenings and weekends)
• Well-organised and effective at prioritising work and managing deadlines under pressure.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral.

Please read the following job description and candidate specification carefully, telling us in your cover letter what brought you to apply for this role, and with what kind of professional skills you can contribute to the film festival.

Please submit your application (cover letter and CV) via email. Your cover letter should outline why you are interested in the role, as well as the skills and experience. The closing date for applications is 30th July 2023

Once applications have been processed, selected candidates will be invited to attend an interview on 31 July 2023

For further information on the role please contact info@kccuk.org.uk.

We look forward to receiving your application.

(1) Terms and Conditions

• Employer: Korean Cultural Centre UK
• Salary: £ 832/4 weeks (2 days/week basis) in August and September, £2,080/4weeks(5days/week basis) in October and November
• Term: 1 August – 1 December 2023. (Period of work is flexible, based on festivals needs) The position is offered on a temporary basis, it is a part-time post, covering the period in preparation, build up, operation and debrief of the 2023 London Korean Film Festival.
• Hours: 16 hours (2 days) per week in August and September, 40hours(5days) per week in October and November.This will involve some weekend and evening work, and hours can be flexible to accommodate this.
• Notice Period: There is a 2-week probationary period, and if successful the candidate will be confirmed. Upon confirmation, either party will provide 2-weeks’ notice should they wish to terminate the agreement prior to the end of the contract
• Right to work: The successful applicant will be required to provide documentation that proves their right to work in the UK
• References: Offers of employment are subject to the receipt of two references
• Application: To apply for this position, send your CV and cover letter to info@kccuk.org.uk with ‘LKFF 2023 Production Coordinator’ in the subject line by 30th July 2023
• Interview period:31 July 2023
• Start date: 1 August 2023

(2) Job Description

The post holder will be in charge of planning the delivery of the film programme and assisting in producing & distributing online and offline material. In addition, the post holder is expected to cooperate with distributors and venue partners.

(3) Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• In coordination with the Festival Producer, liaise with distributors with regards to invitation and delivery of screening materials for all public screenings
• To coordinate the transportation of films and accompanying paperwork, booking both national and international couriers (eg Federal Express, DHL etc)
• Managing and collecting content for marketing materials – e.g. the LKFF social media accounts, LKFF website
• To assist the Marketing Coordinator with production of on screen marketing assets and/or any additional on screen assets associated with the special events
• Research related materials and prepare program brochure
• Ad hoc assistance on site during the festival days, e.g. liaising with members of the public or guests & partners, handing out audience feedback surveys, volunteer desk supervision, etc.

(4) Personal Specification

• At least three years’ experience of working in a film festival or similar cultural event in a production role
• Knowledge of the Korean film industry and the UK distribution scene & film festival environment
• Copywriting and proof reading skills for off-line and on-line promotion
• Understanding of various screening formats, experience handling audio-visual content
• Experience working to budget on large scale cultural projects and working with multiple external agencies and partners
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to prioritise and to manage and meet changing deadlines
• Excellent attention to detail and confidentiality
• Good IT skills including MS Office, skilled in Excel
• Demonstrable commitment to the principles of diversity and inclusion and its practical application and integration in the work environment
• Ability to work flexible hours (there is a requirement to work outside contracted hours, including some evenings and weekends)
• Well-organised and effective at prioritising work and managing deadlines under pressure.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral.

코리아 시즌 한국영화 특별상영회 기간제 인력 모집 공고

주영한국문화원은 코리아 시즌 한국영화 특별상영회의 원활한 진행을 위해 아래와 같이 기간제 인력을 모집합니다.

1. 주요업무

○ 상영작 선재물 확보 및 관리

○ 상영회 기간 중 상영회 및 행사 운영 전반 관리

○ 초청게스트 전체 일정 구성 및 관리

○ 초청게스트 입출국 및 부대행사 시 수행 업무

○ 각종 부대 행사 준비 및 진행 협조

○ 상영회 진행 지원

○ 기타 상영회와 관련하여 필요한 제반 업무 지원

2. 응모자격

○ 영국 체류 자격에 문제가 없는 자 (관광비자 등 일을 할 수 없는 비자 제외, 별도 비자 발급 지원 불가)

○ 영어 및 한국어에 모두 능통한 자

○ 영화제, 영화 배급사 및 영화/문화 행사 등 관련 분야 경력자 우대

○ 영화 이론 및 실기 전공자 우대

○ MS 오피스 (워드, 엑셀) 사용 필수, 어도비 디자인 (포토샵, 인디자인) 및 프로젝트 관리 프로그램 사용 가능자 우대

3. 제출서류

○ 자기소개서, 이력서 (자유 양식) 국문 1부 및 영문 1부 (총 2부)

○ 자격요건에 부합하는 자격증, 경력증명서 사본 등 제출 가능

4. 전형절차

○ 서류전형 ￫ 면접전형 ￫ 최종합격

5. 근무기간 및 시간

○ 기간: 2023년 8월부터 11월

○ 주 2일 / 09:00 – 17:30 (8월), 주 3일 / 09:00 – 17:30 (9월), 주 5일 / 09:00 – 17:30 (10-11월)

※ 행사 일정에 따라 필요시 야간 및 주말 근무

※ 첫 2주는 수습시간으로, 수습기간 후 평가를 통해 정식 채용이 확정됨.

6. 보수

○ 시급 £11 ~ £12 (문화원 규정 및 지원자 경력에 따라 책정)

7. 접수처

○ 이메일 지원 (info@kccuk.org.uk)

○ 접수 시 이메일 제목 란에 ‘ 코리아 시즌 한국영화 특별상영회 기간제 근로자 지원’을 명시하기 바람

8. 서류 접수기한

○ 2023년 7월 25일(화)

9. 기타 참고사항

○ 서류 심사 통과자에 한해 개별 면접을 2023년 7월 27일 혹은 7월 28일에 실시

○ 서류 통과 여부, 구체 면접 일정, 최종합격여부는 해당자에게만 개별 통보

○ 제출 서류는 반환하지 않으며, 기재내용이 사실과 다른 경우 채용을 취소할 수 있음

주영한국문화원

Korean Cultural Centre UK

The Korean Cultural Centre UK is proud to welcome you back to this year’s documentary strand of our Korean Film Nights, a year-round programme of film screenings and discussions. Following on from 2022’s theme Living Memories, which focused on preserving memories and the truth through documentary, we continue to investigate the documentary form with our new season Labour(s) of Love, curated by MA film students from Birkbeck, University of London. By examining the lives of workers whose labour shapes the fabric of the world we live in, the meaning of ‘labour’ will be shown to inhabit life-structuring activities that promote community, passion, love, and not just arduous handiwork.

This selection considers documentary as a tool that can galvanise labourers into unionising while revering them for their often under-looked roles in defining modern society. By inspecting the individual acts of passion that go into each documented act of labour, the films propose that labour is often inseparable from an act of love as we witness how the workers’ambitions transform the world around us. These passionate pursuits range from the celebration of an architect’s life-long vision to the work that is put into forging long-term loving relationships. The eclectic mix of work presented in the series not only celebrates how labour works as a guiding principle in our lives but offers suggestions into how labour should be regulated under political systems to respect the livelihoods of the labourers in question.

We begin our programme by looking at labour in its most distilled form with Kim Jeong-keun’s Underground (2019). The film provides a detailed account of what goes into upkeeping a successful metropolitan subway system by following the metro workers of Busan. Through hypnotic sequences of labour in action, and fly-on-the-wall accounts of the behind the scenes bureaucracy, the audience comes to understand the intricate marvel that is the metro system while developing an understanding of why metro workers have to strike to defend their rights.

While Underground is a holistic look at labour under the banner of a large organisation, the core of our program focuses on microcosmic variations of labour with Jeong Jae-eun’s Talking Architect (2012) and Kwon Woo-jung’s Earth’s Women (2010). Talking Architect follows the free-spirited architect Chung Gu-yon in the days leading up to an exhibition celebrating his life work. Jeong’s gentle observations present Gu-yon with the opportunity to elaborate upon the artistic process that guides his work and reveals how an artist’s genuine love of their craft can develop the world around them, and the frustrations that can develop when corporate greed holds his chosen art form hostage.

Continuing the pursuit of personal labours of love, Earth’s Women concerns itself with the lives of three women with lifelong interests in agriculture. Through the labour of these salt of the earth farmers, the significance of labour’s importance in upkeeping our daily existence becomes apparent. Like with many people, the work for these women does not end at 5 o’clock: labour’s day-long hold is documented via the political activism and care work of the women; they are defined not by a singular form of labour, but the labour that occurs around them and provides self-fulfilment all year-round.

After seeing labour manifested in various guises, the programme culminates by considering it in its most abstract form: labour as an act of love and compassion. Jin Mo-young’s My Love, Don’t Cross That River (2014) reveals that the prior acts of labour (infrastructure, architecture, and farming) are necessary in permitting a seventy year relationship between two people to blossom healthily. The lifelong commitment between an elderly married couple is put under tender examination as Jin documents in devastating detail the care Kang Kye-yeol puts into supporting her dying nonagenarian husband. Although the subject matter is forlorn, Kye-yeol’s arduous labour reveals a lifetime commitment to loving, and the long shots of her labour sublimate the quotidian activities of her life. The couple’s story, and the rest of Labour(s) of Love, invites you to deliberate upon the role of labour in your life and the world around you.

Kat Haylett, Harry Bayley, Marcus Munroe, Raquel Morais, & Tyia Burnett