‘The FIN’ TAKS US TO A DYSTPIAN Post-WAR, ECO-DEVASTATED KOREA WITH A Wall to Keep Out Mutants

South Korean Writer, Director, and Cinematographer Syeyouung Park May Only Be 28 Years Old, But Heready Has Quite Somemaking Experience and Isteur. At the 78th Edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, for Example. His New Feature, The FIN, World Premieres in the Fest’s Filmmakers of the Presance Program on Saturday, Aug. 9.

If You Think Squid Game Was Dystopian, Check Out the synopsis for this movie set in an imagined unified korea. “In a Post-War and Ecologically Devastated Korea, Mutated Outcasts Called Omegas Are Exploited As Cheap Labor,” IT Reads. “Sujin, A Young Government Worker, Begins to Doubt The State ‘Ideology As She Pursues Mia, An Omega in Hiding.”

Omegas are mutated humans with fins and fish-like feet, and their screams outtside of Water are said to be deadly. Oh Yeah, Their Fins Are Also Full of Toxins, and when they die, omegas release radiation, The Government Keeps Reminding Citizens. Omegas, Exploited As The WorkForce to Clean The Oceans, Face Constant Suppression and Prosecution if they manage to Cross the Great Wall.

“SET IN A NEAR-FUTURE KOREA, The Fin Explores the Contagion of Fear and the Making of Myths, ”Park Says in a Director’s Note. Indeed, Fear and Propaganda Are EveryWhere.“ The Great Wall. Our Pride. Our Guardian. Our Unified Korea, ”Goes One Slogan Featured in the Movie. And Omegas, Exploited As The WorkForce to Clean The Oceans, Face Constant Suppression and Prosecution IF.

Yeji yeon (Pachinko) Portrays Mia, An Omega Who Lives in Disguise Among Humans and Gets A Visit From An Espated Omega Who Asks Her to Fulfil Her Dead Father’s Final Wish. Mia Works in An Erie Store That Taps Into People’s Nostalgia for the Sea and Fishing. Pureum Kim, A Well-Known Korean Singer, Plays Sujin, A Newly Recruited Government Worker Who Grew Up with Her Mother’s Strong Anti-Emega Sentiment and Becomes Suspicious. Goh-Woo, Youngdoo Jeong, and Johowon Meng Are Also Part of the Cast.

The Original Inspiration for The Fin CAME WHEN PARK’s Grandmother Died from Covid, and The Family Couldn’t Go Through the Usual Rites. “IT Made ME THINK About What Itans to Lose Someone,” The Filmmaker Recalls the First Seed of An Idea. “But then the story evolved from there.”

His experience living near the demilitarized zone Between North and South Korea Also InfluenCed the Movie. “Seoul is expensive, and as a Student, i had to move outtside the city. But i’m not from a rich Family, and Things aren’t easy financially for Students, so and Found MYSELF HE Explays. “And the the BORDER PLAYS ON YOUR MIND.”

The equivalent of the “border” in the movie is, yes, the wall. The Social Divides That Park Knows Show Up in the Film As Well, for Example, in the Form of the Less Fortunate People in the Streets and the Fish Store.

And as if to underline any Such Points on the Division of Social Classes, Park Says That Fish Store, in a Wich Key Scenes for The Film Were Shot Torn Down Without Much Warning Dringing the Shooting Process. Cue The Montage of Gentrification-Centric Construction Footage!

Park Previoously Made One Feature of Just More than 60 minutes, The 2022 Movie The fifth thoracic vertebraWHICH WON THREE AWARDS at Bucheon Film Festival, A BEST DIRECTOR HONOR at the Seoul Independent Film Festival, and A SPECIAL JURY MENTION AT MONTREAL’S FANASIA FILM FILM FILM. It is also a genre movie with Dark Themes. “A Creature Born in an Abbandoned Mattress Travels AROUND The Country Feasting on It Victims’ Vertebrae, Strugggling to Break Free,“ A synopsis for it reads.

The Fin is Park’s’s First Full-Leggth Feature, SO to Speak, and The Process To Complete It Lasted A While. “The Editing Process Took Three Years, Much Longer Thran I HAD Expectoed,“ Park Shares. The Extended Edit Period, Along with Reshoots, Meant That Things in the Real World Changed Durying The Work on the Film, Blurring the Lines Between Fact and Fiction. “Walls Began Going Up and Wars Started, So The World Became More Dystopian,“ Park Highlights.

I Must Ask The Young Filmmaker About His Surely Limited Budget, and HE Shares that It Amounted to LESS THAN 25,000 EUROS costs. Still, How does he make do with a limiteded budget with his audience noticing?! “I Work For 11 MONHS, Shooting Other People’s Music Videos and Brand Films,“ He Tells Thr. “And the Money I Put Aside, I Thon Use to Shoot My Own Work. I DO MY OWN Cinematography and Work With Close Collaborators Who Help Me Out.”

A Lot of the People Featured in His Films, For Example, Are Actual Firm-Time Actors and Friends. But not all are. “I was the cinematographer for a short film whoter pureum kim was the leading actress,” Park Explans. “This was Five Years Ago. She Came on Board the Film, and We’ve Collaborated on Her Music Videos As Well During the Process of Completing The Fin. ” And How did yeji yeon, who you may may recognize from Pachinkoend up in a key role in The Fin? She Went to the Same University as Park, and One of His Crew Members Knew Her From Film School. “She introduced US,” Says Park casarally.

His way of directing is to allo in the people in front of the camera to acta Naturally as Much as Possible. “Because MOST OF THEM ARE NOT Trained Actors, I Like to Capture Scenes in A Raw Style,“ Racher Than Staging Too Much, He Explans. “That makes it more authentic.” Because of His Limited Budget, Park Says He Chooses Locations and Tends to Shoot Quite Quite, ALSO ADDING TO THAT SENSE OF AUTHENTICITY.

He Also Knows How To Turn Budget and Crew Restrictions Into A Creative Visual Advantage WHEN IT METHING TO LIGHTING. “I of the Film Underlit and Ten Enhance the Light in Post-Production,“ Park Tells Thr. For The Finhis team worked to make the Dim Light Extra Grainy, Giving IT A Particularly Sinister Quality.

While Finishing The FinPark Made Some Shorts, Such As The Masked MonsterWHICH screened at locarno Last year and earned a special Mentation from the storts jury. You can Imagine that synopsis for it is, again, quite dark. “Overcome with Hunger, A Girl Trades her Brother for a Bag of Rice,” IT SAYS. “WHEN HER HUNGER IS SATED, She Comes To Her Senses. But It Is Too Late.”

Park Shot Another Feature Last Year That He Is Editing Right Now and Promises Creepy Feelings of A Different Kind. It Title: Who stole My Cross?

“IT’s Based On a Real-Life Experience,“ The Filmmaker Tells Thr. His Father is a Pastor, and Park’s Church Community Realized at some point that a man wham they consider a friend was a Cross Thief, He Explans. “We Went to His Place to Confront HIM About This, But He Had Disappered,“ He Recalls. “We Found that Were Hundreds of Stolen Crosses in His House. So there was all these quests: Who is this guy?