[Jeon Chan-il's Cultural Talk] Deciding to Return, Cannes Film Festival

The 75th Cannes Film Festival (from the 17th to the 29th), almost “normalized” like before COVID-19, will be held in a few days. The author, who has visited Cannes 20 times from 1997 to 2017 except for 1999, is heading back to Cannes after five years. With excitement comparable to the first visit... Four Korean films have entered the official sections, and another one will be showcased as the closing film in the Critics' Week, marking a historic first for Korean cinema, so how could one not be excited?

The four films are Park Chan-wook’s competition entry Decision to Leave, Koreeda Hirokazu’s Korean film Broker, Lee Jung-jae’s midnight screening film Hunt (in which he also directed), and Moon Su-jin’s Callus, one of the nine short films competing. Additionally, Jung Joo-ri’s Next Sohee, who was noted in the 2014 Un Certain Regard section with Dohee-ya, will have its world premiere in Cannes’ unofficial parallel section.

These Korean films are likely to become major or minor topics in the ongoing wave of “Hallyu.” Among them, Hunt is sure to cause a sensation alongside Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick (directed by Joseph Kosinski), who is approaching his 60s. The spotlight on Lee Jung-jae, who became a global top star after the record-breaking success of Squid Game, is expected to be “unprecedented.” Moreover, with Korea’s representative star actor Jung Woo-sung and the distinguished supporting actor Heo Sung-tae, who also made a strong impression in Squid Game, joining the cast, it cannot be otherwise.

Callus, the first Korean animated film to be included in the short film competition, is generating great expectations to replicate the honor of Safe (directed by Moon Byung-gon), which won the Palme d’Or in 2013. Regardless of whether it wins, it is already a remarkable achievement in the history of Korean animation. Similarly, Next Sohee, which revolves around “two women,” middle school girl Dohee (played by Kim Sae-ron) and her savior, police station chief Young-nam (played by Bae Doo-na), depicts the “after Dohee-ya” story. It is a human drama that dramatizes the events experienced by high school student Sohee (Kim Si-eun) during her field training at a call center and the story of detective Yoo-jin (Bae Doo-na), who questions these events.

Although it is called one of the world’s top three film festivals, Cannes’ historical prestige and impact are unrivaled by Berlin or Venice. The biggest points of interest at Cannes 2022 are, of course, the buzz and final awards surrounding Decision to Leave and Broker. Park Chan-wook previously won the Jury Prize, the equivalent of second place, in 2004 for Oldboy and the Jury Prize again in 2009 for Thirst. However, he returned empty-handed with The Handmaiden (2016), his first period drama, which featured outstanding performances by Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-ri. As a “Cannes favorite,” it is natural to hope for glory like Parasite (2019, Bong Joon-ho) when he returns with his fourth competition film after six years. The suspense-filled melodrama follows detective Hae-joon (Park Hae-il), who investigates a death in the mountains and meets the deceased’s wife Seo-rae (Tang Wei), feeling both suspicion and interest. The mere fact that Tang Wei, who starred in director Ian’s “Love Trilogy” final film Lust, Caution (2007), and Park Hae-il, who played Yi Sun-sin in Kim Han-min’s second installment of the “Yi Sun-sin Trilogy” Hansan: Rising Dragon, come together is thrilling.

What about Broker? Directed by Koreeda Hirokazu, who won the Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters, it is a highly anticipated film featuring a cool cast including Song Kang-ho, Kang Dong-won, Bae Doo-na, IU (Lee Ji-eun), and Lee Joo-young. It depicts an unexpected special journey of characters who form unintended relationships around a baby box. Beyond the story, the cast and the stature of the director, who is at the pinnacle of Japanese auteur cinema, make it impossible not to be curious whether Koreeda will win his second Palme d’Or.

Expectations for acting awards for Decision to Leave are naturally high. Especially for Song Kang-ho, who rose to global stardom after Parasite, even if not as much as Lee Jung-jae. At the production briefing held on the morning of the 10th at CGV Yongsan, it was natural for him to be asked about his chances of winning Best Actor. A longtime fan of director Koreeda, Song expressed that being offered the role was an honor regardless of winning. However, considering the “politics of film festivals” and other factors, it is also true that the time has come for Song Kang-ho to win a leading actor award. It even feels somewhat overdue. His colleague and junior actress Jeon Do-yeon already won Best Actress 15 years ago for Miryang (2007).

As expected, Koreeda said that when writing the script, he had Song Kang-ho in mind for the role of Sang-hyun, the laundromat owner who is always in debt. In a video meeting with Korean media, the director praised Song, saying, “He creates a character where good and evil subtly intersect,” and “I have always thought of him as an excellent actor who expresses a character with not a single color but many hues.” Ultimately, Song Kang-ho is the starting point of Broker. The fact that Vincent Lindon, a French representative actor who won Best Actor at the 68th Cannes in 2015 for The Measure of a Man and gave an impressive performance in last year’s Palme d’Or winner Titan (directed by Julia Ducournau), is the head of the nine-member competition jury is also favorable for Song Kang-ho.

Besides Koreeda, four previous Palme d’Or-winning directors are on the jury: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (directors of Tori and Lokita), Cristian Mungiu (R.M.N.), and Ruben ?stlund (The Triangle of Sadness). Masters worthy of the Palme d’Or such as David Cronenberg (Crimes of the Future), Jerzy Skolimowski (EO), and Claire Denis (Stars at Noon), as well as future masters like Ali Abbasi (Sacred Spider), widely known to Korean cinephiles for Border (2018), and Kelly Reichardt (Showing Up), famous for challenging works like First Cow (2019), will also be featured in Cannes this year. In any case, Cannes 2022 will be an exciting film festival that shakes off the relative slump of the past two years due to COVID-19 and regains its usual prestige.

Jeon Chan-il, Film Critic