Deeper Than Face?to?Face: The Parallel Gaze and the Essence of Love Crafted by Ko Asung [Limelight]

A chilling gaze that stares fragility in the face in "Pabanneu"
Restoring dignity through gaze and silence, completing a story of self?reliance
Portraying the brave comfort offered by a scarred life

Film 'Pavane' stills

Mijeong (Ko Asung) in the Netflix film "Pavane" is a thoroughly marginalized person. She lives holding her breath at the very bottom of the standards set by the world. Ko Asung refused to confine this barren life to cheap pity or the mold of a stereotypical victim. Instead of hiding behind a flimsy veil, she completed a story of harrowing yet beautiful solidarity with eyes that stare straight at the wounds.

The first step toward that steady gaze was facing her own fragility. She described early?film Mijeong as "a person who has spent her entire life trying not to be noticed, like a microorganism that exists but cannot be seen."

The process of bringing this brutal transparency to the screen began with a thorough emptying out. She turned away from the easy path of drawing attention with drastic special makeup. Instead, she tried to adopt the shrunken gaze of someone painfully aware of their own weaknesses. Ko Asung confessed, "I also often hide my unconfident, shabby side when I'm alone," adding, "This was work that only became possible when I faced that frailty head?on."

Still cut from the movie 'Pabanneu'

The love that blossoms between Mijeong and Gyeongrok (Moon Sangmin) in their extreme isolation is not a sweet romance. It is the imperfect embrace of a man and a woman deeply scarred. Ko Asung tuned this precarious emotional line into a parallel gaze fixed on the same point. Instead of facing each other, they stand side by side, staring together into the dense darkness as they trace each other's lack. "I wanted to create a tension where they can hardly ever get close to each other," she said, "and this taut gaze became the driving force that shifted the axis of the narrative to Mijeong, who had been othered."

A representative example is the scene where they sit side by side in the cramped listening room of an LP bar, taking in the song "Do You Know This Kind of Heart." There is not a single line of dialogue. As Mijeong nods along to the melody, she cautiously steals a glance at Gyeongrok's face. When Gyeongrok turns his head, she hurriedly shuts her eyes; when his gaze slips past her, she secretly opens them again. With nothing but their misaligned eyes, the film plays hide?and?seek with a tremor they do not want discovered. Ko Asung recalled, "It was the first time that romance was allowed to these two people who had spent their whole lives just working," adding, "I held my breath while acting, worried that Moon Sangmin, who was in sync with me, might hear my heartbeat."

Once Mijeong is suffused with light, she resolutely casts off the shackles of being an object of observation. She firmly lifts the gaze that had always been fixed on the floor and leaps forward as the subject of her own emotions. Looking straight at Sera (Lee Idam), who despises her, she responds, "Stop deluding yourself that you're the only one who's special." Drawing on the warmth of others as her driving force, she learns how to stand up on her own and brilliantly restores the unique dignity that had been damaged. Ko Asung said, "I wanted to show the change in Mijeong, who engraved in her heart Gyeongrok's words, 'You didn't do anything wrong, so I wish you would square your shoulders.'"

Stills from the film 'Pavane'

The essence of these relationships, as she sees it, is independent standing on one's own. She believes that even after the film ends, Mijeong will be able to use the warmth Gyeongrok left behind as a lever to hold her own life upright. It is a conviction gained by acting out compassion, solidarity, and love in turn. "The direction when the two are together is important, of course, but isn't love the power that makes you stand tall on your own when you are left alone?"