The Fruits of Our Labor: Seoul, Our City Presents: A Memory

One of the recent projects I have been participating in is helping to write and act in a short film for an upcoming film contest called Seoul, Our Movie.

Seoul, Our Movie was created by the Park Brothers, Park Chan Wook and Park Chan Kyong. Both are well known directors in Korea, with Park Chan Wook being the director of famous films such as Oldboy and Joint Security Area. It was created to showcase a series of short films showing everyday life from different parts of Seoul.

Our short film is titled 'A Memory" and is a short film about a young man reminiscing about finding his first love in a coffee shop. We filmed the entire short film in Itaewon.

Please take the time to check out this and the other short films on the website. If you enjoyed it, please vote for it.

Sometimes, its good to participate in different creative outlets in Korea and gives me the opportunity to work some some really creative and awesome people.


Link to "A Memory"

Link to Seoul, Our Movie

Link to the youtube page

(14) 90 in 90: A Love that Will Never Die

It's no secret to people that know me how much I love film. I love watching film, I love talking about it. I love finding out the secret history of my favorite films, the steps it takes to craft a vision that begins in the mind and comes alive on the scree, to be shared with millions of people from all walks of life.

This is why I get incredibly giddy when I watch a film that I genuinely love. Like many things in life, getting swept off your feet doesn't happen too often. And also like life, we comes across dozens of moments that we experience one moment, and easily forget about the next. Life is filled with many moments, but there are only a precious few that we actually remember.

For me films are the same way. It may have come from devouring a massive amount of of celluloid in my life. While I can confidently say that I have watched hundreds of movies and films over the years, there are only a select handful that remain in my mind. 

These are more than just passing memories or cool moments that I can remember (although there are still plenty of those). These are stories, scenes and characters that have effected my entire life and being. They have sent images and messages that have been permanently implanted into my brain, moments in which I close my eyes, I can can still recall with such vivid clarity, they feel like recently experienced memories, even if the film or specific moments were first viewed years or months ago.

People often think its strange how much I love cinema. To them, it comes off as excessively possessed by something that has no true purpose in our lives. Something that is a in its most basic way, entertainment meant to distract us for a few hours. 

To me it is an easy answer to give. Cinema offer something more than entertainment. Dig deep enough you see something so pure and simple in its message, so incredibly human like in nature. 

This is because movies offer a heightened sense of emotion that we don't get from the real world. We, I, crave that stimulation because life is filled with tedium and toil for which most of will never escape from until the day we die. Most people walk blissfully through life and don't care about movies, seeing them as simple entertainment, a distraction. We want to feel something beyond what life offers.

But despite all of the thunder that movies provide, the best of them always have the smell of truth. What I remember from Star Wars isn't the Death Star explosion but that one moment where Luke looks to the horizon. That's one of the purest moments in cinema history as it crosses cultural barriers because it reaches the very core of the human condition; longing and hope for a better world.

No matter how many pyrotechnics there are, if the story doesn't resonate on a purely human level then all is lost because it then becomes an imitation of life. Hollow and shallow, like many forgotten memories and moments in our lives.

Moments that like bad movies, just seem to fade away from our minds. 

Parties are a reminder to have fun

I rarely stay out all night with people. I usually become bored or tired by the time the 1 AM mark comes around, wanting more than anything to go home to my quiet apartment rather than spend another minute in some smokey bar where obnoxious, loud music would be my only lullaby for the night. I'm picky like that with my socialization, it has to be the right people and the right place in order for me to feel comfortable and able to forget the hours passing rather than count them down until the first train back home. Maybe it's because I'm getting older. Maybe it's because I'm selfish and a bad friend. Maybe I just hate partying. The answers and their solutions could be endless, more than I have the time to investigate or care about.

Last Saturday was a special day, the birthday celebration of one of my friends, one of the first English teachers I met last year, and fellow film enthusiast. From the very beginning it was clear that her party was not intended to be an ordinary gathering of friends, booze and headaches in the morning. There would be plenty of that, but she wanted the party to be something special. Something that not only celebrated her day of entrance into our world, but also her favorite past time as well: the celebration of film and the moving picture.

Together with a few other friends, we planned her party and the details behind it. She wanted it to be a costume party, a party where guests came to dinner in costume, character or both and enjoyed each other's personalities come alive. After having her friends vote on each person and their respective character, we had time to assemble our costumes and characters before the party. Out of all the people, I was picked to be Christopher Walken. Personally, I would have loved to have been Harold Raimas from Ghostbusters, but if people wanted me to be The Walken, than damn it, I was Walken for a night.

Once the day came, we gathered at a restaurant large enough to fit a sizable group of people and not too long after the final guest showed up, the rediculousness began. I sat next to Aaron Johnson from Kick Ass, a shy introverted young man who dreamed of becoming a super hero. Across from me sat The Dude from the Big Lebowski, calm and laid back as in the movie, not quite understanding why Erin Brockovich was getting so upset next to him.

Velma from Scooby Doo was there and not too far from her was Michael Cera from Superbad looking as awkward and personality-less as ever. His girlfriend, Rosemary from Rosemary's Baby looked to be in good spirits despite having a (fake) demon baby growing inside of her. At the head of the table, sat the birthday girl herself: Penelope Cruz from the film Vicky, Christina Barcelona. Full of spite about her failed relationships and her apparent lack of not existing, her bitter and spiteful personality was on full display, taking any opportunity to insult and belittle guests who dared to speak to her. As for myself, I acted as cool as I could because, Walken, as we all know, is always cool.

After the weird rogue's gallery of assorted movie characters finished their meal, we made our way from the restaurant to go from club to club until we found a suitable spot. Luckily, the weather was not too cold, making the trek from place to place pleasant and all the more jovial since we were in good company. 

The city of Daegu was one of my favorite metropolitan cities in Korea for its clean streets and the close proximity of small shops and restaurants. It was often difficult to navigate around the city due to the building's close proximity and lack of decipherable landmarks, however this just added to its charm. It was a small maze of bright lights and little coffee shops filled with people walking everywhere. In Seoul, you could often feel trapped by the massive concrete pillars looming over you. Here, It felt like a leisurely downtown stroll.

We finally settled on a small night club called Jeep. It was tiny, dark and smelled like a ash tray that should have been thrown out years ago. The music they played ranged from bad pop to enjoyable beats. The song choices and atmosphere mattered little as we started to dance not long after settling in. Good and bad songs. Hip hop and hits from yesterday. We danced and danced until the early dawn and the first train prepared to leave the city. It was exhausting. It filled out lungs with smoke and our bodies with alcohol, but we didn't mind. Everyone was laughing and dancing. They didn't care about any of this. We were with each other, the ones we spent the most time with, the ones we came to when we were in trouble and the ones we relied on whether we wanted to admit it or not.

As I rode the long train home, I talked to one of my friends sitting next to me about a topic that I had no real knowledge in, nor anything useful to contribute. I simply wanted to keep talking, to enjoy the positive energy and make the party last a little longer.

I was reminded about a lot that night. I remembered how the right people can always make an event fun, and sometimes even more fun than it initially seems. I reminded myself to enjoy these moments and remember them, for like all things in life they pass along too quickly. I also reconfirmed that I was a horrible dancer. I don't know how to dance at clubs. I will probably never learn and don't really want to. My friends danced like they didn't care who was watching and despite some curious onlookers who eventually joined us, they weren't there to show off or look good in front of a crowd, they wanted to dance.

So they danced.  

No one uploaded pictures from the party yet, so here is a birthday cake. Yep. Delicious birthday cake.