Cannes Short Film Corner - Madness
Eun Ju's illusion of a perfect life is shattered when her son misbehaves in front of her women's church group.
Interview with Writer/Director TJ Choi
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
The idea of this film entered my mind a couple of years ago and continued to stew in my brain until I couldn't dwell creatively on anything else. Once I discovered Eun Ju, the main character of the film, and her struggle with finding purpose in her life, I was committed to telling her story.
I remember always telling myself to never make any movies with Korean people because then I would be seen simply as a Korean director. I had made a few short films already with this mentality in mind, but I found that I could never make something I enjoyed watching or anything that accurately reflected how I felt or what I thought. I realized that this weird set of rules I had created for myself didn't allow me to make movies that I really wanted to make. The character I saw so vividly in my mind was Korean- so I had to get over my fears.
I decided to set the film within a Korean-American community and try to be as accurate as possible with the culture and language WITHOUT the film depending on the ethnicity of the characters to exist. Her Koreanness was meant to be an attribute of her character, not the whole essence and purpose of the character. I also see a lack of stories with strong female characters that aren't simply accessories to the male characters, and I want to do my part to try to help contribute to righting that ship. And finally, I wanted to make a film that explored the desire to find your value in society- how having a different moral outlook than society can lead to a debilitating internal struggle- and how I believe that you should be able to allow yourself to be whoever it is that you want to be, even if it clashes with everything and everybody around you.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
You like dramatic films with a bit of edge and punch. You want to watch a movie that shows you a very specific world (Korean-American community in Orange County, California) that isn't represented in many other films but isn't dependent on the typical storytelling tropes of many other films that feature minorities (immigrant struggle, struggle of being said minority in America, etc). You often think of what your worth or purpose is in this world and want to watch a film that explores this struggle.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
I believe that revolving a story around a very specific community and personal themes is actually the best way to reach very many people. When people see somebody in a completely different setting, community, and language than themselves but see a similar struggle, it allows people to learn to be more empathetic towards people they would otherwise not even think about.
I wanted to express a lot of what I was personally going through and a lot of the philosophical and spiritual conundrums I was (and continue) dealing with- whether it's my Catholic upbringing clashing with my difficulty in believing in God- wondering how much of my self is influenced by my upbringing and how much was something that was inherent in my soul before I was even born- the hypocrisy of the general rules of morality in the world- the power struggle between men and women and even women with other women in the Korean-American community- and the eternal struggle with finding your worth in the world.
I was not trying to make an immigrant struggle film or a KOREAN movie- I was trying to make a film that featured a woman going through emotional and philosophical paradigm shift who happens to be Korean-American.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
I'm never satisfied with the quality of my work, so the script is always being edited and updated. It took me a solid year and at least fifty drafts before I was comfortable sharing the script with anybody, and when we started to cast/ crew and do rehearsals/ preproduction meetings I continued to shape the script according to the meetings and the crew/cast's input.
I also try not to be too strict about sticking to the script on set. If I feel like something I wrote isn't working in front of camera, I'll have no problem changing it instead of beating a dead horse. They say you make three movies- the one you write, the one you shoot, and the one you edit- and they say that for a reason I guess.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
For the most part its been positive and supportive. My parents liked it, so that was cool (and a first).
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I want to share this film with as many people as possible to do justice to all of the wonderful and talented people that made this film with me. I also feel like wearemovingstories is an incredibly open and inclusive community- a community that I believe in and agree with- and I'm down with that.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Whenever I see somebody do something I don't agree with or have an idea that differs from mine, I try not to ask
how could this person do this
and instead try to ask
why did this person do this.
I hope this film can help people that see Eun Ju in themselves to find courage to be open about who they are with those around them, and I hope that people that despise what Eun Ju stands for can find empathy and at least accept her intentions as pure.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
What would you do if your moral value system- your philosophy- your religion- your core beliefs- is vilified and condemned by everybody around you?
What are the key creatives developing or working on now?
We're currently just beginning to start entering the film into film festivals. I've written a rough draft of a feature film version of this short and I'm trying to hone that before sharing it with everybody I know to try to find funding for it.
Interview: May 2017
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series and music video. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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Madness
Eun Ju's illusion of a perfect life is shattered when her son misbehaves in front of her women's church group.
Length: 11min 01 sec
Director: TJ Choi
Producer: Jason Tamasco and Jerry Careccio
Writer:TJ Choi
Key cast: Greena Park, Daniel Juhn, Crystal Lee, Lena Hwang, Monica Cho, Jessica Yang, Yohan Lee
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):
Other: tjchoi.com/madness