Synopsis
"고향이 없슴니다" is a short film about a fictional stand-up comedian who continually goes through cyberbullying on various social media platforms. In the film, the protagonist, Z, talks about their struggles of being Asian American (who has now returned to live in South Korea for their career) and how they cope with it all using stand-up comedy. The entire short takes place in a therapy session and uses chairs as a metaphor for different people and audiences.
Stills
Details
IHNH was created for the Visual Story class final at Sogang University. The assignment was to create a story about cyberbullying while incorporating stand-up comedy into the film, referencing the introductory novel of this assignment, A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman. The concept art (below) includes various elements from the novel plus outside material related to the mood of the work. "No Place" and "I Have No Hometown" are both titles of songs from the band HYUKOH, which I was listening to while creating this work. When deciding on a title for this short film, my co-producer, Hanul Kim, proposed using "I Have No Hometown"—once we reviewed the song's lyrics, we knew it was the perfect fit for our film and the character's inner psyche.
Hanul and I filmed at 서강대학교 X관 (Sogang University's Immersive Hall), where we had the freedom to project footage of our choice onto the plain walls in the hall. We utilized a mix of original footage and stock footage to create a variety of settings within an enclosed space. Drawings made on Procreate enhanced each frame with elements from the script. Visual inspiration was pulled from both Chungking Express (dir. Wong Kar-wai) and Dear Ex (dir. Mag Hsu and Hsu Chih-yen). IHNH was filmed, edited, and completed within 3 days.
IHNH combines Hanul and I's personal stories navigating life as a native Korean part of the LGBTQ+ community and an Asian American immigrant respectively. Our protagonist Z is pessimistic, rash, and perhaps a bit lonely, but the audience will find that Z's attitude is justified by their experiences. Z attends a therapy session in this film to navigate their struggles thus far and why they do stand-up comedy in the first place. Towards the end of the film, Z softens, showing a bit of vulnerability to the therapist, but builds up walls once again as the film ends—a single therapy session is only the first step.
성북청춘불패영화제 2nd Seongbuk Youth Invincible Film Festival 2022
Top 30 Finalist out of 806 entries
Top 30 Finalist out of 806 entries
IHNH was first premiered at the 2nd Seongbuk Youth Film Festival in Seoul, South Korea on November 11, 2022. Out of 806 entries, only 30 entries would become finalists to be premiered at the festival and be in the running for the grand prize. IHNH was selected as a finalist and was placed in the 8th showing.
All rights to Chloe (Hui) Penaflor and Hanul Kim (김한울)