º»¹® ¹Ù·Î°¡±â ¸Þ´º ¹Ù·Î°¡±â

15th DMZ Docs(2023)

I AM DOCU



What Is the Weather Like There?

CHAE Hyeongsik

  • Korea
  • 2022
  • 101min
  • G
  • DCP
  • color

World Premiere

Synopsis

Youlim receives a rejected script from a director. After reading it, she stages her own performance. Adapting the script to her vision, she fragments it into several narratives. As she does so, she adds annotations in the margins of the script. Despite her desire to distance herself from these unfinished stories, she may find herself compelled to rewrite or expand the script, despite her urge to move beyond these unfinished narratives. 

Review

A plot dividing inside as fiction and outside as reality is a commonly used composition in narratives that cover the border between documentary and fiction. What Is the Weather Like There takes this composition, just like Director Chae Hyeongsik¡¯s former film, Invisible Actors. The film features scenarios and lives expressed by Actress Yoo Yu-lim who plays multiple roles. In the film, Yoo criticizes and argues back the story script, acts as a mother whose son is an unknown actor, and gets involved in similar situations. The image track occasionally displays texts from the script and they sometimes repeat in different angles, as if they are trying to imprint their properties. Should it be seen as the exploration of conditions of the actor¡¯s presence? Or is it trying to point out the nature of human who acts regardless of occupational duties? The settings are acceptable when they are interpreted as the conditions of films and documentaries. The majority of images are flat, and monologue and conversation are out of focus. Even though acting and life are strictly separated, the borders gradually get vague in the film. This asks the question of the borders between film, documentary, and reality. 

Director

  • CHAE Hyeongsik

    Since participating in the independent film production workshop at MEDIACT in 2008, Chae has been immersed in the study and creation of films. His feature documentary debut, Invisible Actors (2018), was presented at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.

Credit