Art Museum - The First Theatrical Release Film of Hong Jin-hwan, 'Oh, Valentine', Premiering on March 11

The film 〈Oh, Valentine〉 that senses the possibilities of an unyielding struggle and revolution through the historical testimonies of two individuals who were with the late Park Il-soo, a subcontracted worker at Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2004, will be released on March 11.

First unveiled in the Frontier section of the 17th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival last year, 〈Oh, Valentine〉 is the second feature documentary by director Hong Jin-hwan, who showcased a new world of Korean cinema with 〈Melting Ice Cream〉. Starting from the struggle of the late Park Il-soo, a non-regular subcontracted worker at Hyundai Heavy Industries in 2004, it conveys the story of a world where workers can live with dignity, through interviews, poetry, and songs of the two protagonists who remember him. This work, which has been presented in exhibition versions through [2024 Busan Biennale] and [2025 Title Match], traverses the past and present through split screens and overlapping sounds that are not easily seen in theaters, following various contemporary agendas such as labor and life, communism, eco-feminism, and ecological movements.

Director Hong Jin-hwan has created an original aesthetic through observing and intervening in the power relations surrounding photographs and images. In particular, his previous work 〈Melting Ice Cream〉 won the Terayama Shuji Award at the Image Forum Festival, gaining recognition for its unique aesthetic form. In Korea, he has gained recognition through positive reviews such as, "The field photographs of Hong Jin-hwan, which are extremely lacking in representativeness, often push the indexicality of photography to the extreme" (Yu Un-seong, film critic), "He seeks to question and create cracks in the restoration of privileged history through images" (Kim Ye-sol-bi, film critic), and "The film aims to see the irony of history and the medium itself by placing photography and video media in a counterpoint" (Jung Ji-hye, film critic). 〈Oh, Valentine〉 brings the tension and discord created by the heterogeneity of the media of video and photography to the forefront as a significant language of the film, exploring the history of the labor movement in Korea more deeply and broadly than in previous works.

Jo Sung-woong, who appeared as the head of the Hyundai Heavy Industries subcontractor union in the previous work, goes deep into the mountains of Hwacheon to cultivate the land and write poetry, while the folk singer Woo Chang-soo, who was active in the Gyeongnam region, creates children's songs with children at the Upo Wetland in Changnyeong and sings together. Within the aesthetics constructed by director Hong Jin-hwan, the two individuals reflect on memories of defeat and the solitude of the deep mountains, exploring new ways of living outside of capitalism. Through the present of the two protagonists and the death of a comrade, you will sense the unyielding possibilities of a new revolution. You will see how the composition and transitions of the screen become a significant language of the film, how the daily lives of the two protagonists and the landscapes of new movements can meet, and I hope you can feel it with a new sensibility that you have never seen before.