'Adult Kimjangha' Director Kim Hyun-ji’s New Film 'Namtaeryeong' Concludes a Press Conference Ahead of Its May 20 Release

〈Namtaeryeong〉 has wrapped up this press conference and is getting ready to meet the audience.

〈Namtaeryeong〉 is the new work by Director Kim Hyun-ji, who directed 〈Adult Kimjangha〉. It is a record of a new kind of solidarity created as Twitter-obsessed outsiders move back and forth between the on-site setting and the dual public squares of X (Twitter)—a digital native reality archive. At the May 14 media distribution preview screening and press conference, Director Kim Hyun-ji, as well as cast members Kwon Hyuk-ju, former Secretary-General of the National Council of Korean Farmers’ Unions, Ham Se-jin (Aru), and Yongju, were in attendance.

Director Kim Hyun-ji said, “When I first introduced 〈Adult Kimjangha〉, I was asked a lot, ‘How did you do something like this in the region?’” and added, “At that time, I told people that new stories are found on the margins—and this time, too, we started from the same sense of inquiry.” Kwon Hyuk-ju, former Secretary-General of the National Council of Korean Farmers’ Unions, said, “We felt that farmers had stories they wanted to share, even bringing their tractors to do it, but it was a society that wouldn’t listen to farmers’ voices no matter how we explained it. Neither the media nor society seemed very different.” He then reflected on the meaning of the time captured in 〈Namtaeryeong〉, saying, “But after going through the two-day, one-night journey in Namtaeryeong, even the farmers themselves started moving beyond, ‘Just listen to our story,’ and began to listen to other people’s stories, too.”

Ham Se-jin (Aru) and Yongju, who shared the situation on the ground with X (Twitter) at the time while taking part in Namtaeryeong, said, “Since I live alone and my family is far away, I thought I needed to tell people around me where I was.” They continued, “It was a tweet I posted out of fear, but the director suggested incorporating it into the film.”

〈Namtaeryeong〉 will be available in Korean theaters on May 20.