Director Jeong Ji-young, who directed the film ‘My Name Is’. Photo Letsfilm, Aura Pictures
At an age closing in on eighty, director Jeong Ji-young is the oldest filmmaker still active in the South Korean film industry. Yet his boldness is such that even the cast acknowledges it. He consistently maintains a critical eye and is tireless in raising questions about a range of social issues. Such were ‘Nambugun’, which dealt with ideology, ‘White War’, which addressed the Vietnam War, and ‘Broken Arrow’, which depicted the crossbow attack on a judge.
This time, he has turned one of the traumas of modern South Korean history, the Jeju April 3 Incident, into a film. It is ‘My Name Is’, starring Yeom Hye-ran and Shin Woo-bin, which opened last month. The urgency driving Director Jeong is fierce enough to astonish lead actor Yeom Hye-ran, but in the way he tells the story he considered points of connection with the public. He chose a directing approach that naturally weaves April 3 into a woman’s journey to reclaim her name.
“Jeju residents are still suffering from April 3, but people on the mainland hardly know about it. Young people even less so. I thought a straight April 3 film would be difficult from the start, so I wondered about a film that searches its way toward April 3. You may not know it, but for Jeju residents it was something they had to overcome. In the end, overcoming? Recovery? I came to think it is a film about recovering love.”
Director Jeong Ji-young, who directed the film ‘My Name Is’. Photo Letsfilm, Aura Pictures
He met Yeom Hye-ran in his previous 2023 film ‘Boys’. She played the wife of lead actor Seol Kyung-gu, and her vivid yet nuanced performance matched Director Jeong’s taste. From then on, he began writing the role of Jeong-sun with Yeom Hye-ran in mind. Coincidentally, he also watched her play Jeju mother Jeon Gwang-rye in ‘When Life Gives You Tangerines’. The extent of Director Jeong’s trust in her is clear from how he entrusted everything to her in the highlight barley field dance scene.
“Why did it have to be April 3 now? I thought someone else would do it. If I were to handle it vaguely, then ideology or division would have to come up again. I had already dealt with that in ‘Nambugun’ and ‘Namyeong-dong 1985’. I hoped someone else would do it. But investment was hard to see. Just then, the April 3 Peace Foundation brought a prizewinning proposal, but it did not really appeal to me. The idea was good. In the end, I began when they asked whether I could start from that idea.”
As of the 5th, ‘My Name Is’ is approaching 200,000 moviegoers and is running second at the independent and art-film box office following director Lee Myung-se’s ‘Ran 12.3’. Building on recognition from appearances on the YouTube program ‘Maebul Show’ and elsewhere, it was produced with support from nearly ten thousand citizens. Not long ago, President Lee Jae Myung and his spouse also watched the film together. The veteran director’s pride did not lie elsewhere. The thought that people are still seeing his message and story and trusting him has become the source of his strength.
A scene from the film ‘My Name Is’ by director Jeong Ji-young. Photo CJ CGV, Wide Release
“When I said it was a meaningful film, many actors stepped up to help. Actors such as Yoo Jun-sang, Oh Ji-ho, and Oh Yoon-ah did so. They said, ‘I will appear without thinking about money,’ but unfortunately we could not bring in everyone. At minimum we should cover transportation, but even that was not possible. Kim Min-jae also appeared, and because he is from Jeju he was able to join. In the latter part, all the townspeople were theater practitioners from Jeju.”
His message still resonates abroad, and the film was invited to the Forum section of the Berlin Film Festival. His films, of course, include love and friendship. There is jealousy and hatred between people, but many of these causes stem from particular incidents or from the social mood of the time. True stories always carry resonance, yet for a director they can also be burdensome material. Even so, the veteran director’s reason for making films based on true events was simple and clear.
A scene from the film ‘My Name Is’ by director Jeong Ji-young. Photo CJ CGV, Wide Release
“I certainly want to keep working with such material. But I do not know how long I can do it. A film director needs to be called upon and hired. In the end, it has to succeed at the box office. In a rapidly changing era, I do wonder whether the works and themes I aim for will remain valid.”
Director Jeong Ji-young is preparing his next film as well. As it is a large-scale project, he laughed, “An investor needs to step up. Panhandling will not do.” As one can feel in his work, it is a film underpinned by a weighty message.
Director Jeong Ji-young, who directed the film ‘My Name Is’. Photo Letsfilm, Aura Pictures
“An artist should not shoot while thinking about the audience but should follow one’s own desire. If you make a film while worrying, ‘How much will the audience understand my story?’, it becomes too unfamiliar. Then I feel I am not an artist. I suppose that is my temperament. Perhaps a tendency from when I was a bookish boy remains. In my school days I read many novels and plays about society after the war. I was fascinated by how the relationships between society, history, and events are revealed. I liked Hitchcock. There is mystery in my films, but in the end, whether it is personal love or affection, I think everything exists within the flow of society and history. I believe it is impossible apart from that influence. It is not some great act of courage. In the end, I simply want to do the work that others are not doing.”
