• Home
  • Film Reviews
  • Essays/Features
  • Blu-Ray/DVD
  • About
  • Back Issues
Menu

Cinema Adrift

Film 'Zine (+Site) for Film Freaks
  • Home
  • Film Reviews
  • Essays/Features
  • Blu-Ray/DVD
  • About
  • Back Issues

BATSU FILM FESTIVAL BLOG

Our Favorite Japanese Films of 2018

Our Favorite Japanese Films of 2018


*NEW ISSUE*
NOVEMBER 2017
VOL. VIII - The Modern Canon

Vol. VIII - The Modern Canon Find out more on MagCloud)
VOL VII RETRO2016 OUT NOW

VOL VII
RETRO2016 OUT NOW

download.png

VOLUME 6 OUT NOW


Cinema Adrift

Film reviews, Blu-ray/DVD reviews, defenses of films, and a slight bias towards Japanese film. Cinema Adrift aims to cover a diverse set of films and is always looking for contributors.




New releases.
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention released Absolutely Free fifty years ago this month. Smother your daughters in chocolate syrup.

#mothersofinvention #frankzappa #absolutelyfree #callanyvegetable #brownshoesdontmakeit
Oxhide (Liu Jiayin, 2005)

#cineriftmocan

RECENT POSTS
Jason's Favorites of 2018
Jan 5, 2019
Jason's Favorites of 2018
Jan 5, 2019

Michael Myers and Mary Poppins returned, entertainment famine and brain cell death in the wake of the Infinity War despite record breaking war bonds sold, and the caps lock was turned on when writing on the whiteboard. Let’s all be frank about the good movies from 2018.

Read More →
Jan 5, 2019
Dec 23, 2017
Jason's Favorites of 2017
Dec 23, 2017

A24 batted a thousand, but Neon is hot on their heels. Also: Edgar Wright rights his past wrongs with substance and superhero movies finally become good thanks to Amazonian golden bondage play. For All the Daddy's Love in the World.

Read More →
Dec 23, 2017
Dec 19, 2017
Film Review: On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sang-soo)
Dec 19, 2017
Read More →
Dec 19, 2017
Nov 7, 2017
Film Review: Radiance (Naomi Kawase)
Nov 7, 2017

EDITOR'S CHOICE: Kawase's film is profound and emotional, relating the unspoken quality of art to human connection.

Read More →
Nov 7, 2017
Nov 6, 2017
SDAFF 2017: Claire's Camera (Hong Sang-soo)
Nov 6, 2017

Shorter than most of his other films but just as alluring.

Read More →
Nov 6, 2017
Nov 6, 2017
Film Review: Have a Nice Day (Liu Jian)
Nov 6, 2017

A tired crime premise allows room for throwaway moments to become the substance.

Read More →
Nov 6, 2017
Oct 31, 2017
Film Review: Dragonfly Eyes (Xu Bing)
Oct 31, 2017

Compiled from thousands of hours of CCTV, reality tries to fend off melodrama in Xu Bing's foray into feature film making.

Read More →
Oct 31, 2017
Oct 13, 2017
Book Review: Unchained Melody - The Films of Meiko Kaji by Tom Mes
Oct 13, 2017

Tom Mes' overview of Meiko Kaji's career is more than an overblown Arrow Video booklet even if it doesn't spend very much time in her post-Snowblood career.

Read More →
Oct 13, 2017
Oct 10, 2017
Film Review: Friend Request
Oct 10, 2017

Not as impressive as Unfriended but held up by a strong metaphor for net-narcissim.

Read More →
Oct 10, 2017
Aug 28, 2017
NYAFF 2017: Rage (Lee Sang-il)
Aug 28, 2017

EDITOR'S CHOICE: Lee Sang-il returns to the work of Villain author Shuichi Yoshida for a bleak look at the impossibility of connection and the failings of both trust and suspicion. 

Read More →
Aug 28, 2017

NYAFF 2017: Interview w/ Jung Yoon-suk and Bamseom Pirates

July 25, 2017 in Essays/Features

by Mara Norman

Cinema Adrift: The blend of humor and music seems rare, how important was humor of your own music?
Kwon Yong-man: When we first got together our goal was more about having fun and making fun of people we wanted to make fun of rather than having some sort of musical goal. But then we realized we needed to do something more than that so we tried to make some music with these sorts of things.

CA: How has the film been doing internationally?
Jung Yoon-suk: So we had the world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival and I would say that the audience response was very positive. We ranked I think third in the audience response and the discrepancy between the number one film Moonlight was not a lot. I think it was 4.6 out of 5 for Moonlight and then it was 4.5 for us. I feel that a lot of punk rock and hardcore fans came and gave us good responses. That was another factor. I am curious to see how it’s received here in the Western world. Also the film is going to Taipei. I’m interested in the audience reaction there because both of our countries are going through similar political turmoil.

CA: Apart from the subject of North/South relations, is there anything else particularly taboo to discuss in Korea?
Jung: I would say the band deals with themes other than North Korea. There’s a lot of things going on in Korean society regarding Christianity, the military culture. Basically things that have to do with authoritarianism and the contradictions that happen within it. I will say except for North Korea you can say things about other themes. Maybe people will criticize you but they won’t arrest you for it. Talking about North Korea is one of the things where if you have a slip of the tongue you can get arrested. There’s a slight difference.  

CA: How far into making the film were you when the band’s producer Park Jung-geun got arrested?
Jung Yoon-suk: We were very much into the filming of this and the Pirates were actually touring in Japan so I was with them at the time of January 2012 so we found out about his arrest while we were in Japan.
CA: What is the size of the hardcore scene in Korea?
Bamseom Pirates: If you want idea of what the Korean punk scene looks like you can watch a film called No Money No Future. Basically it states that the punk scene in Korea is very small but does have a pretty long history for twenty years. I would say as a band we are a little bit musically apart from that scene and we don’t have influence on popular music as a whole. For our influences we grew up listening to a lot of American punk music so that was our initial influences. But then as we started making more and more music I think style-wise we’ve also been influenced by a lot of Japanese punk style.
CA: I’m sure just playing it you eventually just settle into your own thing.

CA: When did you decide to turn all of this into a documentary?
Jung Yoon-suk: The way it happened was that I didn’t know them at all but six or seven years ago I approached them and told them that I wanted to start filming them. Why they accepted I will never know. I didn’t have any knowledge of punk at the time.
Kwon: If I said no to the director then he would have gone home really sad so that’s why I said yes.
Jung Yoon-suk: I didn’t know much about music but I really liked their music. Some people who are involved in the punk music scene try to label their work as performance art and that they hold this sort of professional stance. But for me I feel like I approached them with a more artistic sort of sense. I feel that their music had an all-encompassing quality and that’s what connected me to their music to want to start filming.

Jung: (cont.) I’m stuttering right now because I’m so embarrassed to say this but the reason I worked with them was because I felt they were really good artists. And the way they make their music is they really play with their music and they do it in a joking way. I thought that was really cool and poetic at the same time. And Kwon is actually a poet as well. With all the trials going on with the national security laws and going into the testimonies had a significance as well. I feel good art has an essentially prophetic quality and because of that it yielded good results. I felt that the moment I first heard their music. As a director it was my duty to translate their music into a film.

 

CA: Do you mostly do documentaries?
Jung: I’m working not only as a documentary filmmaker but a contemporary artist. Right now my exhibit will come first and then I will possibly start working on another film. One film I would like to work on will probably be about the Vietnam War. I want that to be the third installment in a trilogy I’m working on which I call the “Nation State Trilogy.”
CA: Thank you, I look forward to it.

 

Special Thanks: Emma Griffiths for coordinating the interview.

Tags: NYAFF2017, Bamseom Pirates, Bamseom Pirates Seoul Inferno, Interviews, Jung Yoon-suk
← NYAFF 2017: Happiness (Sabu)NYAFF 2017: Interview w/ Kei Ishikawa (Traces of Sin) →
Back to Top
TEAM
RELEASE CALENDAR

email: cinemaadrift@gmail.com