Female director breaks the mold
Gina Kim
JoongAng Ilbo: So how did you come up with the idea for “Never Forever”?
Gina Kim: I first thought of doing a horror film but around the time I got an invitation from Harvard to come to Boston, I changed my mind. I gave my scenario to Lee Jun-dong [the president of Now Film], whom I have known for a long time, and he liked it.
Andrew Fierburg [head of Vox3 Film] is the husband of a teaching colleague of mine. He and I met during Im Kwon-taek’s [noted Korean director] retrospective and decided to work together.
JoongAng Ilbo: What is the theme of the movie?
Gina Kim: It’s about a woman’s desire. A lot of men see women as either a mother figure or a whore. I wanted to break away from this mold. I think a woman running after the realization of her desires is also a woman on a journey toward finding her path in life. In the movie, after becoming a mother, Sophie begins to love and look at her life from a positive perspective.
JoongAng Ilbo: In Sundance, this movie was introduced as an American film.
Gina Kim: Here, nobody sees this movie as a “Korean movie.” They see it as a movie starring Korean-Americans. Although capturing Korean audiences is also important, there is a lot more potential in the American film industry. So far, the response from American audiences and the press has been much more than what I had expected.
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with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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