真珠的珍珠 진주의 진주

Film director, Seo Jinju, heads for Jinju, Gyeongnam Province to check locations for her film. She finds Samgakji coffee shop, the old café she was looking for, but she hears that the café is due for renovation in a few days’ time. Up to this point in the narrative, it looks like a common enough story about making a film, with many of the ups and downs and absurd situations a director constantly faces while making a film. However, Jinju’s Pearl deflects such expectations. Instead, it betrays Jinju who behaves like she can do whatever it takes to complete her film, by asking us if we have ever taken good care of not only film, but also reality, the world and the people beyond film. Jinju’s Pearl realistically reflects the local reality in which long-lasting cultural spaces have been disappearing one after another. It even suggests with what mindset and attitude she should look into the issue, beyond the sense of her own identity as a film director. (Rhana JANG)