Vancouver director’s first feature film premieres at VIFF

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Vancouver director Jerome Yoo’s feature film career is starting off on a strong note. His film Mongrels will have its world premiere at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival.

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“I think truly it is a special career moment for me,” said the 30-year-old filmmaker over Zoom from Korea where he was visiting family. “VIFF has been a source of inspiration throughout my career. It’s informed me. I’ve seen films on VIFF screens that have informed this film and who I am as a filmmaker … to put up my feature film on those same screens in front of friends, family and of course most importantly the crew that put so much effort into the film, I think is a privilege and its truly a highlight for me.”

Mongrels is screening at VIFF on Sept. 28, 8:30 p.m., at the Rio Theatre and at International Village 9 on Sept. 30 at 3 p.m. It’s one of 140 feature films and 81 short films from 72 countries around the globe that make up this the 43rd edition of the festival running from Sept. 26 to Oct. 6.

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Set in the 1990s, the Maple Ridge-shot Mongrels is a moving and sometimes surreal portrait of a Korean family that has recently immigrated to a small Canadian Prairie town after the mother in the family has died. Sonny (Jae-Hyun Kim) and his young daughter Hana (Sein Jin) and teenage son Hajoon (Da-Nu Nam) are struggling as they try to navigate grief in an unfamiliar place.

“Through the gaze of three different (members) of a family, we explore this new world,” said Yoo, who is also the film’s screenwriter. “They face different realities and experiences all within the setting of a town that is riddled with wild dogs that have been destroying farmer’s livelihoods, but who also become the only creatures out there that the family could also relate with.”

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Yoo did casting for the movie here in Canada and in Korea, where he was born.

After looking at a lot of kids, he discovered Coquitlam’s Jin completely by accident while he was looking at photographs that had been submitted by men during an open casting call for the role of Sonny.

“I looked at the photo and it was a selfie of him and his two kids. And one of the two kids was that perfect age and just had this look I had imagined in my head,” said Yoo, about the then-eight-year-old Jin. “Her audition was the best of all the kids I saw, and I was shocked she had never acted or performed before.”

Nam was found on a casting trip to Seoul.

“I was fortunate to find just this perfect balance of who I was looking for (to play) the son, which is a balance of tenderness and fragility, as well as this outward appearance of wanting to be a hardened character,” said Yoo.

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While he was in Seoul, Yoo also met with many actors for the role of Sonny but none, he said, quite fit the bill of the broken, exhausted man he had envisioned.

It was during a conversation with a “notable actor” that Yoo heard of Kim. The actor said his old friend would be perfect, but he had retired years ago to a distant Seoul suburb. Yoo was excited to connect with Kim but that took some work as the Korean man had no computer or cellphone. Finally, a producer travelled the two hours from Seoul to Kim’s home and set up a video call between Kim and Yoo.

“We just had a long talk about what this character is, what this story is, and the actor/director’s relationship. And he was on-board. I offered him the part immediately, just based off a single video call,” said Yoo. “There was a gut instinct that he was the right person, that he was the character.

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“I think it was the same way for him, that maybe he found some kind of truth in me and what I was providing with this story, with this character.”

Kim, who last acted in 2018 in a theatre production, told Postmedia News through an email that Yoo’s script spoke to him.

“When I first read the script, I felt an inexplicable, instinctual, almost animalistic reaction. The dialogue resonated with me,” Kim said.

That connection is evident onscreen as Kim delivers a compelling, complex character who one minute breaks your heart and draws you in as you watch him talk on a dead phone to his dead wife, and then in equal measure disappoints and repels you as he drunkenly berates his son.

“I related to Sonny because, like him, I’ve experienced moments where I don’t fully understand my life or the chaos surrounding it. When I first read the role, I felt his sorrow and confusion,” said Kim. “Sonny is constantly battling this chaos, trying to fight through it.”

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Adding to Sonny’s woes is the grizzly job he has as the town’s dog hunter.

“Sonny hunts dogs to conform to the perceptions of the townspeople who feed him (and his family), yet deep down, he feels no different from the animals,” said Kim. “While he knows intellectually that this dynamic is part of his survival, his heart tells him it’s wrong. This inner conflict drives him to seek spiritual beliefs to ease his pain and find peace with his actions.

“This brings him both sorrow and chaos, which resonated with me.”

The existence of the many wild dogs adds a literal and figurative snarling tension to the film. At one point, 14 dogs were on set.

“I would singlehandedly say that was the most challenging part of executing this film, the aspect of having so many dogs,” said Yoo, who added a large chunk of the film’s $320,000 budget was spent on the dogs and wranglers.

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These days, Yoo is dog-free while he works on developing his second feature film. But while he’s busy on that project, he agrees the VIFF debut of Mongrels isn’t far from his mind.

“Absolutely,” said Yoo when asked if he is nervous about the VIFF premiere. “It feels like you’re just putting your heart up there. It’s a vulnerable moment. To be with that for 105 minutes, I don’t know, maybe I’ll pass out.”

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