E.oni is a rare success story. Female commercial film directors are exceptional in any country, including South Korea, where only one in 35 films is directed by a woman and most of those films are low budget indie and art films. While E.oni has been relatively successful, directing the films The Accidental Detective 2, The Killer’s Shopping List, Love Exposure and Missing, she’s aware that a controversial film topic can jeopardize a career. When it came to her film Love In The Big City, starring Kim Go-eun and Steve Sanghyun Noh, she knew the topic was risky, but decided to make the film anyway.
“Making this type of film in Korea was a big risk and a bit of a challenge in terms of a commercial film that obviously needs to do well at the box office,” said E.oni. “So it really was a challenge for me as well as everyone else who participated in this big project.”
Love in the Big City premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and was the closing film for the 2024 London Korean Film Festival. Opening in Korean theaters on Oct. 1, the engaging story focuses on two friends, Jae-hee, who faces criticism for her freewheeling approach to love and life, and Heung-soo, who tries to hide the fact that he’s gay. Jae-hee sees a kindred spirit in Heung-soo and, despite his initial reluctance, insists they become friends. They eventually become roommates and non-romantic soulmates, supporting each other during challenging times. While depictions of homosexual characters have increased in k-media during the past decade, South Korea remains relatively socially conservative.
“There are small changes, a little progress here and there, especially when it comes to independent films and maybe novels,” said E.oni. “You see this subject serving as material more and more. And in making this film, I was also hoping to see how far we’ve come, how much we have changed.”
Actress Kim Go-eun, who plays Jae-hee, is well known for her roles in hit TV dramas such as Little Women and films such as Exhuma. Her participation helped the film happen.
Actress Kim Go-Eun, director E.oni and actor Steve Sanghyun Noh attend the ‘Love In The Big City’ … [+]
“It was such a big risk for us to make this as a commercial film in Korea because the male protagonist is gay,” said E.oni. “So, we absolutely had to cast a top star for the female protagonist. That really was a condition of this film going forward. And I really wanted to work with Kim Go-eun. And thankfully she said, why not? It sounds fun, let’s do it.”
Casting a male actor was harder.
“With her on board, I still had to wait for more than two years because the male actors were very reluctant to be seen as gay on film and to be almost stigmatized with that image,” said E.oni. “So we had a lot of rejections from various actors, but then I came across Steve Noh through Pachinko, and I was thinking, oh, that’s a fresh face. Maybe that could work. And in fact, Go-eun recommended him to me. By the time I got to Steve Noh and gave him the offer, that really was my last straw. If he said, no, this film would not have happened. So, it’s really a miracle that this could actually go.”
Noh, who plays Kim Min-ha’s preacher husband in Pachinko, conveys an emotionally complex Heung-soo, while Kim enthusiastically embodies the gutsy no-nonsense Jae-hee, a character E.Oni notes is also controversial.
“Obviously the male protagonist being gay is a big topic, because it’s seen as such a big hurdle,” said E.oni. “But what I also want to shine the light on was the female protagonist and the actress who portrayed her. It was a very courageous decision to agree to feature in this film. Because in the film, she’s not a conventional woman in Korean society. She’s seen as loose. And there’s also the topic of abortion, which are images that female actresses in Korea do not really want to be associated with. And there’s sort of a tendency with this film in the media to focus more on the male protagonist being gay, but there are also challenges that go on with the female character.”
The film’s screenplay is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Sang Young Park, which E.oni found fun and fascinating. The message that people can help each other develop and accept themselves is dear to her heart. “What I found quite appealing was the two characters, because it’s a story about them finding out about each other and coming of age and really developing as people. I have a soft spot for the coming of age genre.”
To develop the story into a film some changes were required.
“I needed to fill in a lot of gaps and add to the story, to enrich the story, said E.oni. “And so in the book, the story of Jae-hee is seen through the perspective of the male protagonist. In the book you see Jae-hee through his eyes. But in the film, what I was trying to do was strike more of a balance between the two characters so that their stories would intertwine.”
E.oni is not sure how much of a success she is as a director or potentially could be. And she’s not just being modest. Taking risks comes with a price.
“I’m someone who’s always worried about the next project,” she said. “What can I do next? And I’m always concerned about the performance of my current film. So I’m just a constant worrier in that sense. The reason why I worry about my next project and what I can do next might be because I am quite keen to talk about topics that are not commonly discussed in Korean society.”
She’s currently considering a few stories.
“But what I can do and will do in the future will be quite heavily influenced by this current film and how it performs. I’m really facing this dilemma of either doing something very new and different or maybe considering my career, so that I can sustain my career for a longer term. So, yeah, there are some conflicting thoughts. But I know me and I think I will always end up doing something that I want to do.”
This post was originally published on here
