In the five years since Burning, South Korean master Lee Chang-dong has yet to announce a new project, but considering it was nearly a decade between his prior film Poetry and his Haruki Murakami adaptation, it will likely be another few years until we hear an update. In the meantime, he’s penned a new short story which is now available to read courtesy of The New Yorker.
Titled “Snowy Day” and translated from Korean by Heinz Insu Fenkl and Yoosup Chang, the story depicts military duty in Korea and the nuances of the divide between a private and a corporal, along with bookends featuring a woman visiting the private at the remote base. With a setting detailed in characteristically evocatively fashion, describing the bleak atmosphere at the desolate border, passages recall Park Chan-wook’s 2000 thriller Joint Security Area. As for whether we may see him adapt the story into the cinematic form, don’t hold your breath.
“I first started writing as a teen-ager because of my desire to communicate with someone (even someone whose face I couldn’t see) in order to overcome loneliness. That same desire is what made me a film director,” he tells the magazine. “You could say that writing a short story and making a movie are essentially the same for me in terms of trying to communicate. But film is not like literature—it’s much harder to “communicate” through film. This is partly because audiences are consuming more and more movies solely for the sake of entertainment and not for what they might communicate. When I’m making a film, I always try to find a new story to tell. Four or five of the short stories I’ve written have been made into TV movies, shorts, and stage plays by other people, but I’ve never thought of adapting them and turning them into films myself. I certainly haven’t considered making a movie out of “Snowy Day,” but, for those who have seen my movie “Peppermint Candy,” certain details of “Snowy Day” might feel familiar.”
For more, check out Sarah Polley’s recent dissection of Secret Sunshine below.