Indiestory

FILMS > FEATURE

Fantastic Parasuicides

2007, Color, 92', Live Action

Dir: KIM Sung-ho, PARK Soo-young, CHO Chang-ho

Keyword: Drama, Comedy, Youth, Aged, Gay, Omnibus

Release: 2007-11-08

Film Awards

The 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam (2008,the Netherlands)
The 6th Florence Korea Film Fest (2008,Italy)
The 10th Barcelona Asian Film Festival (2008,Spain)
The 4th Riverside Int'l Film Festival (2008,USA)
The 34th Seattle International Film Festival (2008,USA)
The 55th Sydney International Film Festival (2008,Australia)
The 22th Leeds Int’l Film Festival (2008,UK)
The 24th Warsaw International Film Festival (2008,Poland)
The 12th Busan International Film Festival (2007,Korea)

Synopsis

Episode 1. Hanging Tough_Dir. PARK Soo-young, 30 min
Gina had fall asleep in a library and missed her exam.
She jumped from the roof top of her school, but found herself totally fine.
And there are three other people: Min-ho, who wants to bring peace to the world with his handmade bomb; a school nurse, who feels love towards Gina; and finally, a chief teacher suffers from the delusion that somebody is trying to kill him. But there is one thing that they have in common: they are trying to kill themselves.
Everything happening at school is so bizarre and confusing to Gina.
Whether or not she wants, she gets into unexpected and gruesome fights with them.
Can she save all of them and the world in the end?

Episode 2. Fly Away, Chicken!_Dir. CHO Chang-ho, 24 min.
There is a helpless man who has failed as a cop and decided to take his life by himself. He heads for a secluded beach and witness some guys assaulted a woman sexually one night.
He' s been ignoring the incident in the thought that there is no point to eliminate one evil person.
Next morning, when aiming a gun to his head he sees the two guys from last night are hanging out with the dead woman' s dress on the beach.
There are only three bullets in his gun. He uses two for killing those guys and is about to use the final one for himself. Then suddenly, another guy lying under the sand is caught by his eyes. He starts to chase the guy.

Episode 3. Happy Birthday_Dir. KIM Sung-ho, 38 min.
It is another birthday to a 70-year-old solitude old man today. He expects someone to celebrate his birthday but nobody knows it' s his birthday.
Desperately, he decides to throw himself to a railroad to kill himself. At the moment, he finds a young man with cash bag who tries to kill himself, too. He used to work for a funeral service as a car driver and ran away with the cash bag. However, he realizes there is no place to escape, and makes up his mind to suicide.
Since gangsters are running after him to get the bag back, old man and young man run away to the container ship dock at Incheon.
Changing the clothes of each other, the young man enters the coffin of his funeral car and the old man locks the coffin in. The old man dives into the ocean and disappears.

Director's Note

This omnibus feature film is comprised of three short films made by three directors. This feature depicts people meeting fantastic moments when they are about to kill themselves. With the moments, they regain their motives of life.
The three shorts in are as follow; “Hanging Tough” (by PARK Soo-young) is a story about a high school girl committing suicide as missing her exam, “Fly Away, Chicken!” (by CHO Chang-ho) tells a story about a police man who tries to end his life himself. “Happy Birthday” (by KIM Sung-ho) is about a 70-year-old solitude old man who kills himself on his birthday.

Director's Bio / Filmography

- PARK Soo-young

Born in 1976, Jinju
Graduated from Hanyang Univ., Dept. of Theater & Film

2001 [A Broad Day] DV 6mm, color, 21min.
           Best Film Prize, 3rd Seoul Int’l Youth Film Festival (2001, Korea)
           Competition, 2nd Daegu Independnet Short Film Festival (2001, Korea)
           [My Lovely Apt] DV 6mm, b/w, 24min.
          1st Mise-en-scène’s Genre Film Festival (2001, Korea)
2003 [A Wintering] DV 6mm, color, 27min.
           Competition, 1st Seoul Christianity and Film Festival (2003, Korea)
           Competition, 19th Seoul Independent Film Festival (2003, Korea)
           Grand Prize, 4th Daegu Independent Short Film Festival (2003, Korea)
2004   [While It's Raining] DV 6mm, color, 30ཚ"
           Competition, 5th Seoul Net Festival (2004, Korea)
           [Beat Mania] DV 6mm, color, 10min.
           8th Puchon Int’l Fantastic Film Festival (2004, Korea)
2005 [The Freaking Family] 35mm, color, 21min
           33rd Short Film Festival of Lyon-Villeurbanne (2012, France)
         ཆ Years of Indiestory' Festival (2008, HongKong)
           7th International Short Film Festival “Almería en Corto” (2008, Spain)
           Korean Glow, 38th Tampere Int’l Short Film Festival (2008, Finland)
           Korean Special Program, 3rd Prague Short Film Festival (2007, Czech Republic)
           Foreign Short Films in Competition, 17th Int’l Fantastic Film Festival of Málaga (2007, Spain)
           Fanomenon Programme, 21st Leeds Int’l Film Festival (2007, UK)
           Focus Korea, 23rd Interfilm Int’l Short Film Festival Berlin (2007, Germany)
2006 [Mighty Man] 35mm, color, 27’30”
          27th Aix-en-Provence Int'l Short Film Festival (2009, France)
          3rd InD Panda Int’l Shorts Festival (2007, Hong Kong)
          Fantasia Film Festival (2007, Canada)
          Super Hero Focus, 29th Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival (2007, France)
          7th Daegu Independent Short Film Festival (2006, Korea)
          Shorts Section, 1st Busan Int’l Kids' Film Festival (2006, Korea)
          7th Seoul Film Festival (2006, Korea)
2007 [A Puppy, Our Family] HD, color, 30min.
           23rd Fukuoka Asian Film Festival (2009, Japan)
           DAGGERS :The Short Festival of Short Horror (2008, USA)
           Competition, 41st Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia (2008, Spain)
           South Korea Selection, 10th Int’l Short Film Festival Short Cuts Cologne (2007, Germany)
           11th Puchon Int’l Fantastic Film Festival (2007, Korea)
           Competition, 6th Mise-en-scène’s Genre Film Festival (2007, Korea)
2007 [Happy Birthday-an episode of omnibus film; Fantastic Parasuicides] HD, color, 93min (30min)
           22nd Leeds International Film Festival (2008, UK)
           24th Warsaw Int’l FilmFest (2008, Poland)
           4th InD Panda International Shorts Festival (2008, HongKong)
           55th Sydney International Film Festival (2008, Australia)
           34th Seattle Int’l Film Festival (2008, USA)
           4th Riverside Int’l Film Festival (2008, USA)
           6th Festival of Korean Cinema In Italy (2008, Italy)
           10th Barcelona Asian Film Festival (2008, Spain)
           37th Int’l Film Festival Rotterdam (2008, The Netherlands)
           12th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2007, Korea)
2009 [Be My Guest] HD, color, 80min.
          14th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2009, Korea)
2010 [No Doubt] 88min.
          15th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2010, Korea)

2015 [Chicken Game episode of Elephant in the Room] 100min. (27min)
19th Buchon Int’l Fantastic Film Festival (2015, Korea)

- CHO Chang-ho

Born in 1972, Hong-chun
Graduated from Seoul Institute of the Arts

2002 [A Little Indian Boy] 35mm, color, 13ཚ"
2005  [The Peter Pan Formula] 35mm, color, 108min.
           Sundance Film Festival (2006, USA)
           56th Berlin Int’l Film Festival (2006, Germany)
           Jury’s Award, 8th Deauville Asian Film Festival (2006, France)
2007 [Fly Away, Chicken!-an episode of omnibus film; Fantastic Fantastic Parasuicides] HD, color, 92min (24min)
          22nd Leeds International Film Festival (2008, UK)
          24th Warsaw Int’l FilmFest (2008, Poland)
          4th InD Panda International Shorts Festival (2008, HongKong)
          55th Sydney International Film Festival (2008, Australia)
          34th Seattle Int’l Film Festival (2008, USA)
          4th Riverside International Film Festival (2008, USA)
          6th Festival of Korean Cinema In Italy (2008, Italy)
           D-cinema, 10th Barcelona Asian Film Festival (2008, Spain)
           The Storm and Stress, 37th Int’l Film Festival Rotterdam (2008, The Netherlands)
           Wide Angle, 12th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2007, Korea)
2010   [Lovers Vanished] 35mm, color, 104min.

2015 [Another Way] 90min.

- KIM Sung-ho

Born in 1970, Korea
Graduated from Brooklyn College / City of University of New York, Dept. of Production Film, USA
New School University in New York, Master of Arts in Media Studies, USA

1997 [Ketchup Story] 16mm, 4min. clay-animation
           Best Animation Prize, Brooklyn College Film Festival (1997, USA)
          [Shall We...] 16mm, 2min.
           Jury’s Prize, Brooklyn College Film Festival (1997, USA)
1998 [Mirror] 1min., 3D animation
           Jury’s Prize, Brooklyn College Film Festival (1998, USA)
            National Students Film and Video Festival (1999, USA)
1999 [I the Eye] 16mm, 7min.
           25th Korean Indie & Short Film Festival (1999, Korea)
           Competition, 12th BBC Int’l Short Film Festival (2000, UK)
           IndieForum, Independent Film & Video Makers’ Forum (2000, Korea)
2000 [Home Video] DV 6mm, 15min
           Competition, 2nd Jeonju Int’l Film Festival (2001, Korea)
           Competition, 2nd Seoul Net Festival (2001, Korea)
2001 [Chase] DV 6mm, 5ཚ"
           Resfest Digital Film Festival (2001, Korea)
          [Love Virus] DV 6mm, 5ཚ"
           Resfest Digital Film Festival (2001, Korea)
2003 [Into the Mirror] 35mm, color, 117min.
            Audience Award, 12th Fantastic Film Festival of Gerardmer (2005, France)
          Competition of Spiritual Cinema, 23rd Fajr Int’l Film Festival (2005, Iran)
           Montreal Fantasia Film Festival (2004, Canada)
           Grand Prize, 1st Seogang Film Festival (2004, Korea)
           Tartan Asian Extreme Film Festival (2004, UK)
          58th Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival (2004, UK)
         19th Mar del Plata Int’l Film Festival (2004, Argentina)
           22nd Brussels Int’l Festival of Fantastic Film (2004, Belgium)
          New York Asian Film Festival (2003, USA)
          36th Sitges-Int'l Film Festival of Catalonia (2003, Spain)
          Competition, 4th Tokyo Filmex (2003, Japan)
           Movie Zemiro Award in NDIF (New Directors in Focus), 6th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2001, Korea)
2005 [The Treasure Island -an episode of omnibus film; One Shining Day] DV 6mm, color, 133min (50min.)
           2006 Festival Franco-Coreen du Film (FFCF) (2006, France)
           19th Sapporo Int’l Film Festival (2006, Japan)
           Osaka Asian Film Festival (2006, Japan)
           Resfest Digital Film Festival (2005, Korea)
           Wide Angle, 10th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2005, Korea)
2007 [Happy Birthday-an episode of omnibus film; Fantastic Parasuicides] HD, color, 93min (38min)
           22nd Leeds International Film Festival (2008, UK)
           24th Warsaw Int’l FilmFest (2008, Poland)
           55th Sydney International Film Festival (2008, Australia)
           34th Seattle Int’l Film Festival (2008, USA)
           4th Riverside Int’l Film Festival (2008, USA)
           6th Festival of Korean Cinema In Italy (2008, Italy)
           10th Barcelona Asian Film Festival (2008, Spain)
           37th Int’l Film Festival Rotterdam (2008, The Netherlands)
           12th Pusan Int’l Film Festival (2007, Korea)
2009 [Penny Lover-an episode of Show Me the Money] HD, color, 112min. (12཮" )
          4th International College Peace Film Festival (2009, Korea)
          IndieForum, Independent Film & Video Makers’ Forum 2009 (2009, Korea)
          Opening Film, 10th Jeonju Int’l Film Festival (2009, Korea)
2010 [She Came From] HD, color, 82min.
         Jury’s Prize, 9th Florence Korea Film Fest (2011, Italy)
          11th Jeonju Int’l Film Festival (2010, Korea)

2014 [How To Steal A Dog] 109min.

Staff

Production MBC Drama Net
Co-production INDIESTORY Inc.
World Distribution INDIESTORY Inc.
Executive Producer LEE Eun-woo
Producer LEE Hong-cheol, HAN Baek-kyo
Co-producer Stanley KWAK
Creative Coordinator KIM Sung-ho

Episode 1. Hanging Tough_Dir. PARK Soo-young
Director/screenwriter PARK Soo-young
Producer MO Sung-jin
Cinematography NA Hee-suek
Lighting LEE Dong-seob
Production Designer KIM Si-yong
Editing CHOI Hyun-sook
Composer JUNG Jae-hwan (Bound Media)
Recording CHOI Ik-gun

Episode 2. Fly Away, Chicken!_Dir. CHO Chang-ho
Director/screenwriter CHO Chang-ho
Producer JUNG Hee-tae
Cinematography KIM Yung-min
Lighting KIM Sung-kyu
Production Designer BAEK Kyeong-in
Composer KIM Myung-jong

Episode 3. Happy Birthday_Dir. KIM Sung-ho
Director/screenwriter KIM Sung-ho
Producer LEE Kyung-hee
Cinematography PARK Jae-hong
Production Designer BAEK Kyeong-in
Editing LEE sang-min
Composer LEE Woo-sung
Recording CHOI Ik-gun
Costumes LEE Ja-young
Make up KIM Hyo-jin
CG KIM Lee-young

Cast

Episode 1. Hanging Tough_Dir. PARK Soo-young
HAN Yeo-reum as Gina
Tablo as Min-ho
KIM Ka-yeon as school nurse
PARK Hwi-soon as teacher

Episode 2. Fly Away, Chicken!_Dir. CHO Chang-ho
KIM Nam-jin as the police
LEE Hea-sang as woman

Episode 3. Happy Birthday_Dir. KIM Sung-ho
JUNG Jae-jin as LIM Chun-bong
GANG In-hyeong as Philip