Masterclass – Realism and Dystopia

Realism and Dystopia

An unmissable opportunity with director Yeon Sang-ho, a master at transforming complex stories into powerful visual experiences. His unique and innovative vision will offer a special opportunity to delve deeper into cinematic language and contemporary storytelling.

Yeon Sang-ho, born in 1978, is a South Korean director who built his career in animation before establishing himself in live-action and television. After graduating in painting from Sangmyung University, he made his debut in 1997 with the stop-motion short “Megalomania of D.” In the early 2000s, he made several animated shorts, including “The Hell,” which won the Asian Ghost Award, and founded the production company Studio Dada Show in 2004. His first feature film, “The King of Pigs” (2011), won major awards at the Busan International Film Festival and was also screened at Cannes, establishing him as one of the most original voices in Korean animation.
His success continued with “The Fake,” which tackled the theme of religious cults and was selected for numerous international film festivals, including Toronto. After the apocalyptic animated film “Seoul Station” (2016), Yeon made his live-action debut with “Train to Busan,” which premiered at Cannes and became a huge hit with audiences in Korea and abroad. He then directed “Psychokinesis” and returned to the zombie genre with “Peninsula,” which achieved excellent results at the international box office.
At the same time, Yeon has dedicated himself to webtoons and television, creating series such as “Hellbound” and “The Cursed,” and collaborating with Netflix as a director and screenwriter. His most recent works include the film “JUNG_E,” “Hellbound” – Season 2, and “The Ugly,” establishing him as one of the most influential authors of contemporary Korean cinema and series.

Yeon Sang-ho is one of the most influential and well-known South Korean directors of recent years, thanks to the success of his 2016 film “Train to Busan.”
It would be wrong, however, to believe that the film alone made him known worldwide, given his versatility and his incredible use of both animation and live-action cinema, in a filmography that spans social dramas, horror, science fiction, action, and thrillers, without ever losing sight of his signature style, which is both postmodern and possesses a classicism that makes his work even more compelling.
Born in Seoul on December 25, 1978, at just twenty years old he directed his first animated short film, “Megalomania of D.” He then graduated in Western Painting from Sangmyung University. Following other small shorts that achieved great success among industry insiders, he founded his own independent production studio, “Studio Dadashow,” through which he gave vent to his artistic vitality without external production constraints and in complete freedom.
From this absolute freedom, his first feature film, which could only be animated, was born in 2011, entitled “The King of Pigs.” With a modest budget of $150,000, the director succeeded in the arduous task of creating an adult film about bullying and violence in modern society. This film is painful, dark, and at times shocking, and it opened the doors to the Cannes Film Festival, thus becoming the first Korean animated film to be screened at the world’s largest film festival, not to mention other prestigious awards such as those received, for example, at the Busan International Film Festival.
From this first work, we understand the director’s great strength, which manages to be unique and personal thanks to a direct, dry narrative style that, although absolutely indebted to the great and much-missed Japanese master Satoshi Kon (sadly passed away at just 46 in 2010), works precisely thanks to formidable character design (again by Sang-ho, also editor and voice actor) and a truly fantastic richness of characters.

The success of this remarkable debut work was followed by the director’s next film, “The Fake,” released in 2013, winner at the prestigious Sitges Film Festival, produced with double the budget of his previous work and confirming the director’s talent for tackling difficult topics directly and without any pretensions.

In his second film, Yeon criticizes religious fanaticism and those who exploit it, through a lucid and never rhetorical vision of a mad, cruel world, constantly pervaded by a destructive force that seems to haunt the story’s protagonists.
In 2016, two films by our author were released as a surprise: the wonderful “Train to Busan” and its prequel, “Seoul Station.”
While the latter is still a meticulously crafted work of animation, with devastating violence and moments of rare beauty and tension, the former is Yeon’s live-action debut, this time with a budget of $8 million. This film confirms the narrative and visual power of his art through a work that will captivate horror fans (and others) around the world thanks to its frenetic style, the dryness of the plot, and a Romerian-style political and social tension that is always kept high by formidable dialogue and an almost “Petrinian” description of classism, describing social differences without ever exaggerating the concept but inserting it into a charged and explosive narrative.
The film was a critical and commercial success (almost $100 million worldwide), prompting the director to shoot a third installment in 2020 (following his successful attempt at superhero cinema in 2018 with “Psychokinesis”), “Peninsula,” where the narrative takes on a more action-packed tone and where the main influences seem to be those of Carpenter and Miller.
The film was a good success with audiences, despite its release during the Covid era, but critics were divided. The film is certainly good, tense, and well-paced, but it loses the unique setting and characters that were the driving force of the great 2016 film.
Given the huge success of the 2021 TV series “Hellbound,” which he created and directed, Yeon had to wait until 2023 before returning to work on a feature film that, however, will only be distributed via streaming: the sci-fi “Jung_E.” This intriguing film opens with visually stunning scenes through a simple yet elegantly directed story, where the theme of artificial intelligence is forcefully addressed through a story that entertains.

Two years later, produced by none other than Alfonso Cuarón, “Three Revelations” was released, a new feature film that was once again unfortunately relegated to home viewing. However, it deserves attention for its beautiful setting, the strength of some directorial moments, and the director’s ongoing exploration of the human soul, always through mysticism and religion as a possible salvation or damnation.
That same year, the director returned to “indie” cinema and, with a budget of just $150,000, immersed us in the excellent “The Ugly,” which managed to be a success and boasted an enviable aesthetic, excellent pacing, and a story that was as simple as it gets, yet full of intriguing subtexts.
A filmmaker who has succeeded in the arduous task of effortlessly and effortlessly creating high-quality animated films on modest budgets, while also shooting live action films, even expensive ones, without losing his original style in staging and managing to infuse his works with a desire to narrate the world and its political and social contradictions, without ever abandoning the element of entertainment.

In short, with Yeon Sang-ho, South Korean cinema has found a perfect filmmaker to “export” with his direct and poignant art, capable of being understood by anyone, both in form and substance, thanks to the universal power he imbues his stories with, and thanks to a captivating, original, and certainly unique and recognizable visual style.

The masterclass will last approximately 1 hour.

Federico Frusciante
In collaboration with Eleonora Genua

The catalog was curated by film critic Federico Frusciante.
The masterclass will be curated by film critic Marco Luceri.