The Cenozoic Life
Opening
LIM Jung-hwan | 2023 | Fiction | Color | DCP | 99min (E) World Premiere
SYNOPSIS
Minju visits Lithuania in search of her missing husband. She stays with her old friend from college, Oyoung, who’s been living in Lithuania for years. Minju finds traces of her husband from a suspicious Korean man living with Oyoung, but flees from their house after a quarrel between the man and Oyoung.
Minju arrives at a hotel where she meets two men claiming to be with the Interpol and follows them in search of her husband. The characters’ time and location become intertwined, until the moment when, what Minju had been searching for, slowly reveals itself.
DIRECTING INTENTION
‘Cenozoic Era’ is a geologic term that defines the period from the dinosaurs’ extinction up until now, meaning that even today is a part of the Cenozoic Era. There are times when we are overwhelmed and fascinated by the lives of the others on screen, but on walking out of the theatre, it is likely that we would treat them as ‘things that happen in movies’.
I hoped that the unfeasible lives and quirky fantasies in films, could be felt, as if they were our own, as if they could actually happen in our own lives. This feeling can only be described with abstract terms irrelevant to one another, like eeriness, coldness, warmth etc. That’s how I feel about the word ‘Cenozoic’. The feeling is related to the feeling when we realize that we are Cenozoic beings. To think of us as ‘Cenozoic beings,’ when just going through an average day is tough enough.
A world established with new beings, on perished beings, seems like a paradox itself. To think that we are living after uncountable number of deaths, to think of the boundlessness of time can make us feel alone, but at the same time consoled, from the fact that all the perishing and hardship are not just ours to bear.
FESTIVAL & AWARDS
World Premiere
DIRECTOR
LIM Jung-hwan
2014 Laos : In the Warmest Country
2017 The King of the Border
STAFF
Director LIM Jung-hwan
Producer KIM Jun-gyeom
Cinematographer CHO Hyun-tae
Lighting CHO Hyun-tae
Assistant Director LEE Tae-an
Recording KWAK il-sop
Line Producer PARK Jin-soo
Interpreter PARK Jin-soo
Cast KIM Sae-byuk, PARK Jong-hwan, SHIM Dal-gi, PARK Jin-soo