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[Interview] Professor Shim Young-seop: A Psychologist in Love with Film

 
 People > [Interview] Professor Shim Young-seop: A Psychologist in Love with Film
[Interview]Professor Shim Young-seop: A Psychologist in Love with Film
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1. There are many film critics, but few seem to be as well versed in both movies and psychology as you. How did you become both a psychologist and film critic?

I became a film critic because I watched a lot of movies. I’ve always watched a lot of movies, and when I turned 30 I counted them: the total came out to be around 10,000. Of course, one cannot be a critic just by watching films. I became a critic by adapting the many theories I had learned from studying psychology to film. Once I became a film critic, I became known through the film magazine Cine 21, and can even be defined as someone who built her career alongside the magazine, which represented the prime of Korean film in the 1990s.


2. In light of the success of the movies Parasite and Minari and the Netflix series Squid Game, it’s clear that Korean content has truly become a global sensation. What is your view of this phenomenon?

Korean film began to appeal to domestic fans in the 1990s, when a single movie garnered an audience of over 10 million people, but the audience for Korean productions has now grown to include hundreds of millions of people. Squid Game is a good example of this growth. This is not just the Korean Wave in East Asia, but a powerful worldwide “K-culture” phenomenon. It’s a significant trend that is sure to continue in the years ahead. What used to be available only in theaters is now accessible via online OTT services, and I am confident that Korea is likely to take control of the OTT platform before others do.


3. Do you have any comments on the themes of Korean productions?

Parasite, Minari, and Squid Game all deal with social class. Parasite shows the gap between higher and lower classes as the people in the latter struggle to access the former, Minari exposes the class stratification of American society, and Squid Game portrays the graveness of failure and elimination in a hyper-surreal competition. These works render the seriousness of these issues in shocking and gripping ways, mixing life-or-death tension with fun. Piercing the problem of social class seems to be a main characteristic of Korean content and it attracts keen interest from abroad. These productions exhibit not only societal elements but also humane values, and humanism is heartwarming. This element is loved at the Academy Awards, but whether it is recognized by the Oscars or not, it surely has universal appeal.


4. Among recent releases, are there any movies you would like to recommend to our readers?

Director Lee Seung-won has made a movie titled Three Sisters. It shows how domestic violence is inherited and the intense struggle of three sisters to escape it. The film itself is a great cinematic work, and the actors — Kim Sun-young, Moon So-ri and Jang Yoon-joo — in the roles of the three sisters were excellent. Moon was especially enchanting in the role of the second sister, who is a hypocrite with emotional scars; Director Lee’s direction was also superb. I highly recommend the movie to KF Newsletter readers. Please don’t miss it. Director Lee Seung-won has made a movie titled Three Sisters. It shows how domestic violence is inherited and the intense struggle of three sisters to escape it. The film itself is a great cinematic work, and the actors — Kim Sun-young, Moon So-ri and Jang Yoon-joo — in the roles of the three sisters were excellent. Moon was especially enchanting in the role of the second sister, who is a hypocrite with emotional scars; Director Lee’s direction was also superb. I highly recommend the movie to KF Newsletter readers. Please don’t miss it.


5. The new year is only a month away. What plans and wishes do you have for 2022?

I wish to go out of the country next year. I am a big fan of travel. I think nothing enriches life more than traveling. I have already crossed seeing the world’s three greatest waterfalls — Iguazu Falls, Victoria Falls, and Niagara Falls — from my bucket list, which means I have been to South America, Africa, and North America. My last trip was in February 2020, when I took a trip to Cambodia. At that time, I wasn’t expecting Parasite to win an Oscar, but it did. (Laughs.) I heard the news while visiting Angkor Wat. In the two years since then, I have not been able to go anywhere, and I would really love to travel in 2022. I am thinking of going to Turkey, the crossroads of the East and the West, for a particular reason. The film Winter Sleep is set in the winter of Cappadocia, Turkey, and after watching it, I decided I must go there. I tend to visit places featured in movies. The film Happy Together was what led me to go to Iguazu Falls. When a scene from a movie touches me, I often go where it was shot. The year 2022 has three number twos, and whether my wish for travel comes true or not, I hope that in this special year, we will be able to return to a life that we can enjoy with the loved ones we have missed.


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