Director Lee Chang-Dong's story resonates in new translation

Korean director and screenwriter Lee Chang-dong is probably familiar to movie lovers, and it's the creativity among such a widely acclaimed film Green fish (1997), Mint candy (1999), oasis (2002), Secret Sunshine (2007), poetry (2010) and combustion (2018) was selected as the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards. Before he began filming, however, Lee was a writer who created haunting beautiful stories and novellas. Fortunately for his English fans, the eloquent translation of his short stories and novellas A snowy day and other stories, Penguin Publishing House will be published this month. Lee didn't start filming until he was in his 30s when he suddenly felt the need to go another way.

“As a writer, I feel the limitations of my communication skills. I feel thirsty about a new way of communication. I think thirst is what causes me to do filmmaking,” he said.

Lee started his film career by writing scripts for the 1993 film Go to Xingdao, But for a while he has been writing in other media.

“Even when I moved to the film industry, when I wrote scripts and worked as an assistant director, I've sequenced three novels in newspapers over the years,” Lee said. “They only novels have gone for a long time, but I've never been,” he said. Reprinting them in books, and I have never written another novel or short story since I first worked as a film director.”

The film gives him more control over the narrative.

“That is, readers imagine the world of novels when reading written texts.” “This means that novels are not done by writers, but by readers' own imagination. On the other hand, movies do not allow viewers,” said Li. Imagine in the same way – they display the image more directly. This is why it's easy for viewers to think that everything they see on the screen is everything, and they may believe that something outside the frame does not exist. Due to this characteristic of the movie , I think it is important to consider how to convey the issues that are not shown in the movie to the audience.”

Lee is known as the “literary filmmaker”, but he is not sure what the term means.

“It seems to me that everyone uses the term literature for different reasons,” he said. “Of course, my experience as a writer has a decisive influence on me, and fundamentally, I ask myself what it means to do what I do.” As a writer, I have been asking myself what it means. What does it mean for readers and me? This question itself is the starting point and driving force for my writing.”

Other considerations may be used to make a movie.

Lee said: “But from the process of writing the script to finishing the movie, I still keep asking myself what my movie means to the audience and myself. The movies I make have made it so difficult to make a movie, and it seems not Necessary. That's why when people watch my movies, these questions of mine will be communicated and the audience will consider meanings beyond what they see on the screen. Maybe that's why they feel my movies are literature. ”

Lee's story was set during a turbulent period in South Korea's history, when the country was under control of dictators and protests were severely suffocated. In those days, a writer who criticized the government might end up being sentenced to jail.

“All stories involve the painful lives of Koreans under the military regime in the 1980s,” Lee said. “In addition to their resistance and opposition to violence, coincidentally, the recent martial law announced in South Korea and the subsequent political chaos suggest that 2025 The present of the year overlaps with the past 40 years ago.”

The situation in Lee's story reflects the difficult times he writes about, but is usually human vulnerable, driving the character to make decisions that he might regret later. The repressive regime prompts a character to impulsively express his ideals and spend years suffering for his outbreak, while in another story, the regime provides reasons for acting against one brother’s resentment against another. . In another story, a woman is asked about her political loyalty, but her motives are suspicious and possibly trivial. So many characters have a running-in of fate they shouldn't deserve, but can't do anything about it. In the title story, A snowy day, The class leads to a tragedy on a multitude of sentinel nights, in the case of a well-educated private and a working-class corporal. The reason Lee’s story is so refined is his mastery of humanity in an unsettling imperfection.

“The protagonists of my work are all weak people who suffer in the harsh reality they live in, but you can say they are fighting reckless and stupid fights against absolute power.” “The goal of the fight is society inherent The violence, moral insensitive, hypocritical ideology and the inequality characteristics of this mysterious world. They even struggle with an invisible God, sometimes even facing the meaninglessness of time, as if they were trying to stop speeding the train Same. These things are not only the protagonists of my movie, but everyone cannot avoid being in life. The struggle itself is their identity and subjectivity. Through that battle, I want to ask readers and audiences about the secret truths of our human life, The core of darkness.”

These stories are A snowy day and other stories From two collections of short stories published by Lee in Korea. They were selected by Penguin Press translators Heinz Insu Fenkl and John Schwartz. Fenkl is a translator and folklorist with his autobiographical novel Memories of my ghost brother and Skull water Widely taught in universities and universities. He worked with Yoosup Chang, who has translated works by major Korean writers such as Yi Mun-Yol and Pyun Hye-Young.

“These stories are translated by Heinz,” said Lee. A great translator and novelist with his own unique literary world, told me that he has been working on me since I just started, just started, just started, Interest release. Even after I was known by American audiences, he still wanted to introduce my writing to English readers. His ability to translate comes from his keen and rich sense of his deep understanding of Korean society. ”

Fans of Lee Chang-Dong's film work will find familiar areas in these stories. Their vivid time and location gives a glimpse of South Korea's recent political history, while suggesting the lasting scars caused by its legacy.

A snowy day and other stories It will be published on February 18.