Archive - 12th Five Flavours Film Festival

The Senior Class

Joleobban
South Korea 2016, 82’
subtitles: Polish and English
director: Hong Deok-pyo
screenplay: Yeon Sang-ho
editing: Hong Deok-pyo
music: Kim Dong-uk
animation: Hong Eun-pyo
cast: Lee Joo-seung, Kang Jin-ah, Jeong Yeong-gi, Jang Hyeok-jin
producer: Yeon Sang-ho, Lee Dongha
executive producer: Kim Woo-taek
production: Studio Dadashow
sales: Contents Panda, Capital One
source of print: Contents Panda
language: Korean
colouration: colour

Awards and festivals

Fantasia Film Festival 2017

Film description

Jung-woo, a shy art student with a dream to become webtoonist, is seceretly fascinated by one girl in his group, Ju-hee - beautiful and talented, but equally unattainable and withdrawn from the school life. She aims to pursue her studies in France and does not make friends with anyone at the university. One day Jung-woo while working part-time finds out about Ju-hee's secret and the girl begs him not to reveal it. They form a pact which allows them to know each other a bit more. The situation gets more complicated and full of tension as every character has it's own agency and the secret cannot remain hidden for long. 

"The Senior Class" is a classic melodrama set in contemporary South Korean society. Director Hong Deok-pyo uses genre cinema to reflect on the social phenomenons, especially the relationships between men and women. Through applying the conventions of the melodrama he emphasizes the conflict to the extreme, trying to encompass the irrationality of twisted dynamics and widespread misogyny in South Korea. None of the characters is without a fault, false informations, assumptions, desires bring them down into an unsolvable situation. This makes "The Senior Class" a film that generates discussions as the way it is received can extremely differ, the line between imagination and real facts is very thin and actual story is mainly a matter of point of view.

Maja Korbecka

Hong Deok-pyo

Born in 1976 in Seoul, graduated from Kaywon School of Art and Design Department of Animation. He started making short films in the early 2000s, his debut work "Between" won an Award of Excellence in the 3rd Daegu Short Film Festival. During that time he met Yeon Sang-ho, due to similar point of view and interest in animation targeted for adult audience, they started cooperating. Hong Deok-pyo became the artwork manager for "The King of Pigs" and the line producer for "The Fake", then Yeon Sang-ho produced Hong's drama series "Master and Man" and his first full-feature animated film "The Senior Class". 

Selected filmography:

2014 Balgwanghaneun Hyeondaesa / Master and Man

2016 Ostatni rok / Joleobban / The Senior Class

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