º»¹® ¹Ù·Î°¡±â ¸Þ´º ¹Ù·Î°¡±â

A Beloved Symbol

BYEON Seungji

  • South Korea
  • 2025
  • 11min
  • G
  • DCP
  • color, b&w

Synopsis

Jang-hwa and K set off on a journey. K has bought train tickets to Gangneung, but Janghwa hesitates. Perhaps her first love she left behind long ago, is still on her mind. Jang-hwa comes out to her granddaughter, Seung-ji. "Were there many gay people in your village?" "No. There weren¡¯t. It was just us."

Director's Statement

K and Janghwa are sisters who lived queer lives in different ways. K is MTF (a trans woman), and Janghwa, now in her seventies, still recalls a same-sex lover she has never been able to forget.

Both are people who have lived while safeguarding their own existence. In the latter part of the film, the scene composed of white text on a black background is a directorial choice that expands the grandmother's testimony into a visual language.

I wanted to bring onto the screen Janghwa's identity and memories, which had already existed but had been hidden away under oppression and silence. In particular, with audiences of Janghwa's own generation in mind, I used large text that fills the screen, repetitive though it may be, so that the story Janghwa had long held in her heart could be conveyed more directly.

Moreover, by rearranging the grandmothers' old photographs to connect the time of past and present, I wanted the audience to catch the chatty grandmothers' coming out.​

schedule

Code Time Theater Grade
Queer Rainbow Shorts038 2026-08-22 | 13:00 - 14:11 MEGABOX Sinchon 6 GV
Queer Rainbow Shorts101 2026-08-25 | 10:30 - 11:41 MEGABOX Sinchon 8

Director

  • BYEON Seungji

    Byeon Seung Ji studies playwriting and filmmaking at the Korea National University of Arts. She is drawn to stories that have been left untold within social structures.

Credit

  • Producerº¯½ÂÁö BYEON Seungji
  • Cast ±èÀåÈ­ KIM Jang-hwa
  • Cinematographer º¯½ÂÁö BYEON Seungji
  • Editor º¯½ÂÁö BYEON Seungji