SYNOPSIS
Won-sang is finishing his master’s thesis in literature. He’s planning to go to England to study, and afterwards return to an academic job. But his jealousy and curiosity about a man called Yoon-shik, complicates his life. Won-sang finds out that his girlfriend dumped him because she had an affair with Yoon-shik, a middle-aged magazine editor. Won-sang takes a job at the same publication, and starts to watch him closely.
In Won-sang’s eyes, Yoon-shik is the person who can get anything he wants. Yoon-shik possesses a solid and confident ego, stemming from a position of power. Isn’t this what Won-sang craves for his own future? Yoon-shik relates to Won-sang as a demanding but captivating father-figure, and the question becomes whether or not this ‘son’ will make the decision to follow standard patriarchal authority.
Jealousy Is My Middle Name explores sometimes violent, sometimes shabby, relations among people through a young man in emotional chaos. The director’s stand, which doesn’t allow sympathy or sentimentality toward any character, offers the audience time for reflection on the nature of desire and the lack thereof. (Nam In-young)
PROGRAM NOTE
Won-sang is finishing his master’s thesis in literature. He’s planning to go to England to study, and afterwards return to an academic job. But his jealousy and curiosity about a man called Yoon-shik, complicates his life. Won-sang finds out that his girlfriend dumped him because she had an affair with Yoon-shik, a middle-aged magazine editor. Won-sang takes a job at the same publication, and starts to watch him closely.
In Won-sang’s eyes, Yoon-shik is the person who can get anything he wants. Yoon-shik possesses a solid and confident ego, stemming from a position of power. Isn’t this what Won-sang craves for his own future? Yoon-shik relates to Won-sang as a demanding but captivating father-figure, and the question becomes whether or not this ‘son’ will make the decision to follow standard patriarchal authority.
Jealousy Is My Middle Name explores sometimes violent, sometimes shabby, relations among people through a young man in emotional chaos. The director’s stand, which doesn’t allow sympathy or sentimentality toward any character, offers the audience time for reflection on the nature of desire and the lack thereof. (Nam In-young)