
Byun Young-joo
Directing
Biography
She is a founding member of the women's feminist film collective "Bariteo," which was established in 1989. She worked as a cinematographer on Even Little Grass Has Its Own Name (dir. Kim So-young, 1989), a short film about gender discrimination at work, and My Children (dir. Doe Sung-hee, 1990), a documentary film about childcare in a poor neighborhood. Her first documentary Women Being in Asia (1993) centers on the sex trade in Asia, particularly the sex tourism of Jeju Island.
Known For

Movie meets humanities! This talk show/variety show for movie enthusiasts features interesting discussions by a writer and two movie directors where film and humanities intertwine.
Movie Room

Agents at a talent management firm tackle strong personalities and office politics while keeping their celebrity clients happy and helping them shine.
Behind Every Star

The documentary series were made to look back on Korea’s modern history. It tells stories of specific moments in time weaving together relevant video clips from news broadcasts, dramas, shows and other documentaries
Modern Korea

Cha Su-yeol, a police officer who has long despised his mother, the notorious 'Mantis' serial killer, must reluctantly turn to her for help when a copycat killer emerges.
Queen Mantis

Two 19 year old girls were brutally murdered. The bodies were abandoned and could not be found anywhere inside the warehouse scattered with blood. The only suspect, was their friend. He was drunk on the night of the incident. He doesn’t recall a single memory. No memories of committing a murder. No memories of not committing a murder either. The boy had become a young adult by the time he was released from prison in 11 years. He wished to pursue a quiet life… But another murder flips the village. A white bone carcass has been discovered. The real devil is hiding somewhere within the seemingly peaceful village. Who’s the real devil?
Black Out

A dangerous dinner that transcends suspicion and enticement. One day, friends gathered at the house of movie planner Yoon Jong-shin are always thirsty for new stories. Like natural storytellers, they present amazing stories they have recently collected in front of their friends today. "Have you ever heard of this?" Even those who do not believe in conspiracy theories tend to find themselves "unusually falling for themselves" at some point when they encounter conspiracy theories by chance and are sucked into algorithms. How will your thoughts change at the end of this talk dinner tonight?
While you are tempted

A woman suddenly disappears. Her fiance then sets out to find her and, in the process, uncovers layers of dark hidden secrets.
Helpless

In revenge for her husband's infidelity, a young beautiful housewife, Mi-heun, starts an affair with an attractive young doctor, In-gyu. Despite her husband's efforts to regain her love and the disapproval by the conservative little town, Mi-huen gradually finds happiness and satisfaction in the affair and decides to turn her back on her quiet life.
Ardor

Director Chung Ji-Young criticizes the thought that older directors have difficulties in making certain movies. Actress Yoon Jin-Seo agonizes over her identity as an actress. In 2009, before the movie "Unbowed" was made, they met and planned a documentary about Korean movies, including the processes a Korean movie goes through and difficulites. "Ari Ari the Korean Cinema" is a documentary with interviews of Korean directors, actors and actresses.
Ari Ari the Korean Cinema

A documentary consisting of twenty-two Korean directors' interviews about Kim Ki-young and respect for his work and the influence
Two Or Three Things I Know About Kim Ki-young

Five high school teens on their way to college. But gradually they go through the struggles of life and end up discovering who they are and what it is they truly want in life.
Flying Boys

Keeping the Vision Alive is a documentary film containing the voices and images of Korean women filmmakers-both senior filmmakers and also the peers of director Yim. The film is Yim’s homage to both contemporary Korean women filmmakers, written by a filmmaker of the same age, and also to the history of women filmmakers in Korea. Yim does not reveal her own voice or opinion and lets the voices and images of the filmmakers speak for themselves through a non-interventionist camera. From the pioneers, Park Nam-ok, and Hwang Hye-mi, who directed First Experience in 70’s, to recent filmmakers, Byun Young-joo and Jang Hee-sun, the film traces their experiences, troubles, concerns and thoughts as women and women filmmakers. Keeping the Vision Alive calmly and enthusiastically encourages and celebrates the struggles, the resistance and the survival of women filmmakers in a conservative Korean film industry and a male-dominated and sexist social system. (Kwon Eun-sun)
Keeping the Vision Alive

No description available.
역습: 팩추얼 웹툰 창작단

In 1992, political prisoners from North Korea settled in the South Korean town where filmmaker Dong-won Kim lived. Sent to South Korea as spies during the war, they spent 30 years in jail. How did they endure the many years of torture? What will become of them now that they have been released? Twelve years in the making, Repatriation is a very personal view of a country divided by an ongoing cold war.
Repatriation

"My Own Breathing" is the final documentary of the trilogy, The Murmuring about comfort women during the World War II directed by BYUN Young-joo. This is the completion of her seven years work. BYUN's first and second documentaries spoke of grandmothers' everyday life through the origin of their torment, while My Own Breathing goes back to their past from their everyday life. Deleting any device of narration or music, the camera lets grandmothers talk about themselves. Finally, the film revives their deep voices trampled by harsh history.
My Own Breathing

Every Wednesday at noon, women who were kidnapped for sexual purpose by the Japanese army during its imperialism and their supporters demonstrate against Japanese government to request official apology and indemnity for their crimes. This documentary portrays sexually abused old women's suppressed story of overcoming of their shame and forced silence.
The Murmuring

This documentary is an "Asian report" on so-called international prostitution. The subject matter of parasitic tourism in Jeju Island in Korea is focused on, and it is said that international prostitution in Asia has a relationship between countries, focusing on Thailand and Japan, and that it is not only a problem between countries biased by the flow of capital, but also in the context of "sexual culture" with long roots. In the second half, the question is what is the alternative and what is the boundary between prostitution and non-prostitution in the current situation that is considered to be like "ghetto" because it is separated from the life of the general public.
A Woman Being in Asia

Divided into chapters, the documentary examines Jang's career and films from many different angles and includes the voices not only of those who have worked with Jang but also of numerous ordinary Koreans who have been affected by his work. Individual chapters are devoted to such topics as Jang's idiosyncratic hairstyle and the controversy surrounding his previous feature Lies. The documentary tries to place Jang and his work in the widest possible social context, not only in the context of Korean cinema. At its heart is a series of remarkably candid and revealing interviews with Jang himself.
The Jang Sun-woo Variations

The story of the women at the "House of Sharing" continues. Old women who share a common bond lead a peaceful life in the countryside, raising vegetables, chickens and painting pictures. They are no different from the elderly women we see every day. But they are all scarred by pain and sorrow from their collective history of being comfort women during World War 2. They became subject to prejudice in their own homeland after their return to Korea. It is painful for them to watch other peoples' children and grandchildren, and they feel rage when the Japanese government tries to cover up the unspeakable crimes they committed against them. The film asks us to remember what these women sacrificed and the shame and misery they faced even as these individuals pass away often forgotten by their own people.
Habitual Sadness
Co-produced by Womenlink and the Feminist Film Collective Parituh, Even Little Grass Has Its Own Name was shot on 16mm film and was the first of its kind in Korea to address the issue of female office workers. The film is divided into two parts. Part 1 is about the conflicts of married female office workers who suffer from undertaking office work, housework, and childcare all at the same time. Part 2 focuses on single female workers who break away from being the traditional ‘flower of the company,’ and develop a greater sense of autonomy as they actively participate in forming a labor union.