If You Were Me

Commissioned by South Korea's National Human Rights Commission, If You Were Me is an innovative omnibus film project to promote tolerance and human rights and shed light on the hardships disadvantaged people face in Korea. After the success of the first anthology, a second series, If You Were Me 2, was released this year. Five notable Korean directors - Park Kyung Hee (A Smile), Ryoo Seung Wan (Crying Fist), Jung Ji Woo, Jang Jin (Guns & Talks), and Kim Dong Won - participated in the second installment, creating shorts on human rights issues of their choosing.

Commissioned by South Korea's National Human Rights Commission, If You Were Me is an innovative omnibus film project to promote tolerance and human rights and shed light on the hardships disadvantaged people face in Korea. This third installment continues the If You Were Me tradition. Directors Jeong Yun Cheol (Marathon), Kim Hyeon Pil (Wonderful Day), Lee Mi Yeon (L'Abri), Noh Dong Seok (Boys of Tomorrow), Hong Gi Seon (The Road Taken), and Kim Gok and Kim Sun (Capitalist Manifesto: Working Men of All Countries) participated in If You Were Me 3, creating shorts on human rights issues of their choosing, ranging from labor conditions to gay rights to discrimination.

Includes shorts: Girl on the Run, The Theory & Practice of Teenage Dream, Relay, U and Me and Blue Birds on the Desk.

Funded by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. If You Were Me 5 takes a close look at the violent nature hidden behind our eyes. 5 directors- Kang Yi Kwan, Boo Ji Young, Yoon Sung Hyun, Kim Dae Seung and Sin Dong Il disclose how closely ordinary events of society connect with our eyes. There is a hidden sexual violence beyond our eyes and the power of a controlled society works through the power beyond the eyes. Not only the violence of the eye itself, also limited the ability of individuals to see, the matter of the eye intervenes in various relationships between the individual and groups. The film demonstrates how sharp the eye has become in a society with developing technology.

In this omnibus film series produced by the National Human Rights Commission, Park Jungbum explores relating to the handicapped, Lee Sangcheol and Shin Aga turn their camera on the elderly and Min Youngkeun looks at conscientious objection to military service. In Dear Duhan, Duhan suffers from brain lesions. His friend has always felt bad for Duhan but nonetheless steals an iPad from him one day. Director Park explores the conflict and friendship between a so-called normal and a handicapped person. In Bong-gu on Delivery Shin and Lee tell the tale of an old man who helps a child find his way home, only to be accused of kidnapping. And Min talks about a Jehovah’s Witness who has just been drafted and must say goodbye to his mother in Ice River, a melodrama about a man who chooses to go to prison for his conscientious and religious objections to bearing arms. Having divorced her husband in order not to send her son to prison, his mother cannot accept her son’s choice.

No Mu-jin is a labor attorney who happens to see ghosts. After coming back from the brink of death, he begins solving labor problems requested by ghosts.

A young woman leaves the city to return to her hometown in the countryside. Seeking to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, she becomes self-sufficient in a bid to reconnect with nature.

This debut feature from female Korean director Park Kyung-hee tells the story of a photographer whose life is changed indelibly when she discovers she has a rare disease which causes tunnel vision and possible eventual blindness. Divided into four sections, it depicts the break-up of her relationship with her boyfriend, her problems with her old-fashioned family, her attempts to deal with her disease through her art and, finally, her desire to fly an airplane before she loses her sight entirely.

Lee Jang-hwan receives widespread acclaim and media attention after successfully cloning human embryo stem cells. A TV news program PD, Yoon Min-cheol, receives a phone call from an anonymous source who says he has worked with Dr. Lee on the stem cell project. The source blows the whistle on Lee's work, revealing how Lee fabricated research results and engaged in unethical practices.

Jaded by a series of failures in Seoul, unknown poet, Sun-ho returns to his hometown to help his elderly parents work their farm. Fed up with having to clean up after their cow, he sneaks out one night to sell off the bull at a cattle market. Following some misadventures, he arrives at the market but is unable to sell the cow. Sun-ho's predicament is further complicated by a call from his the onetime love of his life, Hyun-su, in 7 years who married his close friend. She tells him that her husband has passed away. Faced with the news of her husband and once best friend, Min-gyu's death, Sun-Ho is tormented with memories of their friendships which fell apart. Following the funeral, Sun-ho travels with the cow he couldn't sell and his one-time lover who just lost her husband. On a journey that will help Sun-ho to get rid of bitterness and hatred that he has from himself...

Waikiki Brothers is a band going nowhere. After another depressing gig, the saxophonist quits, leaving the three remaining members to continue on the road. The band ends up at the lead singer's hometown, which was a popular hot spring resort in the '80s, but the return home is filled with reservations of previous and past disappointments, a lost love, unemployment and tragedy.

Hae-gap is a director who makes anti-government documentary films. One day, Hae-gap’s son, Na-ra, runs away from home, but Man-deok, a freeloader living in Hae-gap’s house ends up bringing him back. Later, Man-deok raids the head developer of Deul Island to stop its exploitation, and Na-ra helps and ends up getting caught. In order to bring Na-ra out from jail, Hae-gap signs to stop making anti-government films and moves to Deul Island with his family. Na-ra sees his father leading a good, quiet life there and starts opening up. But when a construction company charges in to clear-out the island and the islanders fall at risk of losing their homes, Hae-gap leads a strike against it and his family fall in grave danger...

A look at the Korean women's handball team and their journey to the 2004 Summer Olympics. Their path was far from flowery, and they must overcome many obstacles before they can head over to compete.

An impossibly cute and thoroughly touching omnibus of 4 short fillms about how humans can elevate their own relationships through bonding with animals - featuring some of the cutest puppies and kittens ever on the silver screen!

A group of Korean tourists is taken hostage by an extremist Taliban group in Afghanistan. The Korean government dispatches Jae-ho, known as one of Korea's most skilled diplomats, in order to handle the situation. Once he arrives, he asks for the Afghan government's cooperation and uses every means possible to free the hostages. However, his efforts go in vain. Due to his failure, he's forced to work with Dae-sik, a special agent who is an expert on the Middle East. As they begin making their move to get to the Taliban, the first hostage death occurs. With nowhere else to turn, the two become unlikely allies in a race against time to save the rest of the hostages.

Commissioned by South Korea's National Human Rights Commission, If You Were Me is an innovative omnibus film project to promote tolerance and human rights and shed light on the hardships disadvantaged people face in Korea. After the success of the first anthology, a second series, If You Were Me 2, was released this year. Five notable Korean directors - Park Kyung Hee (A Smile), Ryoo Seung Wan (Crying Fist), Jung Ji Woo, Jang Jin (Guns & Talks), and Kim Dong Won - participated in the second installment, creating shorts on human rights issues of their choosing.

Three young men prepare to take their university entrance exams while each dealing with real world problems that can effect every day people in Seoul.

Seung-yun is stressed out because he is sent to several private academies after school. His mother reproves him for not living up to her expectations. His father takes pity on him for being nagged on by his mother all the time... Ju-hun, a new employee at a company, is a vegetarian and cannot drink alcohol at all. Chang-su thinks Ju-hun is eccentric and is displeased with him... Su-hyeong sent his son and daughter with his wife to study abroad, but he grows tired of staying alone in his empty house... SONG has lived with her authoritarian husband without any serious problems, but she does not want to stay with him anymore. GWON, an old man, pretends to be calm in the face of his wife’s request for divorce. But actually he can’t do anything by himself... These are not unfamiliar fictional events but rather they reflect the lives of ordinary people in Korea at the present time. Through their stories, shows us how a society imposes normalcy on its people in their daily lives.

A high school student must struggle to secure a job because of her undesirable appearance. Discusses discrimination against women.

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)