When it comes to both technology and cinema, Korea continues to be a pioneer. The so-called Miracle on the Han River that refers to Korea’s remarkable rise as an economic powerhouse is at least partly attributed to pioneering technology – semiconductors, computers, home appliances and of course smartphones.

Korea’s filmmakers and the wider industry have also experimented, been inventive, embracing new technologies, which is also true in the realm of Virtual Reality (VR) that is evident in the Immersive Section at the Venice International Film Festival where Korean films continued to be invited. Selected to compete this year is Chae Soo-eung’s In the Realm of Ripley (2024), which marks his second invitation after his short animation Buddy VR (2018) won Best Virtual Reality Experience Award in 2018.

Compared to other major festivals, Venice has been ahead in embracing VR. In 2017 La Biennale di Venezia established the first competition for projects in virtual reality that took place on the small island of Lazzaretto Vecchio. Owing to the pandemic, it was forced to go online in 2020 and 2021 under Venice VR Expanded, which also meant it was able to reach more audiences. In 2022 the section was renamed Venice Immersive and moved back to its former home of Lazzaretto Vecchio.

This year a total of sixty-three projects have been selected, which includes twenty-six in competition, thirty projects in the Best of Immersive section and seven projects in the Biennale College Cinema Immersive section. Projects consists of 360-degree videos, standalone VR projects, installations, and VR Worlds on VRChat.

This week, given that the event kicks off on August 28 and takes place until September 7, we will profile the works that have secured invitations since it was created in 2017. To do this, it will be broken down by filmmaker beginning with Gina Kim whose VR trilogy was invited before moving onto Brian Ku (Poet’s Room) and concluding with Chae Soo-eung and his two projects: Buddy VR and In the Realm of Ripley.

Gina Kim (Bloodless (2017), Tearless (2021), COMFORTLESS (2023))

South Korean filmmaker Gina Kim has an impressive career that is quite different compared to many of her peers given that she has spent significant time in the United States but remains committed to telling stories about Korea and representation – more specifically, US military comfort women.  This was a term used by the Korean Supreme Court in 2022 in a state compensation lawsuit for the Camptown US Military Comfort Women.

After moving to the US in 1995, she started filming Gina KIM's Video Diary (2001), a personal documentary about her nomad experiences, which was invited to the Berlin Film Festival. In 2003, she made the transition into fiction with Invisible Light (2003) about two women – a Korean and Korean-American that delves into their psychological and physical journeys.  Four years later, she helmed the South Korea – US coproduction Never Forever (2006), romantic drama featuring Ha Jung-woo and Vera Farmiga that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in competition.

After directing the documentary Faces of Seoul (2009) that secured an invitation to the Venice Film Festival and the Thai-Korean co-production Final Recipe (2013) starring Michelle Yeoh and Henry Lau, Kim moved into the world of virtual reality with her trilogy focussing on Korean women as sex workers in areas close to US military bases in South Korea.

Her first film in the trilogy, Bloodless, traces the final moments of a sex worker before she was brutally murdered by a US soldier that sparked a national outcry in Korea over the US military presence in the country.

The twelve-minute film, which won the Best VR Story in Venice in 2017, takes audiences to the neighborhood where the woman was killed showing them the neon lights, the bars, the alleyways before bringing the viewers to the room where the victim spent her final hours before her death.

Kim is keen to give agency to the viewers so they can choose what they want to see as opposed to 2D conventional film where filmmakers direct the viewer. This democratization of the medium enables her to focus on a character without objectifying them thereby adding to its salience.

Her next project Tearless (2021), which was invited to Venice VR Expanded, centers on a medical prison known as “Monkey House,” that was established in the 1970s to isolate women with sexual transmitted diseases. They were often given heavy doses of antibiotics resulting in dangerous side effects. Some women tragically died, while others also fell to their deaths when trying to escape.

With a VR headset, viewers are transported into the detention center where they are introduced to the different rooms of the building – the dining hall, bedroom, bathroom and treatment room echoing the barren spaces in military camps. They are based on testimonies of the women along with a handwritten panel that was found at the location.

Kim is also behind two other projects relating to this film: The Augmented Reality of Monkey House, which allows viewers to see the exterior and surroundings of the building while The Extended Reality of Monkey House enables audiences to go into it and walk through the corridors. They are available as Apps from Kim’s website

Similar applications have also been created for Kim’s subsequent film, COMFORTLESS (2023) that in an immersive experience of a brothel consisting of 500 units known as “American Town” that was established in 1959 for a US Airforce base located in Kunsan.

Shot on location before the site was demolished for redevelopment, viewers are transported to the town while hearing the voices and ghosts of the past. The 3D 360-degree project was invited to Venice Immersive in 2023, while viewers at home can also download both the Augmented and Extended Reality Apps from Kim’s aforementioned site.

Brian Ku (Poet’s Room) 

Having begun his career studying Computer Art at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, Brian Ku then went on to become a lighting technical director in Hollywood before becoming an art director at EVR Studio. He then directed the short 360-degree VR short film BOHWAGAK: Along the Way to Utopia (2017) that secured an invite to the VR Cinema in BIFF program at the Busan International Film Festival. He also helmed the world’s first 4DX film, Stay with Me (2017) starring Seo Yea-ji and Kim Jung-hyun. In 2021, he directed Parasite VR (2021), which through virtual reality explores space and some of the hidden metaphors in Bong Joon Ho’s Academy Award winning film.

His next film was the twenty-three-minute short, Poet’s Room (2022) that takes viewers into the world of Yun Dong-ju and his poetry. Yun is one of Korea’s best-lived poets who died at the age of just 27 in Fukuoka Prison in February 1945 after being imprisoned for his role in the Korean independence movement. His life was also the subject of Lee Joon-ik’s acclaimed film Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016).

Poet’s Room that was invited to Venice Immersive in 2022, enables viewers to open his handwritten manuscripts, which then takes them on a journey to understand his life journey through his poetry that dealt with Korea’s struggles against Japanese colonial rule.

Chae Soo-eung (Buddy VR and In the Realm of Ripley)

One of Chae Soo-eung’s early credits was as a VFX animator and 3D producer on Kim Young-hwa’s Mr. Go (2013) before working in similar roles on The Pirates (2014) and The Long Way Home (2015).  He made his directorial debut with BUDDY VR (2018), which became the second short in a row to win an award in Venice.

Taking place at an amusement park named Liberty Land, which featured in the South Korean-US coproduction animation, The Nut Job (2013), the sixteen-minute short provides viewers with the opportunity to meet the lonely mouse from the film – Buddy.

Chae’s latest project to premiere in Venice, In the Realm of Ripley (2024) is a 55-minute interactive action film starring Jang Hyuk who has taken on roles of late featuring daring stunts and choreography in The Swordsman (2020) and The Killer_ A Girl Deserves to Die (2022).

In the Realm of Ripley, however, audiences will be able to affect the development of the narrative communicating with the actors and participating in the story. Set in the year 2080, it follows a detective (Jang Hyuk) who attempts to find clues by entering the brain-dead boy who is the only witness to a homicide. The film, which also stars Moon Joo-yeon and Song Jae-hee is produced by Aria Studio that is an AI and interaction-based media platform based in Seoul.

Editted by Shim Eunha

Written by Jason Bechervaise