Award-winning Korean-American filmmaker Benson LEE’s new film Seoul Searching will have its debut at next month’s Sundance Film Festival, as part of its Premieres lineup. A comedy set in a Seoul summer camp in the 1980s, the film marks LEE’s second invitation to the Park City fest.

 

Three Korean teenagers living in the US, Mexico and Germany travel to Seoul for a special summer camp devised by the Korean government for foreign born nationals in Seoul Searching, a coming of age comedy based on real events from 1986. The film stars Justin CHON, Jessika VAN, CHA In-pyo and Crystal KAY.

 

Seoul Searching is an American-Korean-Chinese co-production that was filmed in English on location in Korea. The project availed of the Korean Film Council’s location incentive program and was produced by US outfits Bowery Hills Entertainment and Mondo Paradiso Films while China’s Wonder Vision served as an investor. The USD 2.2 million project found many of its multi-ethnic cast members (Korean, Japanese, Korean-American, Korean-African American, Chinese-American, British-Korean, Spanish-Korean, German-Korean and Canadian Korean) through YouTube auditions. Snowpiercer editor Steven M. CHOE was also part of the crew.

 

LEE became the first Korean-American to be invited to Sundance’s Dramatic Competition with his debut Miss Monday in 1998. The film earned the Special Grand Jury Prize fort Best Actor and LEE went on to make the successful documentary Planet B-Boy (2007) which he later adapted into a 3D fiction version called Battle of the Year for Sony Pictures, which was released in 2013.

 

Seoul Searching is the only Korean film at next year’s Sundance, which will kick off on January 22nd. In 2013, the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Dramatic category went to O Muel’s Jeju Massacre drama Jiseul (2012). Last year at Sundance, PARK Chan-wook’s English-language debut Stoker had its premiere out of competition while the US-Korea co-production Love Child took part in the World Cinema Documentary competition.