Yeo-haeng-ja (2009)

Director:

Ounie Lecomte

Writer:

Ounie Lecomte (writer)

Release Date:

29 October 2009 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Inspired by her childhood, French-Korean filmmaker Ounie Lecomte recounts the emotional journey of a little girl abandoned by her father in an orphanage.

Plot Keywords:

Orphanage | Korean | 1970s | Little Girl | Girl

Awards:

6 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Sae-ron Kim	...	Jinhee
Do Yeon Park	...	Sookhee
Ah-sung Ko	...	Ye-shin
Myeong-shin Park	...	Bomo
Man-seok Oh	...	Director Koo
Kyung-gu Sol	...	Jinhee's father
Seong-kun Mun	...	Doctor
Hyun-joo Baek	...	Sister Lim
Yejin Jeong	...	Sister Park
Hackjin Mun	...	Seongsoo
Yoo-nah Kim	...	Mrs. Choi
Hanbyoul Lee	...	Miseong
Robert Youngs	...	Sookhee's adoptive father
Lara Tosh	...	Sookhee's adoptive mother
Richard Wilson	...	The American pupeteer
Inbai Go	...	Priest
Hyeyoung Hwang	...	Nurse
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Titi Coldroo	...	Mère adoptive de Jin Hee
Luke Benjamin Doyle	...	Soldat américain
Gyeon Gae	...	Vendeuse de magasin
Jeoung-sin Gang	...	Enfant
Hee Guk	...	Enfant
Sunju Gwon	...	Enfant
Hyeoun Ham	...	Enfant
Daniel Jeoung	...	Couple aéroport
Hye-won Jeoung	...	Enfant
Min-young Jin	...	Enfant
Ji-won Joo	...	Hye-won Jeong
Min-ji Ju	...	Infirmière 2
Mingu Kim	...	Bébé coréen
Nahae Kim	...	Enfant
Suji Kim	...	Enfant
Son-ju Kwon	...	Boulangère
Elphic Brett Michael	...	Soldat américain
Young-jun No	...	Enfant coréen
Nataka Sanches	...	Soeur de Jin Hee
Harvey Schmidt	...	Père adoptif de Jin Hee
Jae-young Shin	...	Mère adoptive de Ye-shin
Yeong-guk Shin	...	Père adoptif de Ye-shin
Myoung Sin	...	Serveuse de restaurant
Jul-yeon Song	...	Enfant
Amy Woo	...	Soldat américain
Eric M. Zommerman	...	Couple aéroport

Directed by
Ounie Lecomte

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ounie Lecomte		writer

Produced by
Laurent Lavolé	....	producer
Chang-dong Lee	....	producer
Dong-ha Lee	....	producer
Jun-dong Lee	....	producer

Cinematography by
Hyun Seok Kim

Film Editing by
Hyun-joo Kim

Production Design by
Kyung-in Baek

Production Management
Cécile Lai	....	administrative manager
Diane Thin	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Yong Jin Cho	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Mina Cho	....	assistant production designer
Jayeon Heo	....	assistant production designer
Sonju Kwon	....	assistant production designer
Jeemin Park	....	assistant production designer

Sound Department
Eric Lesachet	....	sound re-recording mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Min Jae Kim	....	gaffer
Sang Soo Lee	....	second assistant camera
Seong Jin Lee	....	first assistant camera

Other crew
Fatim-Zohra Essouci	....	production assistant

Thanks
Mark Siegmund	....	thanks

Production Companies

• Fine Cut
• Gloria Films (producer)
• Now Films (producer)
• Pine House Film

Distributors

• Bir Film (2010) (Turkey) (all media) (limited)
• Cinéart (2009) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Cinéart (2009) (Luxembourg) (theatrical)
• Cinéart (2009) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Crest International (2010) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Golden Village Pictures (2010) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Diaphana Films (2009) (France) (all media)
• EDKO Film (2009) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Filmhouse (2009) (Mexico) (all media)
• Shani Films (2009) (Israel) (all media)

Other Companies

• Seoul Film Commission  funding
• Yellow Cab Studios  sound re-recording

Also Known As:

"A Brand New Life" - International (English title)
"Une vie toute neuve" - France
"Et helt nytt liv" - Norway (imdb display title), Norway (imdb display title)
"Fuyu no kotori" - Japan (imdb display title)
"Mia kainouria zoi" - Greece (festival title)
"Yepyeni bir hayat" - Turkey (Turkish title) (imdb display title)

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

South Korea | France

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

South Korea:12 | Singapore:PG | Japan:PG12 | France:U

Filming Locations:

Seoul, South Korea

Company:

Fine Cut

A sad and beautiful masterpiece, played wonderfully by Sae Ron Kim

Life can appear very strange, when no-one is there to explain it. Especially when you're a child and you have plenty of questions. This is a big question which started the day when a father, with no explanations left his daughter at an orphanage. A Brand New Life takes its spectator to childhood - to a time when we asked many things and perhaps got no answers and no explanations why things happen exactly this way. Film is through and through seen from the eyes of a child, but brought to it's richness with the help of a wonderful script and skillful camera, allowing its spectator to put aside for a while his adult point of view and just observe, and try to understand. This is the story of a little girl, Jinhee, played marvelously by Mademoiselle Sae Ron Kim. She poses questions, but there never comes an honest answer why her life has turned out like this.

A Brand New Life achieves a perfect harmony, one element underlines the other one. The long takes allow the spectator to grasp, how long the time in orphanage seemed for Jinhee, the relatively small amounts of dialogs depicts the introvert child, whose emotions break out through some furious actions. The gray tone palette which en-tours the setting of the orphanage shows very understandable the sadness of this place.

Film touches not only an auto-biographical story, but the sad truth of life – we all know that there are thousands of places like this around the world. And there are thousands of children who, perhaps, have mastered this tragicomic show for the visitors, the potential new families.

In conclusion I'd like to say that this is a very daring film, knowing that this was a true story and a true childhood, perhaps lived through second by second as we see it on the screen. I must say that it's a brave choice to put a story like this on the screen. But its greatest value is the absence of a pathos and absence of a depiction the children as a victims of the cruelty of life. A Brand New Life is hope and search for the answers through and through it.