When I was a little girl in Korea, a shaman told me that I was given a special garb from my previous life, which revealed two styles, one traditional Korean, the other Western.
I want to tell stories that transgress cultural boundaries and lead to a greater understanding between various ethnicities. As a Korean-American filmmaker, my objective is to express a unique vision through my bicultural background, telling impactful stories about the Asian American experience in particular.
Through my recently formed KJ Productions, I'm looking forward to teaming up with like-minded filmmakers to collaborate with on these two feature projects:
K-TOWN BLUES, a father-daughter story overlaid with a love affair between Korean and Latino, set in a Korean restaurant that forms a microcosm of a community’s tension among minorities and struggle in the days before the 1992 Riot.
(2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the L.A. Riot, and there has not yet been a feature drama about the Riot from the Korean immigrants' point of view, despite the fact that 65% of the damage was inflicted in Koreatown.)
THE CALLING: A supernatural thriller of a Korean adoptee’s struggles with her birthmother’s “shaman calling” as she fights for her innocence and for the justice for the ghost victims of an illegal organ harvesting scheme.
THE CALLING has been my lifetime film project, as I’ve long been fascinated with Korean shamanism because of its mystical elements and supernatural beauty. **The project was selected for the Producers Guild of America Diversity Project Fellowship and Shanghai Co-FPC.
Other Filmmaking Fellowships include: Rockefeller Foundation Asian Artist Fellowship, ARRAY Inaugural Seminar Fellowship, California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship and Film Independent Project Involve.
I'm also working on two short projects: THE COMFORT WOMAN STATUE and LITTLE TOKYO STORY. Both have been finalists and winners in various writing contests and on the RED list in Coverfly.
After years of devotion and hard work, I feel the time has come for these feature projects to be made, and I look forward to sharing the excitement!