Kim Kyung-Mook (b.1985) is a filmmaker based in Seoul. His films—short, feature, and documentary—explore the uncertain lives of marginalized groups of people, such as homosexuals, transsexuals, sex workers, North Korean defectors, and others. Through his works, he attempts to reveal the ambiguity of boundaries lying between appearance/disappearance, visibility/invisibility, and presence/absence. This presentation will be a discussion of his 2011 film, Stateless Things, which is available for prior viewing in the library.
Stateless Things follows two men who live on the fringe of society in South Korea. Joon is a North Korean defector who works at a gas station. His coworker at the gas station is Soon-Hee, an ethnic Korean who migrated to the country from China. When the boss at the gas station sexually harasses Soon-Hee, Joon finds himself sticking up from the woman. Joon is soon relieved from his job, but returns to collect his unpaid wages. A fight erupts that leads Joon and Soon-Hee escaping from their workplace together.
Hyun is a good-looking young man who finds himself living in an expensive high-rise apartment. He lives there as the lover of a wealthy, older businessman Hyun receives a phone call from a woman looking for her husband. Slowly but surely, the stories of Jun and Hyeon, two lost souls, come together in the poetic and stylish Stateless Things. The positioning of the opening titles is enough to show Kim’s idiosyncrasy: they only appear on screen after 90 minutes.