News

Conceived in Busan and born in Seoul, Cho Jinseok is a filmmaker who also developed the Cholol Technique for philosophical inquiry by blending contemporary western and Korean practices of argumentation. He studied media and communications theory and Chinese language at university. Colonel Panics is his debut film.

We talk to him about his life, the film, history, technology, art and many other topics.

How does an S.Korean who deals with philosophy, and has studied media and communications theory, and Chinese language, ends up shooting a Japanese film?

A friend in Tokyo approached me a couple of years ago and asked me whether I wanted to housesit their place as they were going away for quite a while. I agreed, made the move to Tokyo and lived there for a while, soaking up the culture, the history and the people. I found the political situation in Japan very fascinating and...

The film revolves around two men, who seem to be living in different timelines. The first one, Kaito, is living in the present, is a writer for a political magazine with a nationalistic line. Despite his seemingly regular persona of a dedicated employee who occasionally drinks with his friends, he has another, quite dark and perverse one. He keeps stalking Kuniko, an ex-colleague in university he used to have an affair with, who is now a very successful author. Furthermore, he has regular sex sessions with Yumi, a prostitute, where he is dressed in a Japanese military uniform and she is made to act in various, submissive roles, at least when he is not masturbating with a tube-like gadget. Even more than that, he seems to hide a rage in him, which is bound to be released at some point. This moment comes when a colleague declines his invitation to dinner.