Interview with South Korean director Sung-Hyung Cho
When thousands of people sporting tattoos, wearing studded collars and big black boots descend on a village in northern Germany each year, the contrast with the local community could hardly be greater. South Korean director Sung-Hyung Cho made a name for herself by capturing the “clash of cultures” in her award-winning first feature-length film “Full Metal Village”, a documentary that takes a close look at the inhabitants of a small town in Schleswig Holstein who play host to one of the world’s most famous Heavy Metal festivals – the Wacken Open Air – each year.
 Sung-Hyung Cho. Photo Tim Wegner with permission Dt.Filminsitute Since her debut success, Cho has gone on to make “Home from Home”, a documentary about a small German village on the South Korean island Namhae. Young Germany spoke to the director about her career, her life in Germany and her new film.
Can you tell me a bit about your background and how you came to Germany?
I studied Mass Communication Studies in Seoul. My university was the Mecca of the student movement and every week there were fights between the students and riot police. It was a difficult time for students. There were no options, either you were a Stalinist in the student movement or you were completely apolitical and cared about nothing except your career. But I wanted neither just a career, nor to be a Stalinist North Korea supporter. As I saw no way out, I wanted to leave. I wanted to go to Germany, which for me had always been a country of thinkers and poets. I had always wanted to go there and had already read a number of German books – Heine, Goethe, Nietzsche Schopenhauer – in Korean. That’s how my desire to go to Germany was born.
Did you learn German before coming here?
Yes, even though it wasn’t my major, I visited German language and literature studies seminars and attended the Goethe-Institut, so I could already read and write. But in terms of speaking, I could barely understand anything and couldn’t express myself properly. Back then they had films in the Goethe-Institut and I saw experimental films from the 1920s, which really impressed me. It was a real eye-opener for me and I vaguely thought that it could be something that I would like to do; and so I went to Germany.
 How did you organize your degree abroad?
For me it was a little easier, as my sister was already in Germany as a scholarship-holder and she picked out a number of universities for me. I told her I wanted to study art, paint and do film studies at the same time. I wanted to combine practical experience with theory. Marburg was the only university where you could paint and do film studies and so I went there.
Did you have difficulties getting settled in?
Of course! It was difficult to come to a different country with a different culture – another civilization – without language skills. And yet I felt good and removed from all the chaos back home. When I was studying in South Korea a student at my university died during a demonstration. In Marburg there was no teargas and no one dying on campus. The city is really small and quiet, like being on holiday. Although it was difficult with the language, I felt at home there.
When did you think that you could become a director?
I had the idea back in South Korea. Well, to be precise, a friend of mine said that’s what I should do at university, when we were 18. My puberty had been delayed, because at school, I was completely isolated and all I did was revise for the university entrance exam. It was only at university that I began to think about a lot of things, about myself and about the world. Suddenly, I no longer knew what I really wanted. I had actually wanted to become a journalist, but I thought that it would not be possible to do the job with morals and a conscience in South Korea. And so I didn’t know what I wanted to do and a friend of mine told me I should make films, because that would suit me.
 So you didn’t run around with a video camera when you were young?
Not at all! When I was young I wanted to be rich and powerful, like politicians. I thought I would become a journalist and then enter politics. That’s pretty much what I thought as a young girl. The reorientation as a film maker, or an artist, that happened in South Korea during my delayed puberty, as I began to reflect and think about life
Did you watch a lot of films as a kid?
No, not at all, that only happened at university too. But I always had a predisposition for drawing and for pictures. Even as a young girl, I always painted and drew and took part in painting competitions. That was my hobby. The thought that I could become a film maker came during my time at university in South Korea when I saw those Absolute Films. Then in Germany I did something else for a long time, as I studied art history, philosophy and media studies. Only afterwards after a long detour did I get around to making films.
Did you work with a film camera in Marburg already?
Not during my degree, but when I had finished my master’s thesis, I started to film in Marburg.
And why did you choose documentaries?
I am interested in people who have stories to tell and I have an affinity towards experimental things. So I thought that I could best combine both in a documentary. My first films originated from my observations about everyday life. I meet interesting people and let them tell a story. I personally don’t have that many stories to tell, but I find people who do have something interesting to say. Perhaps that is why I chose documentary films.
Read part II of the interview
Sung-Hyung Cho was born in Busan, South Korea, in 1966. She grew up in Seoul and attended the Yon-Sei University where she earned a B.A. in Mass Communication Studies. In 1990 she moved to Marburg, Germany, to begin studying for an M.A. in History of Art, Media Studies, and Philosophy at the Phillipps-University Marburg.
After studying as a postgraduate student in the Department for Theater Film and Media Sciences at the Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and subsequently attending a course on electronic images at Offenbach College of Design in 1999/2000, she began taking her first steps in the film industry, working on documentaries and music videos, as well as working as an assistant editor on the German TV series “Die Kommissarin, Ein Fall für Zwei.”
In 2007, her film “Full Metal Village” was a run-away success at the Berlinale. The documentary was awarded the Hessian Film Award in 2006, as well as the Max Ophüls prize for young filmmakers and the Best Documentary for the Guild of German Art House Cinemas in 2007. She has recently completed work on her latest film “Home from Home”, which will open in cinemas in fall 2009.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1776064/ Photo 1: Tim Wegner with permission Dt. Filminsitute Photo 2: Full Metal Village poster
Photo 3: Flickr (cc)/ Roswitha Siedelberg/User: The Infatuated
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