A Letter from Kyoto, the debut film from Director Kim Min-ju, explores all the things that we keep “Out of sight, out of mind, but not from heart.” Set in Yeongdo, an Island within Busan harbour, the family drama focuses on a family of three sisters and their mother. It begins when Hye-young (Han Seon-hwa), an aspiring writer, returns to her hometown seemingly indefinitely, for reasons she is reluctant to reveal. Hye-jin (Han Chae-a), the eldest of the three sisters, feels resentful towards Hye-young for lumbering her with all the family responsibilities. Hye-joo (Song Ji-hyun), the youngest, is in her last year of high school and stokes quiet dreams of leaving for Seoul and becoming a professional dancer. A Letter from Kyoto explores the relationship between the three sisters, which has over time become terse, fractured and complex, and explores their own private worries and secrets as they discover things that they never knew about their mother. It quickly highlights the importance of good communication.
In a world full of big films, moral dilemmas, action, and high drama, it’s easy to forget that life’s real tensions lie in the silence, and live in what people mean to or should say, but don’t. A Letter from Kyoto is a touching film that gently explores the beauty and fragility of life. It is a beautiful, touching reminder that all the things we have are fleeting. The mother/daughter relationship is something special to explore. A Letter from Kyoto is emotionally charged, and at times terse, with the tension burning slowly as the film progresses. It is full of interesting family dynamics, nostalgia, unnecessary lies, frustrations, and silent, unspoken dissatisfaction. Kim excels in capturing the ordinary sounds of life – natural sounds of the busy world we live in. The film also features forgetfulness, reunions, social interactions, excitement & hope. The sense that time is ticking and we have so much to cherish.
One of the conversations that lingers is:
Why didn’t you tell me?
Why didn’t you ask?
A Letter from Kyoto is one of the stars of the 2023 London Korean Film Festival – and points to a budding and promising career in film making. I was therefore really delighted to be given the opportunity to speak with Director Kim Min-ju.
Faye: It is so nice to meet you. I loved the film. It was sad but full of love too, I thought – and when it finished I immediately called my mother. The acting was powerful and beautiful. Before I get get into the questions, I firstly wanted to offer my congratulations on making your debut!
Director Kim: Thank you. I’m looking forward to it. It’s wonderful, but a scary feeling as well.
F: When I was watching the film, I largely felt a sense of how precious life is. I am interested to know if there is any part of the film that particularly resonated with you?
DK: So it is standoff from my mother’s story and I thought that this was a great source for creating a film. It started with that – where she was born in Japan, lived in Korea but couldn’t return to Japan and was missing her mother. but in script writing I had to go deeper into the character and I went through the experience of understanding my mother’s history and imagining and understanding what she went through. That resonated personally and gave me the opportunity to look back into my family history and give me the grounds to understand that has been done in the past, something which helps moving and looking forward.
F: What message or takeaway do you hope viewers will have after watching the film?
DK: My film is on family and home and I hope will make the audience think about that. When I say home, i mean the physical home but also the good memories from childhood and when younger. Those times when you were pure – the ‘good times’. I hope the audience will recall those times from their memory, and feel warmth and positive energy. I hope the audience will take away those feelings. When I get closer to the audience they do tend to interpret the film with even more expression and expand better so I am looking forward to hearing that.
F: Both the style in which the film is filmed and how the characters interact with each other is done in a really natural way. I was wondering if you allowed for any improvisation during the filming?
DK: In terms of improvisation, it varied with the actors. The mother is a very experienced actor, the most experienced amongst the cast, having performed both in theatre and film so she did a lot of improvisation during the filming process. All the improvisations she did add were really useful which made it very difficult to chose which takes to use when it came to the editing process. The older two daughters, they have also been industry for quite a while but they did not improvised a lot and when they wanted to they did ask if it was OK to do, and this was something we were in agreement on. With regards to the younger sister, she is a newcomer in the acting world and even though I encouraged her to improvise she stuck to with the prepared script.
F: What was your favourite scene in the film to shoot?
DK: It is the scene where Hye-jin and Hye-young are arguing in Hye-jin’s workplace – inside the storage are and discussing how they should address helping the mum with the dementia. They have two conflicting situational stances and neither are wrong. I have the perspective from the second daughter, and so this scene was my form of ‘self confession’ and the actors acted really well in that scene. It was the simplest of scenes but also the best.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Trailer:
