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| yna@yna.co.kr 2026-08-07 09:06:23
SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Yonhap) -- A creator who crafts fictional stories is, in a sense, like a god.
They determine everything in their fictional world, from the appearance and personality of characters to the rules that govern the universe. That requires confidence in shaping the world they create.
Director Choi Seung-woo, 34, who made the film "Last Summer," takes the opposite approach. Rather than being certain that "this is how the world should be built," he is more concerned with asking whether it is even right to recreate the world.
For him, making the film meant capturing the real lives of local residents. In "Last Summer," set in Hongcheon County in Gangwon Province, actual residents are shown farming, resting in pavilions and chatting as part of their everyday routines.
Unlike many fiction films that obscure place names or use fictional locations, the film openly identifies its setting in Hongcheon by showing road signs bearing addresses beginning with "Seongsan-ro" and the Hwachon-myeon Administrative Welfare Center.
In that way, "Last Summer," while telling a fictional story, approaches audiences from the boundary between documentary and fiction.
"I had to put into the film what I felt while watching the lives of people who actually live there," Choi said. "I thought there was no point in recreating that through actors' performances. I don't think I have the right to recreate their lives, either."
Speaking in an interview with Yonhap News at an office in central Seoul on Tuesday, the day the film opened in theaters, Choi's words reflected his humility toward filmmaking. His attitude resembled that of farmers who cultivate the land while accepting nature's will.
"Last Summer" follows Min-woo (Kim Min-hyuk), a young man living in a small rural village. After leaving his job at the Hwachon-myeon Administrative Welfare Center for unspecified reasons, he begins helping his father with farming.
The idea for the film came to Choi over a meal. While contemplating what kind of film to make, he thought about people who grow rice and live according to the rhythms of nature.
"I also wondered, 'Who am I to make a film and show it to people?' I wanted to observe their lives and see what I would feel from them."
The place he chose to observe farmers was Hongcheon, where his maternal grandparents once lived. He developed the project while spending time there.
Winning over the elderly villagers proved essential because their participation was indispensable to capturing authentic lives on screen.
"If they had refused to appear, I couldn't have made the film," Choi said. "It's a quiet village, so when young people came around, they showed interest and started conversations with us. That made it easier to ask them."
He also devised a way to help residents feel comfortable in front of the camera. After starting the recording, he would approach them and begin conversations with prepared questions. Once they forgot about the camera and the conversation flowed naturally, he quietly stepped out of the frame.
That process led to one of the film's memorable lines -- "People do 20 percent of the farming, and heaven does the other 80 percent" -- emerging naturally from a resident rather than from the script.
The film also features actors portraying fictional characters, including Kim Min-hyuk as Min-woo, Moon Young-dong as Min-woo's father and Kim Hyun-seop as Min-woo's friend. Kim Min-hyuk, a longtime friend of the director, and junior actor Kim Hyun-seop also helped with the film's production.
The story was structured to reflect the cycle of life and death. Min-woo's inner struggles and the death of a villager unfold in chronological order.
Yet the film never explicitly reveals what causes Min-woo's emotional conflict, reflecting Choi's cautious approach to storytelling.
"To arrive at a definite conclusion about an incident in a rural community, I would have to understand it much better," he said. "I wanted the camera to go only as far as I could responsibly follow, and the story naturally unfolded in the same way."
The camera also remains largely fixed, quietly observing the landscape. Panning shots are rarely used.
Through that restrained style, the fictional narrative blends with the lives of real residents to depict a summer in which life and death intersect. As Min-woo's family and other villagers move through drought, monsoon rains and harvest season, they also part with cattle they had carefully raised.
Completed after filming between May and October 2022, "Last Summer," Choi's first feature film, won the Critic b Award at the 28th Busan International Film Festival in 2023 and the Film Critics Award at the 12th Muju Film Festival in 2024.
"I was relieved because it made me feel I could continue making films," Choi said with a smile. "I think people were encouraging me by saying, 'You made the film exactly the way you wanted.'"
Choi has never formally studied filmmaking. He began creating works at age 24 as a way to express what was inside him. He worked at a shipyard that offered relatively high wages to save money for a camera and gradually taught himself filmmaking by making short works with actor Kim Min-hyuk.
His next film, "Winter Days," is scheduled for release later this year. Set in a city during winter, it serves as a companion piece that contrasts with "Last Summer." Choi described it as a film made while looking back on "Last Summer."
"I made it because I wanted to show the other side of 'Last Summer,'" he said. "I think I'll continue making films by connecting my thoughts from one work to the next."
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