The Tenants – KCrush Interview With Filmmaker Yoon Eun-kyoung by Carolyn Hinds
For the Fantasia International Film Festival premiere of her noir psychological thriller The Tenants, filmmaker Yoon Eun-kyoung spoke with Film Critic and Journalist Carolyn Hinds about the intricacies of constructing a film depicting the realities of living in a society, where the promise of utopia is dangled as a prize for pushing our bodies and minds to the limits working in a capitalist society.
Starring Kim Dae-gun as Shin-dong, a 20 something young man working endlessly to be selected to live in Sphere 2 – a promised utopia where the air is clear and houses are spacious – who sublets his home through Wolwolse, a government program that allows tenants to sublet parts of their apartment to earn more income to achieve his goal quicker. But Shin-dong’s hopes are dashed as it becomes evident, his new tenants, a large imposing man who wears a distinctive feather adorned fedora, and his ever smiling but never speaking wife secretly sublet the ceiling space above their new domain, Shin-dong’s bathroom, to a mysterious woman who refuses to leave.
The husband, known only as The Tenant is played intriguingly by Heo Dong-won, who give the character an at times threatening and domineering air, and other times an almost child like fasciation with his own part in Shin-dong’s predicament. In the interview director Yoon and Carolyn speak about how the film is an apt interpretation of capitalism creates an oppressive environment physically and mentally over us.
Interpretation for the interview was conducted by April Kim.
—-Carolyn Hinds
Freelance Film Critic, Journalist, Podcaster & YouTuber
African American Film Critics Association Member, Tomatometer-Approved Critic
Host & Producer Carolyn Talks…, and So Here’s What Happened! Podcast
Bylines at Authory.com/CarolynHinds
Twitter & Instagram: @CarrieCnh12
#KCrush #KoreanFilm #KoreanCinema #FantasiaFest24 #FantasiaInternationalFilmFestival #AsianCinema #InternationalFilmFestival #SouthKorea #Korea #TheTenants #YoonEunkyoung #Filmmaker