[News] “The Journals of Musan” wins award at San Francisco film festival.

[News] “The Journals of Musan” wins award at San Francisco film festival.
Cr. - 10asia

Korean director Park Jung-bum has received another award at an international film festival, making it its ninth win for his film "The Journals of Musan."

“Musan,” both helmed by and starring Park Jung-bum, won the New Directors award at the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF54) held from April 21 to May 5, winning 15,000 dollars as prize money, as revealed by the official website of the fest today.

“I do wonder whether such overwhelming attention to my film is because it deals with the sensitive subject of a North Korean defector,” Park said in the statement released today by film’s distributor JinJin Pictures. “It’s wonderful to receive an award but I also feel sorry for Seung-chul who passed away and I feel an even greater responsibility to make good films in the future.”



Jeon Seung-chul, a real-life character of the same name whom the movie is based on, used to be a close friend of director Park's who later passed away from cancer.

Park turned his story into a 127-minute film which tells the plight of the North Korean defector trying to adjust to a capitalist society in South Korea which has been well recognized for delving into one of the most controversial issues in Korean Peninsula and is the extended version of director Park’s earlier short film “125 JEON Seung Chul” (2008) that describes the typical day for the same lead character.



"Musan" has already won a slew of accolades at other international film festivals including the New Currents Award and International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award at the 15th Busan International Film Festival last October, the top prize at the 10th Marrakech International Film Festival held in Morocco in December, the Tiger Award during the 40th International Film Festival Rotterdam in February, the jury prize at the 13th Deauville Asian Film Festival in France in mid- March, the Krakow Film Award at the Off Plus Camera International Festival of Independent Cinema in mid-April and most recently, the award for best new narrative director at the 10th annual Tribeca Film Festival held at New York City of New York in late April.

The film was also selected one of the top ten must-see movies by magazine Time Out New York early this year and premiered in Korea in mid-April.