ABSTRACT
Yim Soon-rye is a leading South Korean female film director. Since she directed her first short film Promenade in the Rain in 1994, Yim has directed a number of films ranging from critically acclaimed independent films, such as Three Friends (1996) and Waikiki Brothers (2001), to crowd-pleasing dramas, such as Forever the Moment (2008) and Little Forest (2018), as well as her salient collaborations with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea with If You Were Me (2003) and Fly Penguin (2009). This interview with the director discusses her career, starting from what attracted her to filmmaking and how she got to make her much lauded first short film Promenade in the Rain to her latest foray into a big-budget action thriller with The Point Men (2023). The conversation provides critical insights into her work and illuminates the current status of women’s cinema in South Korea.
