Above: Trailer for ‘Remember You.’
Filmmaker and CalArts alumna Yoon Jung Lee’s (Film/Video MFA 05) debut film Remember You has received commercial distribution through CJ Entertainment. It premiered nationwide in Korea on Jan. 7 and is fresh from a two-week run at CGV Cinemas in Los Angeles. It is currently screening at Cine Oasis in Dallas.
Remember You follows the story of a man who’s lost his memory. In the midst of trying to retrace his life, he falls in love with a woman who, unbeknownst to him, may know of his past.
The film stars Korean actors Woo Sung Jung and Ha Neul Kim. Jung has starred in hit Korean films such as the gangster film Beat, the “kimchi Western” The Good, The Bad and the Weird and the romance film Daisy. Kim has starred in romantic comedies My Tutor Friend and Too Beautiful to Lie and the thriller Blind.
Remember You is a remake of Lee’s 2010 short film titled Remember O Goddess, starring Jung Tae Kim and Tae Hee Kim. The short has been screened in several festivals, including LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, New York International Film Festival and San Diego Asian American Film Festival.
In an email, Lee talked about how CalArts helped her make the film:
On the last day of my stay at CalArts, I met Betzy Bromberg near the parking lot. She said, “Keep making films, Yoon Jung.” Then I realized how hard it was going to be to keep making films outside of CalArts. I kept thinking of what Betzy said while I worked for money as an AD or script supervisor. CalArts was such a paradise where you could make films for yourself whenever you wanted to. Because I remembered the joy of making films there, I wanted to do it again.
It took five years after graduation for me to make Remember O Goddess. Without all the great memories from CalArts, I might have dropped the project at some point—filmmaking in the industry is a huge challenge. But I knew the joy, as Eve knew the taste of the apple, so I didn’t stop.