한국국제교류재단

Film critic Darcy Paquet organized the third Wildflower Film Awards this year. The awardsliken Korean independent movies to wildflowers in the sense that they blossom even inbarren land. In love with Korean cinema for 20 years now, he has found a way to channelhis devotion into producing some meaningful outcomes.

Darcy Paquet, a U.S. movie critic and longtime resident of Korea, played a part inLim Sang-soo’s 2012 movie “The Taste of Money” as an American who arranges fordelivery of black money from a chaebol family to a political figure.

We met at a subway station exit in the northern part ofSeoul on a rainy afternoon in June. Darcy Paquet washolding an umbrella with “Waiting for the Snow” writtenon it. He had visited Indie Space nearby to see the movie andreceived the umbrella as a gift. He guided me through narrow alleysto a café with a Korean-style front gate and small garden. He had asoft voice and his Korean pronunciation was less than perfect. Wesat quite close together, so that I could understand him better, withour noses almost touching.

Third Wildflower Film Awards
First, I asked Darcy about the movie that he had just seen. “Iliked Director Jang Hee-chul’s first movie ‘Beautiful Miss Jin.’ Iremembered the name, and I went to see the movie on the last day.I was the only one in the audience. I think less than one thousandpeople have shown up in total. Thirty-thousand viewers is enough torecoup the production costs and give bonuses to the staff. I’m sorrypeople only flock to see the blockbusters and big hits.”
The conversation naturally led to the Wildflower Film Awards,of which Darcy is the director. The awards were established in thespring of 2014 to encourage the production of low-budget indie movies.The third awards took place this April. They honor the achievementsof filmmakers and low-budget movies made with less than 1billion won (about $880,000). There is a perfect match in the barrenland where the wildflowers grow and where indie movies are made.
“I had been thinking about it for a long time, but I never knew Iwould be the one doing it,” Paquet says. “I saw numerous movieslauded as beautiful and creative fail to get the right treatment anddisappear from the scene, just like that, and always thought theyshould be reappraised. If film awards were d with emphasison the award ceremony, then surely they would attract attention,I thought. People urged me to do it, but I almost gave up in themiddle because of a lack of funds. The situation is much better nowbecause we get support from film investors, importers, and distributors,including Showbox.”
The Wildflower Film Awards have gained some recognition andcredibility. Paquet remembers how overjoyed he was when hereceived a phone call from a professor who said, “I have students inthe Department of Film who are making movies targeting the WildflowerFilm Awards.” If things get better, the first thing he wants todo is compensate Lee Harin, the potter who made the 30 trophiesfor the awards.

From English Teacher to Korean Movie Expert
Darcy Paquet has been immersed in Korean film-related workfor the last 20 years. I know many young people from Westerncountries who fell in love with Korea after watching movies by thelikes of Kim Ki-duk, Bong Joon-ho, and Park Chan-wook, andended up coming here to live. They teach film classes at university,introduce Korean works at foreign film festivals, or produce moviesthemselves. And you could say it all started with Paquet.
When Paquet first came to Seoul in 1997 to teach English atKorea University, he asked his friends to recommend some goodKorean movies. But they all shook their heads and said: “There isn’tmuch.” “Don’t bother.” “They’re not worth seeing.”
Who knew then that a huge wave was building up in the Koreanmovie scene? Movies like “The Contact,” “Christmas in August,”“Swiri,” “Green Fish,” “The Quiet Family,” “An Affair,” “Girls’ NightOut,” and “No. 3” came out. And he was mesmerized.
“It was perfect timing. The next five years after my arrival inKorea was like the Renaissance of Korean film. The movies werethat good. Hong Sang-soo, Kim Ki-duk, and Kim Ji-woon alldebuted as directors during that time,” he says.
The young Darcy Paquet who loved Dostoyevsky and Chekhovhad majored in Russian language at Carleton College in Minnesota.He planned to get a Ph.D. in Russian literature at Indiana University.But he changed his mind and switched to a master’s program inapplied linguistics. Having made many Korean friends in graduateschool, he ended up taking a job at Korea University after finishinghis degree. His stay in Korea was meant to be brief, for he plannedto go on to the Czech Republic. However, Korean movies changedhis fate.
The Korean Film Council caught wind that there was an Americanwho loved Korean movies and asked him to write press releasesand marketing materials. Based on this experience, Paquet setup his own website, koreanfilm.org, and for the first time he cameto realize there were so many Korean movie fans out there.
“I posted reviews, and shortly afterwards I was getting 30,000page views per day. There were 7,000 daily visitors and the discussionroom was literally on fire,” he recalls.
The international editor at Screen International, a British filmtrade magazine, liked the material on Paquet’s website and askedhim to be their Korea correspondent. He accepted, and wrote newsstories about the Korean film industry, first for Screen Internationaland then for Variety.

English Subtitles and Classes
Paquet spends most of his time making movie subtitles, teachingat Korea University’s International Summer Camp, and providingassistance to foreign film festivals in programming their selectionof Korean films.
He has been working on subtitles for many years now. To date,his name appears on the credits of 150 films. He took a breakbecause of the tenosynovitis in his right arm, and took it up again in2014 with “Ode to My Father.” He was especially busy in March thisyear, having had to deliver Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden”and Na Hong-jin’s “The Wailing” in time for Cannes.
Now he is working on two of Hong Sang-soo’s films. “Right Now,Wrong Then” had already been done by someone else, but Honghad rejected the subtitles, saying the nuances were “all wrong.” It isnow Paquet’s job to redo them.

“Titled ‘The Darkest Decade,’ the retrospective introduced Koreanmovies produced under military dictatorship. There were explanationsabout the social circumstances at the time and limitationsdue to government censorship. Themovies were shown twice a day forfive days, and there was a big turnout,”Paquet notes.
Since 2007 he has also servedas a delegate for the San SebastianInternational Film Festival in Spain.
Twenty years ago, Darcy Paquethad predicted that movies made inKorea in this far corner of the worldwould someday be recognized onworld screens. But now he sayssomething entirely the oppositeabout Korean movies.

Audience Power
Frankly speaking, Korean movies don’t excite me the waythey used to. No movie made in Korea over the past five yearshas moved me. A few days ago I saw ‘The Wailing,’ and said that itwas the best Korean film of the past five years,” Paquet says. Hebelieves that the partnership with 20th Century Fox gave the director,Na Hong-jin, more room to flex his creative muscles.
Reflecting on the filmmaking system in Korea, he notes that it isvery strong and rigid. “I doubt whether anything new can come out,”he remarks. “Even if the idea is good, if the movie doesn’t look likea box office hit then it is not produced at all. Every movie is made inthe same way.”

Darcy Paquet poses with Oh Dong-jin (far right), movie critic and head of the 3rd Wildflower Film Awards Steering Committee, and other supporters after the awards presentation held at a downtown café in Seoul on April 7 this year. Paquet is director of the annual awards for Korean indie movies.

Paquet did not directly mention the big business monopoly ofscreens, which is the Korean film industry’s biggest issue. Perhapsit was due to his cautious temperament, combined with a concernof losing sponsors for the Wildflower Film Awards. But he seemedfirm in his belief that indie movies are the only way out for Koreancinema.
In Korea, artistically acclaimed movies are considered failures ifthey cannot recoup their original investment. Directors who don’tsucceed at the box office have a harder time getting support fortheir next project. Paquet established the Wildflower Film Awardsin the hope of breaking this vicious circle. The winning filmmakerswill at least have a shot at their next movie.
“Other countries have their own problems concerning the movieindustry. However, Korea has a huge power that no other countryhas — the local audience. In no other country do local movies boastsuch a high market share as in Korea. I ask you to please go andwatch more low-budget indie movies. You’ll find them unique andartistically refreshing,” Paquet says.

Wife and Children
In his second year in Korea, Paquet met Yeon Hyeon-sook, whomhe dated for three years before marrying. They have two sons, onein third grade and one in sixth grade, who attend a public elementaryschool in Mia-dong, in an older area of Seoul.
Paquet and his wife watched a lot of movies when they weregoing out, and translated “Memories of Murder” together. His wife,her hands now full with two children, has drifted away from film.She recently got a nail art license and hopes to open a shop.
“There are so many differences even if you grow up in the sameneighborhood, so how different would we be? We were mindful ofthat from the very beginning, so it’s worked out well for us,” Paquetsays.
Having watched so many Korean movies has surely helped himto understand Korea, Korean culture, and Korean women muchbetter. He has even appeared in sevenmovies including “Almost Che” and“The Taste of Money.” He likes to geta feel for the shoot and enjoys collaboratingwith the crew. So he rarelyrefuses when someone asks him toact in a movie. Someday, he hopes toco-write, with a Korean writer, a movie about Korean politics, especiallyabout the elections.