<We Aren’t a Warrior (Woorineun-jeonsagha-anida)> (1994)

Director/Cinematography : Park Ki-bok
Production : Pureun-yeongsang
Year of Production : 1994
Genre : Documentary
Format : Video/Color
Running Time : 41 minutes

Synopsis

The film deals with the lives and inner worlds of the homeless who live in and near Tapgol Park. Although they have deviated from what others see as a normal life, the documentary shows that they are human beings who cherish life like everyone else. The film deeply explores the lives of these people who have been defeated by life, and through their eyes, shows our society in a different light.

Notes

A documentary that shows the human side of the homeless. (Kim Dong-won)

Notes on the Production

Notes : After the Filming of We Aren’t a Warrior
The pervading social attitude towards the homeless is that they are those who have been defeated by life, and many are critical towards them for being so feeble as to not be able to lead normal lives like everybody else. Some think that they harbor feelings of animosity towards society and are dangerous, violent beings. But everybody has experienced pain and discouragement in their lives and have despaired that their lives were on the verge of complete ruin. And when one recollects those experiences, the life of the homeless is not completely incomprehensible. These are the thoughts I had as I was beginning the film.
I began the filming at Seoul Train Station. There were many homeless people there and I told them frankly that I wanted to tell their story on film. But their reactions wasn’t very positive. They wanted me to either pay them for filming them, or live with them for a couple of months as a homeless person before filming them. They would not easily cooperate with the shooting of the film. I found both of the conditions they gave me to be burdensome. I didn’t have any extra money and I had already revealed my identity to the homeless people of Seoul Train Station. I was in this predicament when I found hope in information that the homeless people of Seoul Train Station sometimes went to rest in Tapgol Park. (It was the middle of summer then)
I had thought that Tapgol Park was a place where the elderly often came to pass the time but I was completely wrong. It was full of prostitutes, homosexuals and homeless people. I met Kim Jin-seok for the first time as he was waiting in front of a food wagon that served free lunches to the elderly in the park. The free lunches were only for the elderly and Kim Jin-seok, who was young, had to suffer the insults of many people as he stood in line. But he paid no heed to such humiliation as he wolfed down his lunch. This left a deep impression on me and I began to observe him for the next few days. Unlike what I gathered from my first impression, he seemed to be quite outgoing and social and before I knew it, we became friends. Also, I began to take an interest in Lee Jeong-ja who limped and lived suffering through each difficult day.
For me, the most difficult task in documentary filmmaking is developing relationships with the subjects and I was lucky in that sense. Although we acted quite friendly towards each other on the outside, I can’t tell if I was anything more to Jin-seok but a documentary film maker who was crazy about his work. I question the sincerity of our relationship just as he must have. But what I’m sure of is that we felt completely at ease around each other

Director Bio : Park Ki-bok

Born in 1965. Directed We Aren’t a Warrior (1994), Leave it! (Naeb duo) (1999) and Mudang ( Yeongmae ) (2002).