Fridae

Tae-yeon has a crush on Ji-soo. When she sees Hyun-jin being unkind to Ji-soo, she sets her sights on beating his score on the punching machine. That’s the setup for Best Record 798, Kim Nae-eun’s 20-minute film. It won the LUSH Korea PRIDE Award for best Korean short at the Seoul International Pride Film Festival.

In the festival’s programme note, Kim describes the feeling she wanted to capture. Imagine a friend you’re fond of comes in wearing a cast. You almost wish you had a broken hand too, just so you could sit out PE together. Sitting out is a lot more appealing if it means sitting next to your favourite person. In its 13 November report, Dailian said the jury liked how the film gets at a crush through the characters’ everyday lives.

The festival handed out the awards at Seoul’s CGV Piccadilly 1958 on 11 November. Iván & Hadoum won the separate New PRIDE Best Feature Award. You’ll find Kim’s film in the English and Korean festival catalogues. Fridae’s earlier festival preview looked at Lucky, Apartment.