Award - Winning director park chan - Wook releases first - Ever crowd - Sourcing film on Seoul

One of Korea's most respected film directors, Park Chan-wook , has co-directed a movie about the city of Seoul... along with his brother. The film was made possible thanks to thousands of people sending in their own video clips. Our cultural correspondent Park Ji-won reports. The first-ever crowd-sourcing film on Seoul has just been released online. Thousands of people from all over the world submitted more than 11-thousand video clips about Seoul,... and Cannes-winning Korean film director Park Chan-wook and his famed media artist brother Park Chan-kyong made them into a movie, titled "Bitter, Sweet, Seoul." The film used 1-hundred-54 of the clips that were sent in. Rather than focus on the capital city's landmarks, Park Chan-wook said he wanted to focus on the more historic and complex aspects of the city, along with the vibrant lives of the people that call it home. "As the title of the film suggests, bitter and sweet things happen in our lives at the same time. Just as the memories of war remain, Korea has achieved some level of democratic and economic success. I wanted to say that bitterness and sweetness can co-exist in our lives." "I think the song that appears last in the film, the traditional Korean song 'Shim Chung Ga,' represents the film's hopeful message. Everyone benefits from Shim Chung's sacrifices and she recovers as well. That's the message of hope to anyone who's in the midst of hardship." Forty-one participants were rewarded for providing their video footage. They expressed joy for having contributed to the film. "I must say I was very surprised because one of my videos is showing something not very nice about Seoul, so when I sent it I thought this one cannot win. It proves that they were willing to choose something that is not especially pretty, but very interesting about the city that's always changing." "We thought it'd be a great idea. She was pregnant at that time, so we started taking some video, and we said let's try to do this. Made in Seoul is one of the topics, and he's made in Seoul, so it took off from there." The project was commissioned by the city of Seoul. "Most promotional videos just show landmarks of the city, but they don't touch the hearts of viewers. I hoped to show how citizens and visitors truly experience the city, and let them speak about their individual experiences." The hour-long film can be checked out online at youtube-dot-com-slash-seoulourmovie. Park Ji-won, Arirang News.