Gangnam Beauty Film Spotlight

Today’s film spotlight focuses on the short film Gangnam Beauty directed by Yan Tomaszewski as part of the Pendance Film Festival.

What is the title of your film and what inspired said title?

Gangnam Beauty is a rather pejorative term used in South Korea to talk about a person who has done too much plastic surgery. It is related to Seoul’s district Gangnam, which counts the highest number of plastic surgery clinics in the world.

Tell us a little bit about the story and origins of your film.

Gangnam Beauty tells the story of English-born influencer Oli London, who are fascinated by South Korea and especially by Jimin, a member of worldwide famous K-pop band BTS. For years, they have spent a fortune on plastic surgery to look like him and become a K-pop star themself.

After my first trip to South Korea in 2018, I realized what the “Korean wave” phenomenon really meant. I discovered the massive influence of Korean pop culture spreading all over the world through K-dramas and K-pop and witnessed large-scale manifestations of devotion among fans from every continents.

While in Korea, I was intrigued by the spectacular enthusiasm for plastic surgery. I started to work with a scholar who had investigated thoroughly Korean plastic surgery, and especially in Gangnam. She showed me that Gangnam had produced a special kind of facial aesthetic, due to the growing popularity of “V-line” chin surgery.

Korean idol’s worship and Korean plastic surgery came together when, investigating Korea’s rich tradition of mask dances, I encountered a legend from the village of Hahoe near Andong. This founding myth of Hahoe’s shamanic mask dance tells of a craftsman who receives an injunction from the spirits to make a series of masks, with the prohibition of being seen by anybody while making them. The sacred space of mask production is eventually transgressed by the craftsman’s lover, who pierces a hole in a rice paper window in order to gaze at him. This transgression is fatal to the craftsman, who dies instantly, leaving the last of his masks unfinished – without a chin.

When reading this tale, not only was the chin-less mask somehow connecting to today’s chin surgery procedures, but I also saw in the tale an incredible potential for talking about the desire for the other, about gazing at something that is forbidden, about transgressing the limits of a taboo.

When I encountered Oli London’s transgressive story, I started to think about telling their own journey through via this Korean tale.

Any films or filmmakers that inspired this film?

I was generally inspired by Kpop imagery and video clips, but also by Japanese cinema with films such as Onibaba by Kaneto Shindo or Kwaidan by Masaki Kobayashi. Of course the voyeuristic gaze quotes very directly Hitchcock’s Psycho. For the bodily aspects of the film I was inspired by Almodóvar’s The skin I live in and Matthew Barney’s Cremaster cycle. Chris Marker’s and Alain Resnais’s Les statues meurent aussi was seminal to me as far as the filming of masks is concerned.

What is the goal of the film for you?

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What has the journey been like getting the film into production?

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One thing you learned from this project?

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How can folks find you and your film online?

My Instagram is @yantomaszewski

Gangnam Beauty will be screened in various festivals over the next months. Upcoming selections include FIFA Montreal, Pendance Film Festival, Vilnus International Film Festival, Bremen Filmfest.

Any last pieces of advice for fellow filmmakers?

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The Pendance Film Festival runs from March 10-13, 2022.

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