Italian Premiere | In Competition
South Korea, 2026, 113’, Korean
Directed by: Chung Ji-young
Screenplay: Kim Sung-hyun, Kim Hyun-woo, Chung Ji-young
Cinematography (color): Kim Hyung-koo
Lighting: Seo Chang-hwan
Editing: Lee Gang-il
Production Design: Lee Gang-il
Music: Shin Min
Producers: Kim Soon-ho, Jeong Sang-min, Kim Yeong-hwan
Cast: Yeom Hye-ran (Jeong-sun), Shin Woo-bin (Young-oak), Choi Jun-woo (Min-soo), Park Ji-bin (Kyung-tae), Kim Gyu-ri (psychiatrist), Yoo Jun-sang (adult Young-oak)
Date of First Release in Territory: April 15th, 2026
Young-oak and his mother Jeong-sun have no other relatives besides themselves, and perhaps that’s one reason why they are particularly close. Life on Jeju Island in 1998 is mostly quiet and peaceful, with Young-oak starting his second year of high school and Jeong-sun teaching ballet. But Jeong-sun has some issues that have no explanation. There is something about the spring weather that makes her highly anxious, and at times even pass out. She wears sunglasses during the day, because she has a hard time coping with bright light. More than anything, she has no memory of her life before the age of nine. Clearly something happened during her childhood, but her mind has chosen to shut it away. It’s only when a new psychiatrist arrives from Seoul and pushes her to try reaching back into her past that a few vague, fleeting images start to surface.
If the plot of most films progresses forward in a linear fashion, the plot of
My Name starts from the outside and steadily moves inward. In the 20th century, South Korea went through an unusually intense period of ideological conflict that left deep scars on the entire nation. One of the most extreme cases was the so-called April 3 (or 4.3) Incident on Jeju Island, in which government troops cracked down on what they labeled a communist uprising, and killed many thousands of ordinary citizens. For decades after the killings took place, this was a strictly taboo subject. As late as 1997, well into South Korea’s transition to democracy, a documentary filmmaker named Cho Sung-bong was arrested and charged under the National Security Law for making and screening a film about 4.3 titled
Red Hunt.
Director Chung Ji-young, who over the years has made numerous political films about 20th century Korean history, adopts a more personal focus to tell this story. Jeong-sun at first seems like a fairly ordinary main character, if a bit eccentric. But the pain that people carry with them rarely shows on the outside. As we move deeper and deeper into her experiences and her memories,
My Name becomes more and more heartbreaking. And for this we also must give much credit to the powerful performance of Yeom Hye-ran, one of Korea’s great acting talents (seen most recently in a very different kind of role in
No Other Choice).
Yet not all of the film is centered around Jeong-sun. Quite a bit of screen time is devoted to her son Young-oak, and what turns out to be a challenging year for him in high school. Although the sections that focus on Young-oak might seem to have a tenuous connection to the rest of the film, this story too is ultimately about violence, conflict and power. And the film’s narrative structure, which even briefly jumps ahead to the year 2026, seems to be an answer to the question: how does one make a film about such a deeply traumatic historical event? One way is to emphasize the fact that a historical trauma never just remains in the past. It bleeds into the present, shapes communities, and moves through generations.
My Name is made to honor those who lost their lives on Jeju Island in the late 1940s, but also for those who survived it, and everyone who followed after them.
Chung Ji-young
Chung Ji-young (b. 1946) began as an assistant director to Kim Soo-yong, and debuted in 1982. He directed several politically-incisive modern-day classics in the early 1990s including North Korean Partisans in South Korea, White Badge and The Life and Death of the Hollywood Kid. He also became famous as a film industry activist on issues including the Screen Quota system. After a string of projects fell through, he made a triumphant return in 2012 with the smash hit Unbowed. Since then he has continued to direct acclaimed works such as National Security, Black Money and The Boys.
FILMOGRAPHY
1982 – Mist Whispers Like Women
1990 – North Korean Partisans in
South Korea
1992 – White Badge
1994 – Life and Death of the
Hollywood Kid
2011 – Unbowed
2012 – National Security
2019 – Black Money
2022 – The Boys
2026 – My Name