Anthony Shim was 'petrified' to screen Riceboy Sleeps in South Korea — and then no one applauded
In a Q interview, the writer-director shared the surprising reason why his film was met with silence
Anthony Shim's critically acclaimed second feature film Riceboy Sleeps had a successful festival run in Canada last year, and was recently named the winner of the $100,0000 best Canadian film prize at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards.
Screening the film in the Canadian festival circuit was an honour but for Shim, whose family immigrated to Vancouver from Seoul in 1994, it was a childhood dream to one day take part in the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. That dream came true when Riceboy Sleeps had its international premiere in Busan last October.
"We were all petrified," Shim told Q's Tom Power about the film's screening in Busan. "In Korea, film or TV shows that have to do with Koreans in foreign countries — made by foreigners — don't do that well often. You know, it doesn't resonate with Korean audiences. And for me, if this was rejected by Korean audiences, I don't know how to bounce back from that. That would have been devastating."
In Toronto and Vancouver, Shim said he had "homecourt advantage," but the real test was how the film would be received in South Korea.
"Especially Vancouver, like everybody in the audience I'm connected to in some way," he told Power. "People are laughing their butts off and it's going over so well…. In Korea? Silence. Not a chuckle."
Korean people don't express their emotions out loud in public [as] comfortably as, you know, North Americans do.- Anthony Shim
Loosely based on his own life, Riceboy Sleeps is a drama about a Korean single mother raising her young son in Canada in the 1990s. While the story is very personal and emotional, Shim originally thought of it as a comedy. One of his friends even referred to an early draft of the script as "the Korean Superbad."
"I actually thought the film was going to be more funny than people are now taking it," he told Power. "People have talked so much about how sad the film is, and I go, 'Oh, well, I thought it was more funny than that.' It is sad — I mean, I'm not going to deny that…. It's just a real fine line between tragedy and comedy."
WATCH | Anthony Shim's interview with Tom Power:
During the film's screening at the Busan International Film Festival, Shim looked around the theatre and quickly became concerned about how quiet it was.
"I'm like, 'Oh my God, people hate this.' Movie ends. No one applauds. People don't move," he recalled. "You know, like, 80 people walk out during the credits. Everyone else? They're just sitting there. Not clapping, nothing. And I went, 'Oh God. Oh God, I can never come back to this country again!'
"I later learn, that's just how audiences in Korea are. People don't applaud during the credits because, to them, the credits are a part of the movie. And so they were saving the applause until we got on stage for our Q&A…. Korean people don't express their emotions out loud in public [as] comfortably as, you know, North Americans do. Even the bits that were funny, they suppressed it."
After the screening, Shim realized how much Korean audiences really loved the film.
"We got mobbed for autographs," he said. "That was a new thing. And then there was, like, a fan club called 'the Rice Girls' that started immediately after. And [at] the second screening, we started seeing signs in the audience. Like, social media started to go crazy. You know, there were people that were coming up just being like, 'I got tickets to all three screenings!'
"That [Koreans] support it and celebrate it, it's meaningful in a way that I'm not even sure I fully understand yet," said Shim.
Riceboy Sleeps is in select theatres now. The film is up for best motion picture at the Canadian Screen Awards and Shim is nominated for best achievement in direction.
The full interview with Anthony Shim is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Anthony Shim produced by Catherine Stockhausen.
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