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“I almost did, but no.”

“So that’s why you’re here.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have come.”

“Come on, don’t say that.”

Seoksoo sat down when his junior offered him a seat. His eyes were drawn to the poster on the wall.

2008 Short Film Festival — it had finally begun again this year.

“How many have you gotten this year?”

“About 670.”

“There’s a lot this year too.”

“It’s increasing every single year. Compared to ’01, it’s more than ten times the amount.”

“At this rate, it’ll go over a thousand.”

“I’m sure it will. The difficulty of filming has decreased a lot. There’s also a lot more freedom with the format, so there have been a lot of applications.”

“Have you finished classifying the competitive works?”

His junior nodded. “There were a lot of applicants for the ‘contemplation’ category. Maybe it was because of all the noisy news, but there’s a lot of focus on that area.”

“It’s not like there have been just a few accidents and events this year. It was a natural course that the fury of new directors was directed there.”

Current affairs, melo, comedy, thriller, fantasy — the Short Film Festival accepted works in five different categories. That was a result of accepting opinions from various directors, who said that a variety of genres needed attention.

“This has gotten pretty big,” Seoksoo said as he thought about 670 tapes. Though the times had changed and the application was no longer submitted on tape, he always thought of film and tape whenever he thought about the volume of film.

Maybe he was getting old-fashioned now. He laughed inside.

“Of course it has. Just look at the directors helping out. There are actors who help out every year without forgetting. This year, it wasn’t just the city hall sponsoring. Happy and ThinTech Mall increased their funding as well. Thanks to that, we were able to book two cinemas for a long-enough duration.”

“That’s good.”

There were directors who were wary of more than necessary capital entering the film festival, but ultimately, money was necessary in order to hold the festival. As long as the judges continued to assess fairly, the influx of capital wouldn’t become a problem.

The junior gave him some Yakult with a straw in it.

Seoksoo spoke before he started drinking it, “You should change this out. Get on with the times.”

“I know you like drinking it. Rather than that, the fact that you’re here means that you have time, and the fact that you have time means you can help out in judging, right?”

“Is there any room for me even?”

“There’s a lot of room. I told you, there are 670. There are about 200 more than last year, but the number of judges hasn’t changed. I’m reaching out to various places looking for help too.”

“You’re always whiny.”

“I’m not being whiny. I’m really suffering. I’m going to fall ill at this rate. Why did I bring my own suffering by accepting this place as a committee head….”

“Did someone put it on you? You put it on yourself. Also, you’re all smiles for someone who’s suffering, so you don’t sound that reliable.”

This junior cherished the Short Film Festival more than anyone else. He acted as the committee head, even if he had to put aside his own work, so that the festival could function properly. Both Seoksoo’s seniors and juniors said that they couldn’t imagine the Short Film Festival working without this guy.

Seoksoo rather liked this junior, who was smiling like a child, even after he was forty. There were more than ten directors who gave up and joined as committee members after seeing his innocent smile.

“What part do you need help with?”

“The ‘Rising Rain’ part.”

Rising Rain — it was a term that referred to the melo part of the competitive part.

Seoksoo sucked up the yogurt in one go.

“Who are some other directors here?”

“Diretor Choi Jaehan, Lee Sooae, and Lee Chansik.”

“Those are all names I haven’t heard before.”

“They were passionate young directors until just a while ago. You know that having only fresh sets of eyes might end up missing some good ones, right? So you should bring in your experience here.”

“So you’re telling me to sit there with my old ass and look all serious, right?”

“There you have it. I’m sure the other directors will love it if you go there. They can be with the master director who has hit 8 million ticket sales with Infiltration.”

“You’ll get backstabbed one day if you keep teasing elders like that. There are many people who are grinding their knives for it.”

“Don’t worry about me. I have thick skin and I don’t get injured easily. It’s the same as last year, so each part can pick as they wish. Also, don’t forget to think about one for the special prize.”

“Sure, sure. Also, treat me out to a drink when this is all over. That’s the price for providing my labor.”

“You have a lot of money, but you’re always so stingy. That’s why there’s not a lot of hair on your head. You’re too bald for being forty-five.”

Seoksoo threw the yogurt container in his hand at the junior. The junior sneakily dodged it and smirked.

What a hateful guy. Seoksoo looked at the poster before leaving the office.

* * *

“It’s good, but….” Seoksoo scratched his head for a while before picking up his pen.

He drew a slash on the A4 paper in front of him. Now that he looked at it, he found a rain of slashes on the paper.

140 submissions of melo films — he split them up with three other directors and they decided to screen them once and then watch the ones they liked together. They decided that one person would pick about 10, so it should be about 40 in total.

In this Short Film Festival, there were 50 theaters that each screened one work. Ultimately, there would be about 10 melo films that go on the screen.

He bit on the head of his pen. At this rate, he wasn’t going to get five good pieces, not to mention 10. As there was an increase in the number of applicants, there was also an increase in the number of bad works. For some of them, he was in agony watching until the end.

In Seoksoo’s opinion, the film version of the singer audition programs that have been gaining popularity recently was the Short Film Festival. It had many famous judges as honorary judges, and ever since some famous actors joined as special judges, the Short Film Festival became a gate to stardom for new directors.

Director Jeong Ho, who won the grand prize in ’06, released his first-ever commercial film this year, which performed remarkably. It wasn’t just director Jeong Ho. The directors who won prizes in various film festivals received a lot of interest from various production companies and actors.

Since this was the situation they were in, they were getting all sorts of pieces as applications. If there were pieces that were armed with fresh elements that challenged film as a whole, he would watch with interest, but there were too many pieces that were literal imitations of other movies. The fact that young directors were more focused on getting the composition right than on transmitting a message left a bitter taste in his mouth.

They were directors who didn’t have anything to say, nor did they like movies either. For someone like them, they would be better off looking for other occupations.

He managed to decide on ten pieces after much difficulty. There were about three pieces of melo film that smelled human.

He had a hunch that the grand prize this year would not be from the melo category.

It would be great if there were some okay pieces in the hands of other directors.

Two days later, Seoksoo went to a café to meet Choi Jaehan, Lee Sooae, and Lee Chansik. When they actually met, they were so awkward that it was hard to smile. Even after telling them that they should be comfortable treating him, he could clearly see that they were stiff, so he could only stay quiet.

He felt bitter. He wasn’t even that old, but he kept being treated like a great senior.

Despite that, they seemed to have adapted a little after calling and meeting a few times, and now they were capable of holding a conversation with a smile.

“How is it? Anything fresh?” He started off.

Lee Sooae, who was drinking coffee, opened her eyes wide and spoke,

“I picked five that were decent and five that were to my liking. I liked most of them. They were all younger than me, but they had a great understanding. If people like them keep popping out, I don’t think I’ll ever shoot a commercial film.”

Choi Jaehan also said that there were many good pieces.

Seoksoo picked up some cookies and thought — so all the bombs had dropped on his side?

“Honestly, it’s somewhat funny for someone like me to say this, but it was a total mess.”

Seoksoo felt like he had found someone from his hometown in a completely foreign place as he looked at Lee Chansik, who said those words.

“How were they?”

“Absolutely terrible. Some of them weren’t even melo. For half of them, I didn\'t know what they were trying to do, and for half of the remaining ones, I couldn’t understand a thing because the sound wasn’t processed. I would understand if it was a bunch of students, but someone who applied before kept doing things like that, so it was quite funny. I had a look at the production date, and it was 2005. I think it’s the same thing as last year.”

“There\'s bound to be a lot of weird people coming to the table if there’s a lot of food. But you should have gotten some good ones, right?”

“I did.” Lee Chansik spoke after hesitation. He looked like an engineer who had to explain the mechanisms behind some complex machine.

When Seoksoo waited while rolling the cookie in his mouth, Chansik spoke again,

“The other eight are so-so. They’re a mix of good parts and bad parts.”

“So the other two are the problem?”

“Problem, you say. Yes, they’re a problem. Honestly, they aren’t all that well-made. The focus was wrong, the angle was all over the place, and the sound kept popping in and out. It’s full of awkward stuff, but I was focused when I watched them.”

“They must be good then.”

From their interactions during the past few days, Seoksoo could tell that Chansik was someone who was stingy with scoring. He was someone who couldn’t be satisfied with his own work and would tilt his head even after watching something that would usually be considered good, yet he said that he was focused when he watched them. It meant that there was something about those two pieces, something that Chansik couldn’t pinpoint.

Seoksoo looked at the cups of other directors. Everybody had finished their drinks.

“Let’s switch places for now. Our job is to watch. Also, let’s put aside the two films that Chansik talked about until the end. I don’t think there’s any other film that received such an assessment, so let’s leave them until the end as promising pieces.”

They went to the office prepared by the Short Film Festival committee. They sat down and turned on the beam projector. Dust particles in the air sparkled under the light projected by the beam projector.

“Let’s make our own assessments and talk about them at the end of each film. Talk about the things you liked and things that can be improved upon. If there’s nothing to say, you can just skip it. If there’s anything you want to support, then mark that one so that we can reflect your opinion once we finish watching everything and combine the scores,” Seoksoo explained.

Lee Sooae moved the mouse. Soon, the first film came up on the screen. Students in school uniforms ran around on the screen. It was a film that talked about student romance.

“It’s ordinary.”

“But the kids are cute.”

“Let’s give additional points for cuteness.”

The short ones only ran for about 5 minutes, while the longer ones lasted 20. The films with an average duration of about 10 minutes flashed past in front of their eyes.

They would rest their chins on their arms if they saw a film that was practically a joke and would pick up their pens when they saw traces of real human thought being put into it.

Just as Lee Sooae said, there were a few good pieces.

Seoksoo gave higher scores to films that looked fresh and young than films that handled difficult topics with not a lot of depth. He hated films that tried to ‘look good.’ He was someone who believed that those types of films were worse than films that just shot everyday life.

He couldn’t tell how much time had passed. He remembered eating dinner, but he started getting hungry. When he looked around, he saw that everyone looked exhausted. It was not an easy job to watch a film while also assessing it.

It was hard enough watching masterpieces back-to-back, so watching awkward pieces in a series like this was excruciating.

“There’s the last two left.”

Only the two films that Lee Chansik talked about before were left on the list.

“Let’s get some fresh air and come back.”

He left and even smoked in order to get himself together. As the overwhelming majority of the pieces were below average, he placed a lot of hope on the remaining two. If even those two were not above average, then there would be no special prize for the ’08 Short Film Festival in the melo part.

“I’ll put it on now. The title is ‘Water Fog.’”

Lee Sooae’s hand moved again.