“Ever-growing in your love, chirping like a lark, I am comedian Lee Jong-se.” Whenever asked who he is, Jong-se (Ahn Sung-ki), a third-rate comedian, introduces himself with this grandiloquent spiel. In the opening scene of the 1988 film Gagman, barber Moon Do-seok (Bae Chang-ho) grumbles while sweating profusely: “Ah, why do we even have summer? Wouldn’t it be so much simpler if we just had spring, fall, and winter?” In a film where the dialogue contains as little concrete information as this, the three characters continuously chirp away with their own lines. Gagman showcases Ahn Sung-ki’s most sly and shameless facial acting. Living in a Don Quixote-like fantasy, Jongse completely reverses delusion and reality, insisting he will go to Hollywood tomorrow even while on the run from the police. Sporting a Charlie Chaplinesque mustache, Ahn portrays Jong-se, a character who directly mocks a reality stripped of romance, with a touch of melancholy.
Born in 1957. He graduated from the Department of Film at the Seoul Institute of the Arts and made his feature directorial debut with Gagman (1988). Known for his distinctive visual style in Korean cinema, he made films such as My Love, My Bride (1990), First Love (1993), and M (2007). He won the Grand Prize and Best Director at the Deauville Asian Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the Fukuoka Asian Film Festival for Nowhere to Hide (1999), and Best Director at the Baeksang Arts Awards for Duelist (2005).
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
