Life of Hollywood Kid is a film about films. Specifically, it’s about the movie-obsessed life of Byungseok (Choi Min-soo, Kim Jung-hyun), who has from childhood adored Hollywood cinema to the point of losing touch with reality. Along for the journey is Myeong-gil (Dokko Young-jae, Hong Kyoung-in), who, inspired by Byungseok, fell into the world of movies and began creating films of his own in real life. Director Chung Jiyoung meticulously depicts the films, theaters, and friendship that shaped the two characters from their teenage years to adulthood, weaving in historical moments such as the April 19 Revolution, the Vietnam War, and even records of the screen quota protests. Myeong-gil experiences the gap between reality and the fantasy of film through an apprenticeship and eventually becomes part of the film industry. Yet Byungseok, whose escapist dream is to go to Hollywood, finds their paths irreconcilable, with their story ending in tragedy. Since the day in middle school when he leapt from a high cliff into a river, the water’s surface for Byungseok had been both a screen glittering with countless starlights and a world full of adventure. Nourished by the dream of cinema—a dream that ultimately deceived even his own life—he lived on, only to lose his dreams, his words, his love, his friendship, the world, and even the movies themselves. Yet the freeze-frame capturing his final leap conjures the screen of the sky, as if to suggest that not only immortal life, but also immortal death, can be cinema.
Born in 1946 in Cheongju. He made his feature directorial debut with Mist Whispers Like Women (1982). He went on to direct North Korean Partisan in South Korea (1990), White Badge (1992), and Life of Hollywood Kid (1994), and won Best Film and Best Director at the Tokyo International Film Festival for White Badge. With Unbowed (2011), his comeback film after 13 years, Chung won Best Director at the Blue Dragon Film Awards. He also directed Black Money (2019) and The Boys (2023). His most recent film, My Name (2025), was invited to the Forum section of the Berlin International Film Festival.
From Busan International Film Festival 2025, No. 30
