Kogonada is a brilliant film director and writer who recently completed his masterpiece “Columbus” The film is a representation of Asian-American male sexuality. The filmmaker was born in Seoul, South Korea and has brought actor John Cho of “[easyazon_link identifier=”B01LT80TN4″ locale=”US” tag=”tvovermind00a-20″]Star Trek[/easyazon_link]” and “[easyazon_link identifier=”B001W880O2″ locale=”US” tag=”tvovermind00a-20″]Harold and Kumar[/easyazon_link]” on board as the lead male. Cho is also an Asian-American. Kogonanda gives Cho the opportunity to show his full range in this quiet and sedate drama about a translator who becomes stuck in the small town of Columbus, Indiana. Koganda is known for the video essay creations he completed for the Criterion Collection and the British Film Institute. These facts are common knowledge to those who are familiar with his work.
Here are a few things that you didn’t know about him.
1. “Columbus” is his debut feature film
The writer and director has previously done documentary and essay type works. The film is his first major attempt at creating a riveting story that focuses so specifically on a character in distress, and the range of emotions that he encounters in the process of self-discovery. The film has a clear influence from [easyazon_link identifier=”B006X96PBU” locale=”US” tag=”tvovermind00a-20″]Yasujiro Ozu[/easyazon_link], Japanese director. Kogonada has had a lot of time to think about how he wanted the film to develop, as he is older than most first time film directors.
2. The film has been a lifetime in development
Kogonada revealed that the fodder for this movie has been lurking in the back of his mind for many years. He gathered a variety of diverse perspectives throughout the years, and gradually began putting it all together. When his multitude of experiences, and the thoughts that they generated reached the point of culmination, he had what he referred to as “an academic moment.” This is when he knew it was time to begin putting it all together. He considered the aesthetics and how they may be fulfilled through modern cinema.
3. Kogonada was raised in the Midwest
Although he was born in Seoul, South Korea, Kogonada spent many years of his life living in Chicago. He did live in a few different towns in Indiana, but he was never really aware of Columbus. He passed by the town recently, but his inclusion of it in the film had nothing to do with where he was raised. He was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, so he had the whole mid-western experience under his belt. This ensured that he understood the perspective of an Asian-American point of view.
4. His parents were immigrants
Kogonada was born in South Korea, where his mother and father lived at the time, but they decided to leave their home country and move to the United States. His parents were working class Korean immigrants who truly loved seeing a lot of movies. In fact, that is how the couple met. Perhaps it was their love of film that first inspired him to pursue a career in the industry.
5. He wasn’t initially impressed with Ozu
His inspiration for watching his first Ozu film was because he read “The Transcendental Style in Film,” y Paul Schrader. The contents fascinated hi and it made him want to find out why the book spoke so highly of the filmmaker and his style. After viewing the movie, he couldn’t understand what the big deal was. It was not until later that he understood. There were emotions that transferred from the film to somewhere deep inside of the young man. The title of the film was “400 Blows.”
Elements of the movie kept coming to the front of his mind and he found himself thinking about it more and more. It took a while for him to realize that the film had a recurring theme of giving up something you cared a great deal about. Kogonada has a unique way of cogitating on information over time and it’s a process that works to his advantage. As the old adage says, “slow and steady wins the race.”
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