THE RAIN

THE RAIN

VR 360°, Spatialized 3D audio, 5 min, 2017

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We are both free and constrained passengers on a journey between sky and earth.
The landscape unfolds before our eyes, inevitably, while we freely experience it.
This story takes place somewhere in Asia, probably Korea — far beyond the divisions stirred by borders today.
It is the end of a seemingly uneventful day, yet darkness sinks us into melancholy, if not deep sorrow.
Aerial views guide our weightless bodies, enriched with the soul of those who once lived on this land.
Between sky and earth, they bear witness to the suffering inflicted upon them.
To some, they were only “comfort women”, yet the truth is they were sex slaves during World War II, which ravaged so many lives.
“Liberated”, often only by deaths that came too late, their memories linger, suspended in time, awaiting overdue recognition a stark symbol of human pain.
We gaze at the overwhelming beauty of the landscape but can only hear their voices, layered over the endless sound of rain as in a dark cinema hall where time seems suspended.
This is an experiential cinema that, while it may not change our lives, testifies to what interrupted theirs.
Torn from their families, these young women suffered in this land before haunting it forever.
May the sun finally rise, on a day of calm morning, when they will receive the long-awaited apology that will free them from endless wandering. _Dominique Moulon

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This film is a tribute to the victims of sexual exploitation systematized by the Japanese government during World War II. The victims have not yet been officially recognized by Japan. They are Korean, Chinese, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian women… _HeeWon Lee

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Credits
Concept and Direction: HeeWon Lee
Music: Alexandre Del Torchio
Drone Pilot & Director of Photography: Yoon JongHyeon
Assistants: Bae HunSeok, Hee-ok Lee
Post-production: Gaston Marcotti, Thomas Monamy (Atelier BIZAROID)
Text Assistance & Translation: Marie Lambert Lebihan
Binaural Sound & Mixing: Simon Apostolou
 

Voiceover Sources‘

목격자들 47회 - 슬픈 귀향 1부·2부’, ‘북녘 할머니의 증언’, ‘뉴스타파 - 아직도 아물지 않은 상처들(2003)’, 안해룡 감독

일본군 위안부 피해자 E-역사관

Text 

『L’impossible』 Georges Bataille

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Production
Produced with the support of Dicréam (CNC) — Development & Production Grant,
SCAN — Digital Art Creation Fund,
ARKO — Arts Council Korea International Arts Exchange Grant
Partnership: Elektra
Support: Epidemic, Khiasma, Morten Salling
Executive Production: Julien Taïb - Crossed Lab

© 2017 HeeWon Lee

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