Finding A Deeper Understanding: Christina Yoon On Her Short Film "Mirror:"
Director/Editor Christina Yoon is a Korean American filmmaker who ikes to make stylized dramas and genre films exploring trauma, alienation, and identity. She is currently in pre-production for her Columbia thesis film, which won the prestigious Katharina Otto-Bernstein short film grant and will shoot in South Korea next year. Her latest short film, Mirror, focuses on a woman with a scarred face who feels pressure from society to get plastic surgery.
A Korean immigrant with a severely scarred face visits a black market hospital in Queens to seek plastic surgery.
This eye-opening short screened at this year’s New York Shorts International Film Festival, DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival and Woods Hole Film Festival. We had the pleasure of chatting with Christina about her film, its origins, working on the score,, and much much more.
How did the concept for Mirror originate?
It started when an image came to mind of an Asian woman with a scarred or disfigured face walking the streets of Flushing. I was interested in the often painful disparity between one’s inner self and outer appearance, specifically the alienating feeling of wanting to reject the image you see in the mirror.
The film examines the insecurity and self image issues brought on by society’s sense of “beauty.” With the rise of technology, how do you feel it impacted these insecurities? Do you think it makes it easier or more difficult for us to just be ourselves?
It’s a bit of a double-edged sword. It’s difficult to remember that so many images on social media are enhanced and altered, and that unrealistic pressure can be harmful. At the same time, we can now see confident women of all body types and skin tones online as part of the beauty ideal. When I was a child, there was almost no one who looked like me in popular American media, and I felt I was outside the typical standard of beauty. The increased diversity we now find online has immense positive impact. Anyone can see themselves reflected in these images if they were to look for them.
Your films are commonly built around the themes of trauma, alienation, and identity. What about these themes interest you most as a storyteller?
As a writer, I am always tapping into my personal struggles and life experiences to bring emotional authenticity to my work. These themes along with a few others have been part of my life experience in some way, and they continue to inspire questions and complex emotions for me. I’ve been most affected by films that speak to me on a deep human level, and so I try to do the same in my work.
The film’s score by Chris Ruenes and sound design by Bobb Barito really help to externalize Yeona’s internal feelings. How did you collaborate with them to ensure that each scene received the right emotionality?
I’ve worked with both Chris and Bobb in the past and felt that they had an innate understanding of what I wanted to achieve in the film. Chris and I both don’t love how film score can be overly sentimental and manipulative, so we discussed a more ambient direction for the score. It was always about showing Yeona’s inner state and expressing the simmering, isolating dread that she feels in a nuanced way. The music in the last hospital scenes required the most discussion to figure out how to create a feeling of dark tension to match the scene while still being emotionally introspective.
When speaking to Bobb about the sound design, we wanted the soundscape to be quite abstract and psychological. I was interested in blending the sounds of her external world and her mental state so that we didn’t quite know what was real and what wasn’t. The sounds of clocks and street noises were important to add the pressure of both time and the chaos of the outer world. And lastly, we wanted to use the contrast of loud ambience with almost dead quiet in different scenes. I think this works most effectively going from the intensity of the plastic surgery clinic to Yeona sitting in her bed the next morning.
How did you find Spring Kim (who plays Yeona), and the rest of your cast?
We cast using the usual methods online through Backstage and Actors Access. It did seem daunting because we had to cast from a very small pool—specifically New York based Korean actors who were fluent in Korean. This limited our search, but we were surprised to find several incredible actors for our lead roles. Spring Kim is an actress out of NYU Tisch. She came in to audition, and from the start I was impressed with her ability to physically embody the character. She withdrew into herself—using her hair to cover her face and averting her eyes. The way she spoke even changed, and it seemed she had come to understand Yeona psychologically. I was impressed by her intuition, after callbacks we decided she best understood how to live in Yeona’s skin.
The male assistant is played by Taeho Kwak, an amazing Korean actor who was luckily based in New York at the time getting English and acting training. He knew how to bring emotional honesty to every line written and was wonderful to work with. The female assistant, played by MeeWha Alana Lee, is a very active Korean American actress in the New York scene. We loved how she was able to bring a level of comedic absurdity to the role while still being rooted in her character.
What drew you to the visual arts? How did you get into directing?
I have always been interested in storytelling from a very young age. I was an avid reader as a child, and that passion turned to film when I started to watch movies with more of an eye for the artistry. As a teenager, I was a complete film buff and felt passionate about movies, so I went to NYU Tisch School of the Arts where I built my foundation of filmmaking. Then after working for a few years, I went back to graduate school at Columbia University for Screenwriting and Directing.
While I do love writing and editing, I am most inspired and excited by being on set and being able to craft the world with actors, cinematographers, production designers, etc. I feel most engaged in high-pressure, fast paced environments, and I am a generally decisive person. So there is nothing more thrilling and fulfilling to me than being a director.
What films or filmmakers have inspired you, your style, or your approach to telling a story?
I’m influenced by Ingmar Bergman, Lynne Ramsay, Andrei Tarkovsky, Stanley Kubrick, Bong Joon Ho, Krzysztof Kieślowski, and Jane Campion just to name a few. One of my favorite films is The Conformist by Bernardo Bertolucci. I love the film’s ability to bring such beautifully crafted style to a historically realistic context. But it’s never style over substance—at its core are its deeply flawed characters and an exploration of the pain and emptiness of Italian society at the time. I deeply admire the film’s boldness in its construction, emotions, dialogue, and cinematography.
Similarly, I’m not as much interested in realism or naturalism, but more so in crafting worlds that transport the audience and allow them to see and feel things they may have never experienced. All the while still exploring real, human complexities. I’m interested in portraying reality through a specific lens of the dark, stylized, and at times absurd.
What do you hope audiences take away from the film?
I hope audiences can find deeper understanding through Yeona’s journey and all the darkness, yearning, and growth that comes with it. While the film aims to question the norms of feminine and Asian beauty standards, it’s not necessarily anti-plastic surgery. I believe every woman has a right to do what she wants to her own body. Instead, it asks audiences to reflect on mental and emotional health, healing and self-love, before using surgery as a solution to something internal. One day, Yeona may very well get surgery to remove her scar if it’s what she wants, but it will be on her own terms after she’s hopefully found more peace within.
Do you have any future projects that you can share with us?
I’m currently in pre-production for my next short film, which tells the story of a Korean Adoptee from America who searches for her birth mother in Korea. It explores similar themes of identity and alienation in the form of a mystery/slow-burn thriller. Our project won the prestigious Katharina Otto-Bernstein short film grant and will shoot in South Korea next year. At the same time, I’m writing and developing a few feature scripts—some based on these short scripts—that I hope to be able to make in the near future.
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!