But given how SF seems sometimes to be crowded out by our increasingly SFnal reality, I wonder how much wider the fandom can grow. But I have absolutely no doubt that many of the (relatively few) fans who do exist are very hip, and have gone to great lengths to know the genre. It’s just that they’re so few that makes me argue it has either withered on the vine, or not yet gone native. (Though, as I say, it may be flowering anew, in written form anyway.)

The film desctiption sounds… well, actually, probably up my alley, in fact. We’ll see.

Oh, regarding the KILLING MACHINE director, Nam Ki-woong, here is what Darcy Paquet’s website says:

NEVER BELONGS TO ME. (‘Samgeori Museutang Sonyeonui Choihu) Director Nam Ki-woong, whose previous works include the critically acclaimed Show Me and Teenage Hooker Becomes Killing Machine , returns with another movie that may appeal to a similar audience. Labeled as an erotic drama/fantasy, the promotional stills seem to make it look more like a bloodbath than anything remotely erotic. The movie casts two unknowns in the leads, Kang Hyeon-jung as Geon-tae and Ye Su-an taking two important parts. Other members of the cast include Kim Byeong-jun (Dance With The Wind), Lee Sang-hun (Windstruck, Mutt Boy), Hong Seok-yeon (Tell Me Something) and Jo Han-hee (Flying Boys, Double Agent). This Digi-Gaon picture screened at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, and is currently waiting for a release.

Most of the SF films I’ll be looking at are pretty goofy, but then again my paper pretty is trying to throw some light on why that is… working from the assumption that SF as a genre (written and cinematic alike) has not (yet?) successfully gone native in Korea.

Though trying to look into the whole literary SF genre in terms of original Korean authors is pretty tough. FANTASTIQUE gives me a better starting point, and I have a few other leads to try, but it looks to me like written SF existed here for a long time, then kind of crashed and burned, and is only now, maybe, starting to reemerge. It may well be flowering again, but it’s tiny flowers by the side of the road where other foreign entertainment genres — including horror and fantasy — seem to be whizzing by.

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t just collaborate with a Korean translator and write THE Korean SF movie to end all Korean SF films. I have this short story set a generation or two after the worst peaceful post-reunification scenario imaginable, about life extension, a Korean doctor and her ethnic Indian husband, and of course, big minjok. Supposed to be coming out in Interzone, sometime, somehow.

Good luck with all that “science fiction.” Most of it is pretty goofy.

So, it’s nice to hear that Lime likes it. :)