Can I Talk to You?

Director YI Seungjun |  Producer HAN Kyungsoo, PARK Kyoungwon | Korea | Film 90min, TV 52min | 4K | Color

Project Description

Budget

Logline

The faint cries of children on the edge, gripped by anxiety and depression, sinking in a swamp of deviance, "I'm so lost, but I don't want to fall into the abyss, can you hear me?"

Synopsis

Teenage girls enter the courtroom. Girl 1 is sent to a facility where she has to stay for six months. Growing up in an orphanage, she breaks down in tears, saying, "I'm most afraid of being abandoned." After being tried for prostitution, Girl 2 gets into trouble a few more times and is eventually sent to a juvenile detention center. After six months, some remain, some leave, and some are just starting their lives here after their trial.

Director's Statement

South Korea is known as one of the most dynamic countries in the world. It is the land of BTS, semiconductors, and the Squid Game, but teenagers in this country are not happy. South Korea has one of the highest rates of youth suicide and child abuse in the world, and 20,000 youth drop out of school each year. They are crying out, but nothing changes. This world seems like a vacuum where their voices are never heard. What makes them unhappy? What makes them so anxious and depressed? Have we ever tried to listen to them? Listening is the beginning of empathy, and empathy will drive change. I hope that Can I Talk to You? will be a portrait of anxious and depressed children, and a self-reflective confession of the adults who ignore the voices of them.

	Seungjun and his films are widely known in Korea, Asia, and internationally. Since 1999, his documentaries have been shown around the world and have won awards at prestigious film festivals. His short documentary In the Absence (2019) is the first Korean documentary film nominated for an Oscar 2019, and won Grand Jury Award at DOC NYC 2018 and AFI Docs 2019. Planet of Snail (2011) is the first Asian film to win Best Feature-length documentary at the Intl. Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. His recent films include Crossing Beyond (2018), and Shadow Flowers (2019).
Director  YI Seungjun
	He has been directing documentary films since 1999 and working also as the producer for over 10 years. He produced My Love, Don't Cross That River (2014) was released in Korean cinemas and reached 4.8 million viewers. With or Without You (2015) was co-produced internationally with ZDF/Arte, DRTV, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, and BOS. His latest work, Club House, was launched in 2022 on Watcha, and Three Sides to Every Story (2024) is about the Sewol Ferry disaster.		Since 2015, he has been directing and producing TV documentaries, TV factual programs and documentary films. He started his career as the assistant director of the feature-length documentary, With or Without You. Ladies Lunchtime was the first documentary film that he produced. It was shown at DMZ Intl. Documentary Film Festival in 2016. He directed the Watcha original documentary series, Hanwha Eagles ; the Club House in 2022.
Producer  HAN Kyungsoo		Producer PARK Kyoungwon