Bora Kim

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When I watch a good film, it feels like I’ve received a gift. These ten movies feel like gifts from their directors. When I think carefully about what I received from them, it's a certain world-view, the beauty of a world seen through these directors. They present the world-view of what I call 'blissful losers'. If the world that we live in obsesses over the presentation of our perfect selves, these films by contrast throw a valuable gaze towards 'losers'. 

The directors' worlds are beyond our horizon – avoiding the binaries of the winner and the loser, the perpetrator and the victim, the right and the wrong. With their constantly changing shots, these directors' worlds do not demand that the viewers feel something. Rather, they make room for us and allow us to enter them and meet our true selves. It's so hard to see the physical world as it is, and it's up to artists to strive to reveal a certain truth. When the artist 'succeeds' at looking at our physical world with compassion, looking at both our foolishness and our beauty equally, the horizon of our world-view inevitably expands. When this happens, the cinematic experience transforms into a physical one that touches both our hearts and bodies. 

Coming out of the theatre after watching these films, I felt like something had changed within me. I am grateful for these films, and for having experienced their grace.