Seong-hyun, a teenage boy, sets out on a journey at the suggestion of his grandmother, Byung-hee, who insists on leaving without a destination. However, their plans are halted when the car breaks down. At that moment, the TV installed in the car starts airing a mysterious show titled Performance No. 19190301. As the performance begins, Seong-hyun and Byung-hee are transported back in time on a journey through the history of Korea.
LANGUAGE : Korean COUNTRY : South Korea YEAR : 2024 DURATION : 41m DIRECTOR / WRITER : Mingu Kang CAST : Hosook Na, Junghoo Park, Sehyung Jung, Jiyun Lee, Youki, Heejun Lee, Deokhwan Kim ASSISTANT DIRECTOR : Eunkyung Kang CINEMATOGRAPHY / COLOR GRADING / LIGHTING : Cheonho Park CAMERA ASSISTANT : Hayul Park CHOREOGRAPHY : Heejun Lee SPECIAL MAKEUP EFFECTS : Gayoung Kwon ART DIRECTOR : Soyeon Park (Gandalf) ART TEAM : Suan Yeo (Kimlee) BOOM OPERATOR : Jin Morinaga EDITING : Mingu Kang EDITING ASSISTANT : Sueyaw Lim SOUND MIXING : Chorong Lee ANIMATOR : Yeeun Joo VFX : Quick VFX (Jongdae Choi) COMPOSER : xKHAIx (for the Ritual of the Japanese Yokai) – DreamyDR Team PROPS SUPPORT : Camp Motors SPONSOR : Gangbuk Cultural Foundation (Produced with the support of the 2024 Gangbuk Cultural Foundation Local Arts Grant Program.)
Director Statement : The older and younger generations living in the same era experience the history of Korea through a peculiar performance. Witnessing historical moments and sometimes stepping directly into them, they come to feel the flow of history. Through Seong-hyun and Byung-hee’s strange journey, the story delivers a message to those of us living today that history is not a series of disconnected events but a continuous stream, like water, and the future depends on our actions.
Bio : Kang Mingu is a Seoul-based filmmaker and media artist whose work drifts between film, performance, and the spectral edges of memory. Trained in visual aesthetics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, he approaches cinema as a site where personal histories, urban spaces, and the unseen layers of society converge. His feature Search Operation: The New Town Survivor (2021) received international acclaim, including the Feature Film Award at the Brno International Film Festival.
Kang’s films—Reset, Personality Counseling Center at 0 Avenue, and Performance No. 19190301—explore disappearance, trauma, and the fragile boundaries between reality and myth. His media art has been presented in solo and international exhibitions, and he was selected as a UNESCO City to City artist, expanding his practice to collaborative works in Europe.
Alongside filmmaking, Kang is the author of books on cinema, ghosts, and folklore, continuously weaving storytelling across disciplines and continents.
Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved.
Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.
