SYNOPSIS

Dopa, a 23-year-old student, lives under strict and overprotective parents, whose fear-driven control has left her sexually inhibited. By night, she secretly escapes into pornographic 3D animated films featuring virile monsters, while during the day she is struggling with social anxiety around real men. Determined to finally act on her desires, she arranges a post-university meeting with a man who accepts to roleplay her fantasy. But when the encounter collapses into reality and the illusion breaks, the monster within Dopa is unleashed.

INTENTION

I grew up in a conservative suburb of Daegu in South Korea. My father was a police officer, and my mother a housewife. On the surface we were a normal family, but at home there was always an atmosphere of anxiety and obsessive control. When I was a teenager, sexuality was a taboo topic with my parents, so I watched animated porn in secret. While live-action films made me feel uncomfortable, animated characters allowed me to escape into my wildest fantasies. In a way, I think my story reflects this typical Korean phenomenon: a society that appears modern and uninhibited on the surface, but deeply insecure inside, shaped by traditional norms and patriarchal tensions.

When I imagine the film, the first word that springs to mind is “calm”. The characters’ lives unfold within the calm of daily routine. That is why I will not overdramatise violence and sexuality. Instead, I aim for extreme restraint in my mise-enscéne, using static framing to convey a sense of strangeness and control. But as passions begin to run wild, the film will gradually plunge us into emotional and visual chaos, with increasingly tight shots and frenetic editing, reflecting both the main character’s desire and frustration.