Your silence is a mirror.
LOGLINE
Shot on location, COMFORTLESS is an immersive experience of “American Town,” a brothel established exclusively for the U.S. Air Force Base in South Korea. The final piece in Gina Kim’s VR trilogy.
SYNOPSIS
In 1969, a brothel with 500 residential units was established for the U.S. Air Force Base in Kunsan, South Korea, known as 'American Town.' This brothel was incorporated and recruited women from across the country, officially labeled as US military comfort women by authorities. Shot on the actual site, COMFORTLESS is a cinematic VR film depicting American Town during its heyday in the 1980s. VR viewers traverse this uncanny, deserted town, guided by the ghosts, sounds, and voices from its past.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
During pre-production for COMFORTLESS, American Town was designated a redevelopment area. Town was soon barricaded and the brothels were the first to be demolished. Our project became a race against time to archive this history. Ironically, on the day we wrapped production, the South Korean Supreme Court announced its final verdict on a lawsuit filed by the women from the US military camp towns. The judgment acknowledged the government’s responsibility and awarded compensation, pointedly using the term “US military comfort women.” After five decades, these women’s voices were finally heard. In their honor, this VR aims to bring forward the voices and experiences of these women while they are still alive.
ABOUT AMERICAN TOWN
Following the Korean War, an average of 25,000 US soldiers per year resided in the US military bases in South Korea, occupying as much as one fifth of the nation’s habitable land. Concurrently, the Korean and US governments worked together to establish 96 “camp towns” equipped with brothels and clubs around the US bases, which have involved half million women thus far. The dollars these camptown women made was a significant source of national income in post-war Korea. This is one of the nations’ repressed memories that was little discussed and even erased in recent Korean history. COMFORTLESS is a VR documentary about one of such camptowns in Korea.
American Town is 5 minutes away by car from the Kunsan Air Force Base. Evident from the name, American Town was built specifically for US Soldiers. It was a project led by one of the members of the group that staged a military coup who eventually became the Director of the Korean CIA. He purchased 8.5 acres of land near Kunsan and established "American Town, Inc." The women recruited from all over the country were called “US military comfort women” by the authorities. American Town grew to be a small self-sustaining city that provided US soldiers with whatever convenience they desired: currency exchange, culinary pleasures, and sex. The town also operated shuttle services to and from the military bases. As soon as soldiers newly arrived in Kunsan Air Force Base, they were exposed to information about the camptowns and prostitution. Up to 1,000 US soldiers would visit in a single night.
COMFORTLESS is the last part of Gina Kim’s virtual reality trilogy on US military comfort women in South Korea following BLOODLESS and TEARLESS. Shot on actual location, BLOODLESS is a VR experimental documentary that traces the last living moments of a real-life sex worker who was brutally murdered by a US soldier at the Dongducheon camptown in South Korea in 1992. TEARLESS, the second part of the trilogy is about a detainment center called “Monkey House”—a medical prison established by the South Korean government and staffed by the US military in the 1970s to isolate and treat camp town women with STDs.
The US military comfort women physically embody the ruins and contradictions of the 20th century, as well as the violence against women and oppression of foreign individuals, and they have yet to receive recognition and reparations. In their honor, COMFORTLESS immerses the viewers in the daily routine of American Town, creating an essential archive of the past.
*NOTE 1: While the term “comfort women” has been associated with the Japanese imperial army’s use of sexual slavery during World War II, the South Korean government has used the term since 1951 to refer to “women who provide comfort service" to the U.S. military. The term is also used by the Korean Supreme Court in its 2022 ruling on the state compensation lawsuit for the Camptown U.S. military Comfort Women.
*NOTE 2: The official name of the corporation is "American Town, Inc" and, accordingly, the official name of the town is also "American Town". However, it is also commonly referred to as “A-town” or “American Town” by residents and visitors.
CAST AND CREDIT
A VR Film by Gina Kim. Cyan Films Production Starring Boryeong Kim Produced by Gina Kim Written and Directed by Gina Kim Executive Producer Zoe Sua Cho Associate Producer Moa Son Director of Photography Ji-Hyun Kim Co Producer Eunsuk Jo, Seunghyeun Lim, Hanjae Kim Assistant Director Hyeonseung Kim Script Supervisor Moa Son Editor Gina Kim, Moa Son Production Designer Jongjin Kim Art Assistants Hoonjong Song, Mijeong Lee Hair | Makeup Do Eul Lee, Hyeonmin Park Costume Young A Lee Production Assistants Daewon Lee, Young-in Cho, Hansol Seo VR Cinematographer Alex Lee VR Camera Assistant Sang Hwa Lee, Wooseok Cheon, Hyeongdeok Jeon Gaffer Soo Yeol Im Grips Chel-hwan Kim Location Sound Sol Kim VFX Supervisor Jae Chan Ka CGI Supervisor Dong Hwan Lee Sound Design Marco D'Ambrosio Lead Composite Artist Gihyeon Kim Publicity Sue Kim, Da Ye Kim Marketing Creative Sue
COMFORTLESS is sponsored by Korean Creative Content Agency, Jeonju International Film Festival, UCLA Faculty Research Grant and UCLA Center for the Study of Women
3D 360 Virtual Reality Cinema, 16min, Color, 2023
For sales and distribution please contact
Cyan Films
cyanfilms2013@gmail.com
