The Mutt Boy

A story about a young man who has a good heart and is a good fighter, even though he is socially incompetent. His nickname, „mutt boy“, represents his incapable rural lower class status but his constant boldness in delivering lines carry an emotional richness long been lost to those living in the big city. Even though the setting is the modem age, Mutt Boy seems like an aged sketch, with simplified mise-en-scenes and characters demonstrating director Kwak Kyung-taek‘s affection towards locations and culture.

Kwak Kyung-taek was a film student at New York University. He directed several short films including Oh, Boy! (1993). His 1995 short film A Story of a Military Prison won the Best Film award at Seoul Short Film Festival, and was invited to Clermont-Ferrand. He made his feature debut with 3 pm Paradise in 1997. In 1999 he made his second feature Dr. K. But his first big break came with Friend which was one of the biggest hits in Korean film history.