Two sisters from Burnaby have shared a vision of their mother’s community with the world, through a fictional film that highlights the humour in the life of a 60-something Korean woman.
Karaoke Mamas follows Sang-Mi, played by Eun Sook Choi, a 63-year-old woman who is recently divorced and has moved into a new home. She ends up breaking her television by accident, as she prepares to watch Korean dramas with her two best friends.
“In order to sort of restart her life, her and her friends enter a karaoke contest to win her a new television,” said Diana Bang, co-writer and co-director of the film.
“We really just wanted to feature women like my mom or in my mother’s community, the Korean Canadian community who are in their late 50s, early 60s, and their friendships,” she added. “Just because at this point in their lives while a lot of them have kids, their kids are older or have their own kids and, at least with my mom, they spend a lot of time with each other. We wanted to focus our story on that.”
Diana and her sister Andrea Bang also wanted to feature Korean women, especially those around 60, because they often aren’t the leads in shows.
I don’t think we get to see a lot of Korean women starring in any kind of film or TV shows,” Diana said. “I just think it’s really important to let them have their spotlight and time.”
The film has three leads, with Sang-Mi’s two friends Ji-Won, played by Mi-Young, and Ye-Kyung, played by Soon Ja Hwang, holding pivotal roles. Both of the actors playing the friends have some experience in Korean community theater, but Choi did not have any acting experience.
“The lead is one of my mom’s really good friends who used to sing at events but she’s never acted before,” Diana said. “It was just really cool working with her because she just has never done anything like this before but she took direction really, really, really well.”
The three friends get into “interesting situations” in the pursuit of the television.
“At the end of the day we just want the audience to kind of fall in love with these women, to say, ‘I want to hang out with them, they’re so fun,’” Diana said.
Both Diana and Andrea have experience in the film industry, but on the other side of the camera. Andrea plays Janet on CBC’s Kim’s Convenience, and Diana was recently in a miniseries for CBC, Unspeakable, which is scheduled for the Winter 2019 season. She has also appeared in a number of films and television shows, including The Interview.
“I’ve mostly been at it in front of the camera, so this is my first time going behind the camera and learning the process and being a part of it from beginning to end,” she said.
To learn more about Karaoke Mamas, go to www.storyhive.com/project/show/id/3627.
