Episode 320: Jerome Yoo

Jerome Yoo (the filmmaker behind the critically acclaimed short films Gong Ju, Idols Never Die, and Recess: Third Street) stops by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss Mongrels, his feature film directorial debut that has its world premiere at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival. Set in rural Canada in the 1990s, Mongrels follows a Korean family attempting to find footing in a new land while navigating the dark forests of grief. Dad Sonny has been hired to eradicate the feral canines plaguing the town, while sensitive son Hajoon figures out what it means to be a man. Finally, young Hana, missing her mother, dreams up ways to make her return.

Mongrels is lyrical, sorrowful, dreamlike, surreal, disturbing, and surprising: an exceptional mix that is precisely what anyone familiar with Jerome’s previous work would expect to see in his first feature. In this fascinating conversation with Sabrina Rani Furminger, Jerome talks about the day on Mongrels when he directed 14 dogs, his cohort of rising Asian Canadian filmmakers (which includes Lawrence Le Lam and Mayumi Yoshida), and the parallels between his own immigrant journey and Mongrels’ surreal story. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment