| Project |
Winter Worm, Summer Grass
| No. |
29 |
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Director
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KANG Sang-woo |
| Country |
Korea |
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| Producer |
HAN Sunhee |
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| Production Company |
1011 Films, Plain Pictures |
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| Writer |
KANG Sang-woo |
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| Genre |
Fantasy, Thriller, Drama |
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| Running time |
90min |
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| Project Status | Script Development |
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Director’s Profile
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Born in 1983, Kang Sang-woo is a filmmaker based in Yongin, Korea. His work spans both fiction and non-fiction, and explores the political, social, and emotional worlds of minorities in Korean society. His short films, such as A Silk Letter (2010) and CLEAN ME (2014), have been shown at museums and film festivals, such as Vancouver International Film Festival, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Independent Film Festival, and the Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul. His first feature documentary, KIM-GUN (2018), premiered at Busan International Film Festival 2018, received the top award at Seoul Independent Film Festival 2018, the KIFV Independent Film of the Year Award 2018, an Audience Award at Muju Film Festival 2019, and was released in Korean theaters nationwide in May 2019. |
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Producer’s Profile
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After producing acclaimed documentary films such as Talking Architect (Jeong Jae-eun, 2011) and Manshin: Ten Thousand Spirits (Park Chan-kyong, 2013), Han Sunhee founded Plain Pictures, and produced The Basement Satellite (Kim Hyoung-ju, 2013). She also produced and directed Old Days (2016), which was invited to Jeonju International Film Festival 2016 and Udine Far East Film Festival 2017. Her current project-in-development, The Final Print (Jang Woojin) won the Busan Award at the Asian Project Market 2018. She also teaches at the International Film Business Academy of Busan Asian Film School.
Founded in 2014, 1011 Films is a Korea-based film production company specializing in feature and short narrative films and documentaries with creative storytelling. The company’s latest film, KIM-GUN (Kang Sang-woo, 2018), was released in Korean theaters nationwide in May 2019. |
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Synopsis |
Jaewoo (27) leaves Seoul to attend the funeral of his father, who ran a mushroom farm in his hometown. There he meets Bimal (25), a young Nepali man who worked with his father at the farm. Jaewoo learns that the two men had been doing research in order to grow the revered Cordyceps sinensis, a.k.a. ‘winter worm summer grass,’ in Korea for the first time. Jaewoo is curious about Bimal, who knows more about his father than he does.
Local undertaker Sun-ok (52) sees a long, white, mushroom-like protrusion coming from the neck of a dead man. Soon it is reported that similar types of stems have been found in other dead bodies in town. The government confirms that it is a mutated variant of Cordyceps that is fatal to humans, and the townspeople are quarantined.
Realizing that the new ‘mushroom’ is good for improving the sex drive, Sun-ok and her boyfriend, Sang-ho (56), hope that it may also treat her daughter’s unidentified sickness. She asks Bimal, in return for large sums of money, to find human-grown Cordyceps that her daughter can consume. Jaewoo and Bimal begin a strange journey to find human hosts and gather infectious spores, which will lead to unexpected consequences.
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