Meet Oli London, social media influencer, online personality and someone utterly obsessed with South Korean pop culture. London, the subject of Gangnam Beauty (a world premiere at IDFA) may be English-born but has spent a fortune on plastic surgery (including several botched operations) in order to look like a K-Pop idol.
Artist/filmmaker Yan Tomaszewski began work on this project before he had even met London. While at an art residency in Daejeon (“Asia’s Silicon Valley”) in South Korea, he had become fascinated by local myth and by the ancient craft of mask making.
“During my residency, I was interested in the connection between the contemporary aspects of South Korea with something more traditional, which is the mask tradition.”
His research drew him to the village of Hahoe, famous for staging mask dances – a tradition stretching back to the 12th Century. It was here he learned the tale he uses as a framing device in the film about a village cursed with bad luck. In order to avoid catastrophe, a craftsman is instructed by a spirit to make a set of masks. But he has to it without being seen.
“So there is really a feeling of taboo, of transgression,” Tomaszewski notes. The director met a “master of mask making” who gave him insights into this esoteric and ancient craft. He also learned about Imae, a mythical Korean figure who wears a mask which is incomplete. (The mask maker died before finishing it and therefore it doesn’t have a chin).
The filmmaker isn’t just fascinated by South Korean culture himself. He is equally intrigued by the spell South Korean culture casts on so many non-South Koreans. That is what led him to Oli London.
At first, Tomaszewski had considered making a fictional film but London (who identifies as non-binary) was a real-life character who fitted perfectly into the mould the director was trying to create.
“When I discovered Oli, I wasn’t that positive about ‘them’ answering positively, as ‘they’ were already quite famous.”
London, though, was keen to take part.
“Oli is really very enthusiastic, to say the least, about anything that is related to Korea,” the director says of his subject.
London was a huge fan of K-Pop and, partly through that, already had some knowledge of traditional Korean culture, including the cult of masks.
When Tomaszewski came back from Korea to France, he organised a few days of shooting on a set, with London involved. The director had had a special mask made which combined elements of Imae and of one of the members of London’s favourite K-Pop band BTS.
The film includes some distressing details about London’s experiences as the hands of the plastic surgeons. The director, though, parries the idea that his film has any polemical undertow or is setting out to attack medical malpractice.
“For me, the film is not really a critique of anything. It is not really a critique of plastic surgery,” the director says. However, he did conduct extensive research into plastic surgery in South Korea itself. “I was really interested specially in one operation which is chin surgery, which Oli London did,” Tomaszewski points out. There was an obvious reason for this. The procedure connects with the ancient myth of the mask without the chin.
Oli London is due in Amsterdam this week for the IDFA premiere. In a few days, Oli will also accompany Tomaszewski to Paris in a few days for a special screening there at the Pompidou Centre.
No, there aren’t yet any screenings of the film planned in South Korea but Tomaszewski is looking at how best to organise them. In the meantime, if he is able to harness London’s huge social media following, Gangnam Beauty is likely to make quite a splash.
“We are both very curious about the reception of the film,” the director says. “Oli London has quite a big fan base. I have no idea about how this film can be perceived by ‘their’ fans but I think it is exciting to reach a more broad audience with the film…”
