Korea’s ‘Arrival of Water’ Explores Grief and Language Gaps at Busan’s Asian Project Market

Busan’s Asian Project Market is showcasing “Arrival of Water,” the latest feature from Korean director Jo Heeyoung, produced by Park Sejin. The project delves into grief, language, and cultural dislocation through a story rooted in both Korean and Japanese contexts.

Jo, whose previous works include “The Continuing Land” (2022) and “Merely Known as Something Else,” both screened at Busan, said the idea for her new film began with her grandmother’s stroke-induced speech impairment. “The only person who could truly understand her fragmented words was my grandfather. After he passed away, I thought deeply about the isolation she was left with,” she explains. Her own experience living abroad and confronting “spaces between languages” further shaped the film’s direction. In her vision, water symbolizes “a gesture of connection in the face of loss” and the “possibilities that lie between two languages.”

The director frames the narrative within Korea and Japan’s fraught historical and linguistic relationship, with characters navigating inherited trauma and imperfect communication. “What interests me most is the gap — the moments where words fail, where meaning slips,” Jo notes. “Untranslatable words themselves can become a new kind of language.”

Producer Park, who previously worked with Jo on “Merely Known as Something Else,” said he was drawn to the director’s ability to layer emotional depth into seemingly simple stories. “Through those experiences, I’ve come to understand the ‘gaps’ in language — not just as challenges, but as spaces where new meaning can emerge. That’s why I was especially drawn to ‘Arrival of Water,’ which felt closely aligned with my own experiences,” he says.

The film is being developed as a Korea-Japan co-production, with major production and post-production in Korea, and location shooting and casting in Japan. Park emphasized the importance of seeking partners from the development stage to reflect the story’s cultural nuances. Financing remains a challenge for an intimate, introspective drama, but Park believes its quiet strength will resonate with international festivals and distributors.

“Our main goal at APM is to find strong co-production partners,” Park says. “We are seeking collaborators who understand the Asian and European art-house landscape and who will respect the director’s artistic vision.”

With Jo returning to BIFF for a third consecutive year, “Arrival of Water” aims to bridge the personal and the universal, embodying both locality and cross-cultural resonance.