Program Note
Born in Paris, Julien Birban Levy later lived in New York before settling in Tokyo. He is a novelist, photographer, and filmmaker whose work spans music videos, fashion films, short films, and miniseries. His first fiction feature, NIKO, returns to Seoul, the setting of his 2022 short FIRST DATE LAST DATE. Whereas the earlier film was an intimate portrait of two lovers meeting and parting, NIKO expands that premise into a larger-scale romance—or perhaps a work of science fiction. In a near-future Seoul, people live under strict social control: resistance is a crime, and curfews govern daily life. Against this oppressive order, NIKO’s wish to find and hold on to a love of her own becomes a quiet act of defiance. Her search for intimacy brings her into conflict with a world that leaves little room for private desire. At its heart, NIKO is a story about people fighting for the right to love. With its distinctive sensibility and texture, the film renders Seoul subtly unfamiliar, turning the city into a landscape at once recognizable and estranged. Within that world, Tiffany Young of Girls’ Generation makes her feature-film acting debut. (Kim Hyung-seok)