On Wednesday, March 18, 2026, I had the opportunity, as an Honorary Reporter, to attend the national press preview of the opening film of the Florence Korean Film Festival: “People and Meat” by Yang Jong-hyun. "La Compagnia" Cinema in Florence organized a screening especially for journalists, giving them the opportunity to see the film a day before the festival begins and to ask director Yang Jong-hyun a few questions afterward.
People and Meat is a tragicomic tale of three elderly Koreans trying to survive by doing odd and low-paying jobs such as collecting cardboard and selling vegetables on the street, in a world that neglects them. Their encounter sparks a “game”: they decide to go in famous Korean barbecues, enjoy a delicious meal and then escape outside without paying. Through this adventure outside the law, the film gives life to a very human story, both moving and heartbreaking, which focuses on people who live on the margins of society, not only because of their economic situation, but also because they belong to a generation that tends to be forgotten. Although there's great respect for older people in Korea, it's rare to see a film dedicated exclusively to them. It's even rarer to see this desire to live, to take risks, and sometimes even to put themselves in danger just to feel alive again, like when they were young.
This is precisely what the director wants to convey; during the interview, among various questions, the first one inevitably asked was why he focused on older people, a theme that is not common to see at the movie theatre. Yang Jong-hyun replied: "It's a topic that many people would like to avoid, people don't want to see a film like this because young people don't believe that one day they too will become old and that's a point that I find interesting and funny, I didn't believe it as well when I was young." The director decided to focus the film on a generation that tends to be less interesting to watch on screen but instead he made a beautiful job by bringing it to life, with all its contradictions, weaknesses, strengths and especially its desire to redeem and assert itself and also to be seen. The choice of actors itself turns out to be a well thought out choice, as the director told us these three actors (Ye Su-jeong, Park Keun-hyong, Jang Yong) were really famous when he was young but then they were forgotten, so he decided to meet them and asked them to join this movie which made them really happy.
I had the chance to ask a question too and since the ending of the movie reveals a poetic side and the movie ends itself through the words of a poem I asked Yang Jong-hyun why he decided to put together these two art forms: cinema and poetry. He replied: “It was perhaps an irresponsible choice on my part, I decided to combine these arts together because if you put a poem at a certain point, it follows that you imagine that the person himself was a poet and you can easily go and imagine how his life might have gone in the past, perhaps it was an easy decision for me.”. It is a poetic film indeed, which brings together three very different characters who happen to share the same economic situation and create a friendship right when they needed one, through which they explore their conscience and their fragilities, giving each other strength and helping each other in a difficult moment.
People and Meat is a bittersweet film that alternates comic moments with dramatic and moving ones, but it doesn't leave a bitter taste at the end, the director decided in fact to end the story of Hyeong-jun, Woo-sik and Hwa-jin with hope, the hope of finding oneself again, with others and with oneself and of fixing the things that had been left behind. All of this happens through the act of eating, which isn't just a comical pretext to see three old people struggling to run away after eating a free meal, but the dinner in a barbecue restaurant is for them a convivial moment that unites them, offering them the opportunity to open up. Much of the film, in fact, is made through the conversations that the three characters have at the dining table, with close-ups showing how, little by little, everyone opens up and tells their stories.When asked how the idea of this film was born Yang Jong-hyun replied that the film was born from observation, in Korea it's common to see elderly people collecting cardboard on the streets, there are many, "this film was born from this question that I asked myself, what do these people eat?".
It's an important film, a story that needed to be told, a small act of rebellion and a redemption for the lives of many elderly people who, like the protagonists, find themselves living their final years in a way they didn't expect, apart from the world. At the end there is hope, there is still life to live, there is still something to give, even when you think you've already done everything.
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