About the Animation

A Jeju Story teaser gives a brief early glimpse of an animation project Sohyun Moon (also known as Korean Unnie, who has over 1 Mil subscribers on her Youtube channel teaching about Korea and the Korean language) is creating in partnership with Nara Youn as the Director who has over 15 years of experience in feature animation with studios such as Disney Animation and DreamWorks. 

This animation portrays ‘Jeju 4.3’ (the events of April 3rd, 1948-49) through the eyes of Sohyun, who was born on Jeju Island and grew up in Seoul. To Sohyun, in her younger days, Jeju is a place of wonders and magic; a sanctuary. 

But as Sohyun grows up, she learns about a darker side of Jeju’s story. Over 30,000 civilians were massacred during the 4.3 period just because of a clash of ideologies: a disagreement about unity versus division as a country. Sohyun learns that her own great-grandfather’s life was among those villagers who were sacrificed, and in his case, it happened near his home as his wife and 4 children awaited his return. Sohyun’s grandfather was 3 years old when his dad lost his life in the events surrounding Jeju 4.3. 

Sohyun sees this not as just a story about Jeju Island, but as a story of the World. A story of ourselves.

This short teaser is part of a much bigger project, with a full trailer coming in a few months, with a short film itself coming later. But even the short film is part of a bigger effort to share the story of Jeju 4.3 and learn from the stories of those involved and impacted by a tragedy the world is just beginning to learn more about.

Developing the Logo

Here is a sketch of early drawings of the concept! Do you see the resemblance to the final logo design?

When we were trying to figure out what to do for a logo, I had the inspiration that 4.3, if you draw it a certain way, looks like a heart on its side. So I sketched out a concept I’m sharing here - a heart that breaks apart into “4.3”.

I like how 4.3 can look like it forms a heart. The heart can symbolize many things: individuals’ broken hearts; families torn apart; our country, Korea, divided into half; and the ideologies and their constant pull toward the extreme edges that divide the world. 4.3 represents a broken heart, but what I see is a possibility of the heart’s broken pieces eventually being connected, forming a whole heart. 

Part of a Bigger Project

This short teaser is part of a much bigger project, with a full trailer coming in a few months and a short film itself coming later. But even the short film is part of a bigger effort to share the story of Jeju 4.3 and learn from the stories of those involved and impacted by a tragedy the world is just beginning to learn more about.

So, while the teaser is part of a larger scope of telling the story of Jeju 4.3 in animated form, the animation itself is part of a bigger picture related to the path I’m on to share powerful content in many different forms with the world.

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