‘Banana Trip’ takes home best comedy at Shorttakes film festival

As three Korean guys drive towards the beach, one leans out of the window with a look of childish excitement across his face.

In the short film “Banana Trip,” the trio set out to try and impress some American girls while on holiday in Florida. Having seen a muscular pack of white guys achieve more success, they realize that this might be harder than expected. However, a line for an inflatable banana ride could be the solution.

“Banana Trip” won Best Comedy Award on Thursday during the Shorttakes Student Film Festival, hosted by the undergraduate student government Campus Events Commission. The film’s writer and director Hyungjik Lee said it was a thesis film that he made before graduating from Florida State University in 2013.

Lee said he was inspired to make the film by his own experience as a Korean in the United States. He said he based the film on one occasion in particular, when he was visiting Miami Beach, Fla., with a friend who is also Korean.

“We had the same sense of feeling like outsiders, feeling out of place,” Lee said. “So I guess that gave me the idea to make the film.”

Lee was born in the United States but left for Korea at a young age, only to come back to study Motion Picture Arts at FSU. Lee said he felt like he hadn’t actually experienced living in the United States until he came to college.

Lee said the FSU eight-minute restriction on the film’s running time proved good training, and it helped him focus on the essential part of the story. The film’s production went relatively smoothly, Lee said, and assembling a crew for the film was never a concern.

“FSU actually has a very production-focused program, so once you’re in the class you’re part of a crew and also have a crew automatically,” Lee said. “All my crew were classmates.”

However, casting actors in the three main roles caused more of a dilemma, Lee said, given his desire to keep the characters as close to his idea as possible.

“Tallahassee has this auditioning center, so a lot of people come to audition; however, one of the few things I didn’t want to give up on was that I wanted Korean people acting Korean characters,” Lee said.

The film’s central trio is led by Dongjoo, played by Jeehyun Kim, who is determined to have sex before he leaves for military service, while his friend Seungmin, played by Yonghyun Choi, just wants to have a relaxing time on their last holiday together.

The third member John, played by Steve Kim, speaks the most fluent English of the group and tries to interpret for Dongjoo as he chats up a girl in line for the banana ride. Kim said John’s character was altered slightly when Lee cast him in the role.

“Originally the character was also just Korean, but then the character was shifted more towards Korean American, and this felt very natural to me,” Kim said.

Because Kim was born and raised in Tampa, Fla., he said many Korean friends expect him to be better acclimatized to the United States.

“The term ‘banana’ in the title refers to someone like myself who is a banana: yellow on the outside and white the inside,” Kim said. “The film plays on the humor of the expectation that American-born Koreans should be able to fit in and be able to talk to girls.”

Lexi Mossler, the Campus Events commissioner, said the audience’s positive response to “Banana Trip” on Thursday was indicative of how the judges came to their decision.

“I thought that it was different from anything we had shown before, and I think that that really stands out when you have this different perspective,” Mossler said. “It was this unique perspective that made the judges laugh, and so we thought that it should be rewarded.”

Lee said he believes that the reason behind the success of “Banana Trip” is that the film is an accurate reflection of many Koreans’ experience.

“The majority of us who are not used to this environment or who weren’t born or didn’t grow up in the United States will relate to the characters in the film,” Lee said.