A little-known story of how Korea divided in half whispers an inspired message of hope & forgiveness
A Little-Known Story From When Korea Divided in Half Offers a Warning & a Message of Hope
As the demarcation lines were being drawn between the north and the south just after World War II, a small group of islanders off the southern tip of Korea took a stand to try to stop a division they feared would never be undone. What happened next was denied and covered up for decades, as families of survivors paid a heavy price in its wake after watching their own people wipe out 10% of the population. But their sacrifices, brought to life in A Jeju Story’s stunning animation and sweeping orchestration, call out to the world like whispers of ancestors long departed, with a chilling warning from the other side of mortality: “Tell our story, before the world’s lines are drawn forever.”
Meet Sohyun Moon, Executive Producer of ‘A Jeju Story’
Recently, I sat with my grandfather as he shared with me, for the first time, how the events of the Jeju Island April 3, 1948 incident impacted our family. He was only 3 years old when his father was shot by South Korean police, not far from their family’s home. And yet he spoke with forgiveness in his voice as he reflected on the lessons from what happened. When I asked him how it took place, grandpa showed me a dirt road near his village, and as we drove down it, he said, pointing to one side of the road: “Those on the left side of the street were spared, and those on the right side of the street were shot.”
I visited the Jeju 4.3 Peace Park and saw the markers for 3 of my ancestors, from both sides of my family, who lost their lives in the incident. And while there, I knew this was a story that needed to be told. To help the powerful emotions and meanings of the incident be fully portrayed, we brought it to life through the magic of animation, and the project to create A Jeju Story was born.
The Story
The trailer of A Jeju Story gives an early glimpse of the animation project Sohyun (also known as Korean Unnie, who has over 1 Million subscribers on her Youtube channel teaching about Korea and the Korean language) is creating in partnership with Nara Youn, our Director who has over 15 years of experience in feature animation with studios such as Disney Animation and DreamWorks, and an ultra-talented animation production team.
The 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.
A Jeju Story is not just a story about Jeju Island or Korea; It is the story of the whole world, with patterns of power and contro that repeat over the generations of time. And it is a story about ourselves.
What We Need & What You Get
We need $1 million of funding to begin the full production of the animated short of A Jeju Story, with a total production budet of $2.5 million, based on 6 minutes of finished animation. We will share more details of the production budget through project updates on this site.
The perks available for this project are a collection of exclusive experiences and memorabilia related to Jeju Island, Korea, and A Jeju Story animation. We will share more detail featuring the various perks in the days ahead through updates.
Animation Team
The animation team for A Jeju Story is of the highest quality and reaches accross the globe. Here is a snapshot of some of the key individuals and their experience and expertise. The trailer shares the magic of their personal touch and passion for A Jeju Story!
NARA YOUN – Director, Writer, Animator, Lighting Director (SOUTH KOREA )
Director / Animator Nara Youn has been working at notable studios such as WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS and DREAMWORKS throughout his 18 year career in the Animation industry. His animation contributed to many Oscar winning and nominated projects such as FROZEN, BIG HERO 6, ZOOTOPIA, MOANA, ENCANTO, RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET, FROZEN 2, RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, KUNGFU PANDA, SHREK THE THIRD, MADAGASCAR ESCAPE TO AFRICA, and MEGAMIND. He most recently contributed his work on Disney Animation’s 100th anniversary film – WISH. Outside the film industry, Nara has also worked as a Director at SAMSUNG RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT where he led a team of designers and engineers to develop and characterize a number of next generation Home-Appliance Robots.
ELENA KROSHILINA – Art Director, Vis Dev. Concept Artist, Lighting Director (CYPRUS )
For the past 15 years Elena Kroshilina has been an artist of notable studios such as GAME INSITE, VOLKA GAMES, REALIX, ZHEESHEE productions. She has been a part of many well known startup projects such as TAONGA: THE ISLAND FARM, the TRIBEZ, METATRACE, building art and leading creative teams in the gaming industry. 
KRIS THEORIN – Rendering Pipeline, Technical Lead, Look Dev, Lighting, Compositing (USA )
Kris Theorin has worked as the Creative Director, Animator, Editor, and 3D generalist at SOMETHING’S AWRY PRODUCTIONS for over 8 years. In this role, he’s created a number of commercial projects for companies such as Warner Bros, Universal Studios, Disney, and the Lego Group. Alongside his commercials and branded content he’s also created the award winning short films GRUMP IN THE NIGHT, UNLUCKY CHARMS, MARY & MARSHA IN THE MANOR OF MADNESS, and several animated web series for Warner Bros.
SOONSANG HONG – Character Design (SOUTH KOREA )
Soonsang is a Korean Character Designer and the owner of SoonsangWorld Studio. He has worked as a freelance artist with various different companies in Korea creating designs and pre-production concepts for all kinds of games in the Korean gaming industry. Over the last decade his studio has been best known for his independent work of re-interpreting classical stories such as SHOOTING STAR, ROBIN HOOD, NOAH PROJECT, SPIN SPIN WITCHES ENCYCLOPEDIA, and WICKED.
EIDAN ELGRABLY – Modeler, LookDev Lead (ISRAEL )
For the past 10 years, Eidan has been freelancing as a 3D Artist for various commercial and gaming companies such as MOBILEYE, PLAYTIKA, and ZARA. Recently he worked on the Oscar nominated short-film BLACKSLIDE as a Lighting Supervisor. Currently Eidan is working as a Character Artist for EMBER LAB.
JAN LUKAS PANTHER – CFX Lead, Technical Director (GERMANY )
Jan Panther has been in the industry for 5 years and during this time he’s been working at well known studios like FORTICHE, MR X, HERNE HILL, and is currently employed at WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS VANCOUVER as a Technical Animator. His work includes films and award winning series such as MALEFICENT 2, ARCANE, VIKINGS VALHALLA and DOLITTLE.
RIJAH KAZUO – Character Rigging Lead (BRAZIL )
Character Rigger Rijah Kazuo has collaborated with countless animation studios around the world such as MINDBENDER, NATHAN LOVE, RODEO FX, DNEG Animation and most recently EMBER LAB. She is a well-rounded artist and programmer but her passion lies in hyper cartoony deformations and pushing stylized facial rigging to the limits.
DAVID MOURATO – Animator (PORTUGAL )
Animator David Mourato has been in the animation industry for the past 12 years. Over the years he worked at AXIS Studios, where he contributed his expertise to trailers and game cinematics for well-known studios such as RIOT, BLIZZARD, GUERILLA, and BUNGIE. Since 2019, David has been working for FORTICHE on the award-winning project ARCANE, starting with Season1 and is currently working on Season2.
GRAYSON DUCKER – Animator, Character Setup, Previs (USA )
Grayson Ducker is currently an artist at DNEG studios and has previously worked at numerous studios such as TAIKO STUDIOS, DIGITAL DOMAIN as an Animator as well as a Previs artist. He has worked on notable films and series such as AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER, POKEMON: PATH TO THE PEAK, and CITADEL.
Montse Larqué – Animator, Character Setup (SPAIN )
Montse Larqué is a character animator from Barcelona, Spain, with a diverse skill set encompassing 3D animation, traditional 2D animation, and illustration. She contributed to “A Jeju Story” as both a 2D and 3D animator. She’s currently in London working at JELLYFISH PICTURES on the upcoming NETFLIX Feature Film “THE TWITS”, set for release in 2025.
Dayoung Kim – Animator (South Korea )
Graduated from Korea National University of Arts, Dayoung has worked not only in 3D Animation, but in Virtual Reality throughout her career. She worked as a 3D Generalist, Rigger and Animator at BRUSH THEATER where she helped produce various immersive mapping VR contents, one of which includes the piece – EMPTY YOUR BRAIN, that was awarded the Grand Prize at Korea’s 2018 VR Festival ‘VROUND’. Over the past few years she has been with SAMG ENTERTAINMENT as an Animator, working on one of the most popular kids shows in Korea – CATCH TEENIEPING.
MARCUS HEDGES – Music Composer (UK )
Marcus Hedges has composed music for companies like BUNGIE, GAMES WORKSHOP, and UNIVERSAL, scoring for trailers for iconic video game franchises like DESTINY2, WARHAMMER, and JURASSIC WORLD EVOLUTIONS. He also wrote the soundtrack to the high-octane dragon dogfighting game, CENTURY: AGE OF ASHES and most recently contributed to the game WARHAMMER: AGE OF SIGMAR – REALMS OF RUIN. He is also a successful cover artist under the name TREND ORCHESTRA with over 100+ million streams on Spotify.
