Viral Lingua

2018 • Directed by

Yun Choi

Playing on a word-of-mouth strategy of viral marketing, Viral Lingua explores language as a vessel that transmits and mutates political ideology. The film is propelled by a performer who lip-syncs to melodramatic songs, immersed in otherworldly make-ups and hyperreal images of Korean landscapes. The lyrics adapt wordplay and self-loathing satire with wry humour, reflecting the irony of living in a society built upon the histories of colonialism and the cold war. From a Korean patriotic tune lamenting an ill-fated love for a country to a children’s song set in a sci-fi dystopia, the film composes an anthem of a neocolony.