Script File

Seollal (New Year's)

When a couple returns to Korea during Lunar New Year with their American-born 6-year old daughter, cultures inevitably collide when she is introduced to her grandparents for the first time.

  • Skylar Eunjean Kim
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Student, Screenplay, Short Script
  • Genres:
    Drama
  • Number of Pages:
    9
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • First-time Screenwriter:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - New York University
Writer Biography - Skylar Eunjean Kim

Skylar Kim is a filmmaker and producer studying Film and TV at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She's currently interning under PACHINKO (Apple TV+) producer Soo Hugh.

In 2018, her short screenplay, Under the Lamppost, was chosen as an official selection for international film festivals. Skylar’s work was featured in Tisch’s 2020 First-Year Showcase. She’s currently working on a short film set to shoot this June.

As a producer, the projects she’s worked on have been awarded the HEAR US Award in 2021 and the NYU Tisch Student Producers Grant for 2021-2022.

Her goal is to ensure greater representation in entertainment for women and people of color.

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Writer Statement

I never wanted to write this script. I was hesitant for the same reason many Asian Americans are hesitant to pick up a copy of Pachinko or watch The Joy Luck Club. Confronting your past and your heritage can come with a painful, visceral feeling. It leaves you raw and vulnerable.

This story was stuck in my mind for ages but I avoided it, feeling like I could never get it quite right. I had never written anything based on my childhood moving to Korea with my family. But after a while, it was eating me alive, not writing it. There was something so electric - scary and exciting - about attempting to write this kind of international narrative that isn’t often seen but so innately tied to who I am today. While the exact events in the script haven’t happened to me personally, the elements of cultural miscommunication and motherhood ring true for me. Korea has made little progress in the past couple of years when it comes to advocating for women (especially mothers) and the lingering effects of previous cultural attitudes reverberates through time and generations.

We are shaped by those around us. I’d like to say thank you to Professor Katherine Lindberg for helping me shape the script into what it is now. To Professor Christina DeHaven-Call, who believes that everyone has a story worth telling and there is someone out there waiting for that story. To my friends, for taking the time to read my script. To my younger self, I’m so proud of you. And to my family, who encourage me to go after everything I want, to fight for what I believe in, and did everything they could to provide me with an amazing life that I’m so grateful to have.