#documentary

This is a post to celebrate the release of the Branching Paths documentary, which I just love so damn much.

Go buy it here.

So what’s this Branching Paths thing all about then? It’s a just-released documentary directed by Anne Ferrero that takes a look at the growing indie gaming scene in Japan. Unlike in the west, where indies have enjoyed quite a bit of success over the past 7-8 years, Japan is still in the early stages of an indie revolution, and Branching Paths does a fantastic job of illustrating what this nascent movement is looking like. Even better, it’s beautifully shot, and so also does a terrific job of acting as a visual tour of Japan from the perspective of games and the people who power that space.

But for me, it goes deeper. Seeing this now, after being back in Canada for close to a year and a half, it reminded me of a world I left behind. The film is packed to the gills with interviews of people I love and call friends, and so not only did it serve as a nostalgic reminder of all those people that I don’t get to hang out with anymore, but also of the spaces and events that I cared about when I was there (Picotachi,Tokyo Indies,BitSummit,Tokyo Game Show).

It even reminded me of PauseTalk, as the first time I heard about this project was from Anne, the director, who made a few visits to my events.

I love that the very early stages of an indie scene that I saw while I was in Tokyo has continued to grow, and is at a point now where I think there’s no turning back – we’re in for a lot of new and fun gaming experiences from Japan, directly from the minds of of a whole bunch of interesting creators. 

That’s something to be super happy and excited about.

St. Jimmy (From “American Idiot”) - Billie Joe Armstrong & John Gallagher Jr.

Is life imitating me or is rage imitating life? I feel like a civil war, like a knife in the heart. I’ve got an axe to grind and it is splitting my head open. No friends, no girls. I NEED BOTH.

[TRANS] IU Documentary ‘Pieces: Winter of a 29 Year Old’ - Interview excerpts (Q30-37)

All the interview translations collated

Q1-29:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/679708931196649472

Q30-37:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/680648208596205568

From the moment I gained popularity, there isn’t a moment that I haven’t thought about this. In some ways, I think I haven’t come to terms that I am a popular celebrity yet. Since it hasn’t hit me yet, I think it probably never will. Being loved is also just one piece of me (T/L note: one part of who I am) and I don’t think that’s entirely me either…

I’m not being humble. I sincerely do feel this way.

Because of that, I’m able to stay healthy and be free and also have a healthy relationship with my fans. Being able to last this long in my career, I thought it was how I objectively viewed myself and I would suddenly hear, ‘This was a hidden camera! Actually, IU being popular was a hidden camera!’ Like the Truman show… ‘So from tomorrow onwards, you will no longer be popular!’ I have imagined that sort of thing a lot.

I think about that a lot… During times like these, I would also always warn myself, ‘I have to leave something behind in my life.’

If I didn’t come into this world as myself, but came into this world as IU and left as IU, wouldn’t it be really sad?

IU is just one of the things that Lee Jieun did.

She is just one piece of Lee Jieun. I’m not someone who can be fully explained with only IU. Just because you call it self-love, is it self-love? I’ve always wondered about that.

I might feel really sad. (whisper) But then I think I wouldn’t feel that sad. (ahhahhahaha) I don’t think I would be so sad to that extent.

I would just be like, ‘Ah, I’ve been doing this for over 10 years, I had fun… I’ll have fun and take my leave~’ I think that’s the closest to how I truly feel.

Because it’s not like I was happy every single day. Living as IU.

There would be this much of a sense of freedom? And this much of sadness? I think there would be all of this coexisting.

Sadness would not be the dominant feeling and neither would a sense of relief be the dominant feeling.

I would be like, ‘Then what shall I do now?’

‘What shall I do with my spare time now?’ I think that’s what I would be concerned about.

Q31. What does being an adult mean to Lee Jieun?

(thinking carefully) I’m not sure. I recall answering this at some point in my life before, but from my current perspective, I’m not sure what being an adult means. Although it can be simply defined based on age and that once you are no longer a minor, you are considered to be an adult, but even though when I was young I vaguely imagined what an adult would be like, now that I have become one, I’m still unsure and I don’t know if I match up to that. Also, I wonder, ‘Is there such an adult around me?’ Of course, some people might find it too fake that I keep talking about age…

In terms of age, I’m all grown up, year by year as I mature, I find that I’m able to be more understanding and tolerant towards the world and people around me. I think I’m able to understand people in a more multi-dimensional way and sometimes, I discover an inner child in someone… ‘Ah, that person is still..!’ I don’t just mean it in a negative sense, but even as an adult, there could still be a child hidden inside the person, so would that part need to become an adult too for that person to be considered an adult?

But does such a person even exist in this world? Even in my grandmother, I discovered a child in her.

Could this just be a figment of our imagination? A fantasy? A fantasy that all the adults in this world have?

I wonder if it’s just a fantasy like, ‘At some point, I will be a much more adult-like adult than I am now!’ but if I were to just sum up my answer now, it would be to not behave in a more childish manner than those younger than me? (haha) That’s probably how I feel right now.

Q32. Is Lee Jieun considered an ‘adult’?

Yes, I would be, based on this criteria. In front of those younger than me, I try hard to pretend to be an adult, I’m that type of person and I hope to continue doing that.

Q33. The reason you want to become 30 soon

There was no ‘magic of 20-year-old’ when I became of age, but is there one at 30?

I’ll have the same expectation at the age of 40, but of course, I don’t have high hopes for it either.

Still, when I turn 30, I really won’t be (considered) young physically in age, so (although the wordings may sound harsh) I always have this sort of victim mentality towards this subject…

I debuted at such a young age that I think I used to have a tad bit of a victim mentality towards the fact that people often see me as a young (immature) person.

‘Yes I’m young, but I’m not handling or doing my stuff immaturely.’

‘If so, shouldn’t they treat me as a professional?’

‘I’m only physically young in age, but that doesn’t mean that I’m dealing with my career/ social life in a childish manner…’

‘Wouldn’t I finally be able to get closer to the age that matches my experience when I turn 30?’

‘I’m no longer in my 20s, so I bet no one will (continue to) see me as a young girl right?’

I have a bit of those expectations.

Q34. Tell us about your plan on your first day of being 30

None. I don’t have that sort of plan, it will probably be just~~~ the same. (laughs)

I bet I will really just be sleeping in, waking up and lolling around if I don’t have any work, then falling asleep (again) after having my dinner as per usual?

Q35. What kind of 30s do you want to spend?

Perhaps a 30s without much trouble? (LOL) I hope there won’t be much trouble.

I hope whatever circumstances won’t drag or take me to somewhere (that I detest)

and that it will be a peaceful 30s for me. I hope it will be a solid 30s for me as an artist,

and no less, a diligent 30s for me as a diligent artist too.

Q36. Your thoughts on failure

I do have some thoughts on this. It makes me sound a little annoying (smiles gently) sharing this makes me sound a little annoying …

butI have never done things that I think I might fail at. Ahaha. I guess I make decisions that I have a plan for and some degree of confidence in. ‘Ah, I’m not so sure about this though? I’m not that confident though?’ For ‘me’ as a person, I’m always indecisive and feeling unsure, but as a producer I’ll just say it. If it’s something that people might not give attention to, I wouldn’t even release it in the first place.

Uhhurhurhurhur.

I think I have trusted my intuition so far.

Q37. Does ‘Pieces’ feel like (a baby) you carried inside you and gave birth to this time as well?

I’m not that noble, in fact… (laughs)

I think these songs might actually be the opposite of that concept?

(T/L note: IU always treats her albums like babies she kept to herself that are finally born into this world, but Pieces is a collection of unreleased songs over the years that didn’t make it into IU’s albums.)

Epilogue

As I was doing this interview and as we filmed this documentary over the past 2 months that can be considered short or long depending on your perspective…

Through this documentary, I really wanted to show every~~thing, I wanted to show who I am much more clearly, but I thought to myself, ‘Eventually, this will be a piece of me too.’

In a good way, a meaningful way.

It’s really difficult to define who I am by just putting all of me into one spot and saying, ‘This is me!!!’ and I thought that in future too, ‘That’s going to be tough.’

As I was preparing the ‘Pieces’ album and giving pieces of myself like hints about me, even though I have given my fans the bigger pieces so far, without these pieces, it (T/L note: the full picture) would not be complete, which I am trying to convey through my music and this documentary, so I thought, ‘In many ways, doing this really suits the meaning of ‘Pieces’’. That’s why I wanted to say that, even if it’s not today, someday…

All the interview translations collated

Q1-29:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/679708931196649472

Q30-37:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/680648208596205568

Translated by squishy_blob, ChoMin80, yule, jjanghimi, wellstrong_, jieunspoetry, 4seasonswithIU, and forenexiaoseo

Edited by IUteamstarcandy

Please take out full and proper credits, thank you!

[TRANS] IU Documentary ‘Pieces: Winter of a 29 Year Old’ - Interview excerpts (Q1-29)

All the interview translations collated

Q1-29:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/679708931196649472

Q30-37:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/680648208596205568

Q1. Reason you decided to release this album

This was planned since the beginning of the year and these are songs that all my fans know.

My fans know them whether as one phrase or as the whole song and have always requested for the songs to be released.

It has been 10 years since I kept a song like ‘Drama’ to myself without releasing it.

So at age 30, before I move on to my 30s, would this be considered as brushing off all my experimental songs from my 20s?

I have decided to release this album as a gift for the fans and a new beginning of my musical endeavours.

Q2. ‘Pieces’ Album Introduction

Pieces between my images that I continuously portrayed through my music and revealed publicly?

It was made of pieces that were not released nor bothered to be released and that was why it was named ‘Pieces’.

Q3. ‘Pieces’ Song Introduction

The initial songs are ‘Drama’ and ‘You’, which I wrote around the age of 20 and 24, respectively, and ‘Next Stop’ is a song that started at 25 and finished at 26.

‘Winter Sleep’ and ‘Love Letter’ were also in my late twenties, around 27~28. There are many songs that I would start and take up to a year to finish.

Take ‘Next Stop’ from my mid-20s and ‘Winter Sleep’ and ‘Love Letter’ from my late 20s as songs that I have never planned to release because as I said, they are experimental and thus, took a long time to finish too.

Q4. What was different from the previous album preparation process?

I was a little less pressured… because they have already been released to the fans little by little.

In fact, I usually feel so much pressure about ‘how will fans react to this song?’.

However,there wasn’t much uncertainty since ‘Pieces’ was solely composed with only the fans in mind and these songs are already well-liked by the fans.

I can’t help but be mindful of chart performance while making albums.

I can’t help but think about album sales or what kind of response it will get from music sites as a producer, but since this album was composed that way (with only the fans in mind) from the start, it was definitely different from other albums.

Q5. The meaning behind the tracklist order in Pieces’?

The tracklist order is decided under the presumption that people will listen to the album as a whole. The structure (introduction, development, turn and conclusion) of the album is decided with the feeling of ‘as a listener, I am listening to an entire book’, but first and foremost the beginning is really important.

Deciding what song to place as track no. 1 is an important point both strategy-wise and in terms of how I want to tell my story, but this way or that way, we started off with ‘Drama’ which many fans were waiting for the most.

The song itself has a really nice feel and I believe that it is the song that holds the theme of what I wanted to show through this album the most.

I had always shared with fans the story behind why this song was not being released for such a long time and with the thought that simply including ‘Drama’ alone would be meaningful enough for fans to have this album, I thought that it should be placed as the first track. Subsequently, track no. 2 would be the stories that would be most emphasized and the songs that I believe people would listen to the most would usually be placed as track no. 2 and no. 3. That’s why ‘Next Stop’ and ‘Winter Sleep’ were placed in that order, then the order of the following songs, ‘Love Letter’ and ‘You’, was decided more comfortably and that is the basis upon which the tracklist order of the album was decided.

Q6. How did the word ‘Pieces’ come about?

It was just an idea that came to me suddenly, but I thought, “Why don’t we just go with ‘소품집’ (Etudes - musical term for a small collection of pieces)?” However, this title felt a little too simple? It’s a commonly used expression, so ‘조각집’ (Pieces) came about as we were thinking “Isn’t there anything a little different?”. (T/L note: Inside the ‘Pieces’ documentary, the song introductions clipped inside is titled “IU’s 소품집” which is the original working title for this album.)

Of course, these songs are all very precious, hold good memories and are very dear to me, however, there were reasons why I couldn’t put them in official albums and so I thought instead of a complete picture, it felt more right to me that they were small pieces of that picture.

So when you put these pieces together, and gather these five songs together, it becomes a rather (complete) picture?

Meaning-wise, these songs are a bit different from the songs I would put on an album.

So I felt that if it was called ‘Pieces’ then what I wanted to say would become clearer, and that was how it was decided.

Q7. The reason why ‘Drama’ release was delayed

I don’t think there was an album that ‘Drama’ could fit in. I always tried to do so, but it was a song I made at the age of 20, kind of a song I made for fun and even compared to the other self-composed songs in this album, the emotions and vibe are a little different.

However, fans liked the song a lot and there were a lot of people who would request the song during en-encore at every concert. That is why even though I promised that I would release it someday, ultimately from the standpoint of a producer I would feel that putting this song into an album would be kind of forcing it too much, when considering the big picture I was trying to create and due to this reason, I would keep saying ‘next time, next time’ and the release eventually kept getting delayed.

Q8. Looking only at the lyrics of ‘Drama’ , I feel it would be believable if you said that the current IU at the brink of turning 30 wrote them.

I do think that is possible. The lyrics don’t quite have the vibe of a twenty year old.

The vibe of the song is like a children’s song, bright and sung cheerfully without too much technique. Although the vibe itself is like this, the lyrics show a bit more maturity. I borrowed the concept of a drama, but because I personally wrote the lyrics as if an old-aged actor were painting a picture, the content of the song does seem more fitting for a 30 year old than a 20 year old and yet even more so for a 40 year old than a 30 year old.

Q9. Your thoughts on singing ‘Drama’ as you wrapped up your twenties?

My voice was a bit different. Back then, I was actually younger; the concept of singing it like a children’s song was not awkward, and I remember singing it without that much effort. Of course, though I did sing this song at every concert as I got older year by year, because recordings and live performances are completely different fields, grasping the feeling to sing the song with detail and move forward with the directing was harder compared to the other songs. The thought that “I’ve reached the point where expressing the simplicity that only comes from the innocent-like times of the younger self now requires some thinking” made it a bit difficult, and because my voice itself has aged since then, I thought, “Is it a little awkward to sing it like a children’s song?” Though these may be my own thoughts… That’s why I sang less cheerfully compared to then.

Q10. The atmosphere during the recording was so nice

I often vibe with the atmosphere of the song I’m singing at the moment. When I sing a sad song, I tend to completely turn off the lights and focus quietly. When singing a fun song, I also tend to express (the song) by dancing and making myself feel good. Isn’t this the only bright song out of the five songs I participated in this time? I purposely did it more excitedly, and I actually felt a lot better.

Q11. You played the recorder (musical instrument) yourself

I was very satisfied with (how the sound turned out with) the recorder. (laughs)

“Ah~ If I learnt the recorder professionally, I could probably do it? I’m so satisfied with the sound?” I had such thoughts.

Q12. When you were recording ‘Next Stop,’ did you think of Jian as you sang?

I did not do that this time. Back then, I had thought about singing it that way if this theme, this song, actually were to be used in the drama, but as (those plans) unfortunately fell through, I thought about the 25, 26-year-old me at the time as I sang.

Of course, although there is also Jian in that piece, to say that this is only the theme of Jian is a bit different; it’s just my sentiments. From there, the song was concluded through Jian.

Q13. Your emotions back then when working on ‘Next Stop’

Actually, I can’t really remember clearly. Most of the songs on this album are like that. Since they are not songs that I wrote recently, but songs that I wrote as long as 10 years ago, I don’t recall exactly what kind of feelings I had when I wrote it, but for ‘Next Stop’, I remember that the melody probably came before the lyrics.

I think it was like “Ah!!”

Back then, I enjoyed taking the bus and travelling around alone.

I simply enjoyed taking the bus by myself to the Gwanghwamun area for a walk before returning home.

But I didn’t have a specific destination in mind when I boarded the bus back then.

I just felt stuffy and wanted to go for a walk, so I left my house, but it was like a tour without deciding in advance where I would be alighting.

As I thought to myself, “Where shall I alight? Where shall I alight?” I ended up not getting off the bus.

“Would there be a better destination that I prefer?”

“Rather than this place, would there be another place that suits me better?”

It’s a song that contains these emotions in a one-dimensional manner.

However, figuratively speaking, ‘Next Station’ is not just about a bus stop or train station, as it also refers to my feelings about my own life of ‘when will I get used to and accept the fact that right now where I am is where I should be in my life?’

I recall that the key to the lyrics is that I started writing upon receiving inspiration on a day when my twenty-five-year-old self took a bus and couldn’t decide where to alight.

Q14. What does ‘Next Station’ mean?

Destination, I guess? About what I should decide as my direction in life.

Actually, I think it’s not something that you come to realise with age, but that you keep thinking about over and over again. It’s a song about how lost and troubled I feel, because even though it’s been 4-5 years, I think I still haven’t decided on my destination and wonder about ‘the place I want to alight’, ‘the place I want to end up eventually’ and ‘the place I want to settle down in my life’.

Q15. Are you still as troubled as ever about where to alight?

That’s right. I’m not sure where that would be. I wonder, ‘Would I really find a clear answer to that in my lifetime?’

Q16. ‘Winter Sleep’ is an undisclosed song?

This is probably the song that fans have the least information about. As far as I can remember, I do recall singing a verse from the song when my fans asked me to sing one of my self-compositions on the spot at a fanmeeting after Hotel Del Luna ended in 2018. (T/L note: It should be IU’s 11th Debut Anniversary in 2019 instead.)

That was the first and last piece of information to them, but there was actually another hint for this song in an IU merchandise that came out this year (2021).

The first page (of the merch) reads, ‘a stalk of spring, a cup of summer, a page of autumn, a breath of winter.’ They would be using the diary (merch) throughout the year, so I thought this would be a crucial mediator between the people who received the diary and the year that they’d be spending. So I jotted down and revealed what the four seasons mean to me, and what a year means to me through the merchandise, and that was the hint for ‘Winter Sleep’ and the expressions used in the lyrics.

But fortunately, (my fans) liked it a lot, though they obviously wouldn’t be able to link it to ‘Winter Sleep’…

Perhaps they will find out when the song is released?

Q17. Introducing the song ‘Winter Sleep’

When I first started writing, the song was about death. And it still was when I finished.

At that time, I wanted to depict myself not being able to accept that someone precious to me passed away, that they were gone from this world – I wanted to describe myself trying hard to remember them, imagining as if they were by my side.

In that one year after their death – the spring, summer, autumn, winter… As if I were telling a story to this friend, the one who passed…

“You can’t see them, but I’ve left in front of your room a bouquet of spring that hasn’t bloomed yet, a cup of summer that I’ve poured, a page of autumn that I’ve torn out, and a breath of winter infused with my true desire to see you.” It could be seen as me rambling endlessly about how much I miss them, yet sending them a message, “I’m okay,” and it could also be a story letting them know, “I miss you.”

It’s not about someone’s absence, that someone is no longer here - it’s more like what someone would feel if their pet crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

And I wrote with the thought, “Wouldn’t the family and friends of the deceased, who left so abruptly, accept their death in this way?”

They could be sad endlessly and be completely broken (by their death), but the song is imbued with the idea, “I’ve lived the 1 year, the 12 months, without you…with you.” as I thought, “Isn’t it possible for them to spend (the one year after the death) like that?”

Q18. The reason behind the title of the song ‘You’

Because I hadn’t planned on releasing this song either (laughing), I don’t think I put much effort into coming up with a title.

But the fans also showed so much affection for the song during fanmeetings that it deserved a title.

It’s a song with a lot of fortune.

And it gained fame as well.

Q19. When do you come up with song titles or album names?

There are songs like ‘Next Stop’ that I tend to think, “Can another title even exist for this song?” and thus decide on the title right away. But there are also songs like ‘Through the Night’ that I came up with the title extremely late. ‘Love Letter’ is also one of those songs, having come up with the title late after agonizing over it. It’s different from song to song.

Q20. The reason behind using friends as motifs when writing songs

It just comes naturally to me. I think if there’s something or someone that I have affection for, I can come up with a story about it naturally as well. Of course, I’ve also realized that when preparing a full-length album with dozens of songs, ‘it would be impossible to work as a lyricist if I wrote the lyrics based on only themes that came to me naturally’.

So I do use lines that didn’t find me naturally but are still good lines - the lines that I instead had to (actively) find in advance. That being said, it’s much better to write a song for someone I love, since it finds me so easily.

It’s easy to be written, it’s easy to be sung, and it’s easy to be attached to it.

Love has always been an inspiration for me.

Q21. What is the difference between words that find you and words that you find?

By “words that find me,” I mean something like, “I never used these words but they came to me?” There really are cases of this happening from time to time.

The time that I really felt, “It’s really fascinating. This moment.” was from the lyrics of ‘Through the Night’, when I wondered if these words were really inside me the entire time. They came to me on their own in one sudden moment, and even found a spot inside me. And I thought, “I finished writing a verse, just like that?”

After those were words that had trouble finding me, but these were the words that came in bulk. It was a moment where I thought, “How could these many lines come to me in such a short span of time…” There are also a lot of times when a sentence or a few words, not as long as full lines, suddenly find me. Most of the songs in this album were created this way.

On the other hand, I have to (actively) find words half of the time. This usually takes an extremely long time. I make space for the lyrics before the words come to me. I then bring the words that can roughly fit into these spaces and try placing them here and there.

Q22. The meaning behind “Love Letter”, the song you initially gave to another singer?

It’s not my story, but I have written the song rather like a drama or fictional novel. At the time (of writing the lyrics), it was a story of an old couple, I guess. (The song) is about telling one side to not be sad when the other side leaves this world. That’s why I wrote it in 하오 style (T/L Note: The lyrics are written in an older form of speech with word-endings that are not often used colloquially, e.g., 다오 Da-o and 하오 ha-o). It’s about an old couple, so I purposely made it a little obvious (through the form of speech used). Along with talking about the most dazzling moments in life that are prominent enough (for one) to put a bookmark in between, I wrote the song thinking, ‘I hope you won’t be sad thinking about me just because I left, for you have these memories (with me). Instead, I ask you to smile as you recall the memories, and remember me that way.’

Q23. You sang “Love Letter” again.

It is a song I am very attached to. Although all five of them are songs that I feel particularly (attached to), this song is very dear to me, it’s also like a child still not all grown up (and thus I can’t help but care for more).

Seunghwan sang it really well. But it was presented in a totally different mood with a different arrangement and bpm (beats per min). Not to mention I think Seunghwan’s interpretation (of how the song should be delivered) itself is very different from my version. (His version is) way more modern and sophisticated. I liked (the song) because it sounded very different from the guide version that I sent to him, so I thought, ‘Ah, this is interesting.’ It was the first time I gave my (self-composed) song to another singer, to a vocalist I have faith in, and it was nice coming to realize how much a vocalist’s interpretation adds to the color/ style of a song.

From there, it crossed my mind that perhaps if I release my version, ‘it could also come across as completely different even though they’re the same song?’. I thought perhaps if you listen to ‘Love Letter’ from Seunghwan’s perspective and another version from my perspective like a set, you’ll somehow find them identical, yet different (at the same time) even though they’re conveying the same story. I sang (Love Letter) thinking, ‘I hope that my version would be accounted for the completion of this song too.’

Q24. IU’s 20 years old

Truthfully, it was such an age that made me upset because it was utterly meaningless.

I mean, isn’t there something special about (being or becoming) 20 when you’re still in your 10s? It is a symbolic age (marking adulthood), too.

So I was looking forward to being 20, but nothing in particular happened as expected.

Back then, I was also much gloomier, and much socially inept compared to now. So I remember being a little disappointed over the fact that ‘my life won’t magically become more interesting or different all of a sudden just because I’ve turned twenty.’

But then again, I also remember getting this type of question a lot at that time.

Since I couldn’t answer it (honestly) like this, I made up answers like ‘I’m so happy, so excited (about being 20)’, and which I think kind of made me feel guilty back then.

Q25. Your twenties were occupied with work, any regrets?

Honestly, there aren’t many. It does occur to me that I should have hung around more often when I was younger, but again, I always (shut down this kind of thoughts) and come to conclusions like ‘but you hate hanging around though’ / ‘right, yeah’. I bet even if I had the opportunity, I wouldn’t have been excited about it too.

Cause I don’t really like to hang around.. both then and now.

If I didn’t (occupy myself with) work, I would just be lolling around at home all the time, so I’m happy that I did well and spent my time more productively compared to that. Cause it’s always good to work hard. That is why I would say rather than regrets, I thought, ‘ah, I guess I’ll be able to live more comfortably in my 30s given how hard I’ve worked in my 20s’ and I feel grateful too. To me, who has led a diligent life in my 20s.

I find working most fun. Among all the stuff I could do. I’ve been told by my acquaintances who have observed me that I’m the type of person who can’t stand sitting still and not working. ‘You really can’t stay still when you’re not working, and when you’re told to rest, you just sit there and start thinking about work, making plans and sorts’, I got these kinds of comments a lot. I don’t think it would be any different even if I were to go back to being 20 years old (now).

Even though 10 years have passed, the components (pieces) that make up the 20-year-old me and 30-year-old me haven’t changed much. I still dislike going out, so do I dislike being in crowded places. Eventually, if I’m given all that time again, wouldn’t I just end up working again?

Q26. A song that represents IU’s 20s?

If I were to pick a song that represents my 20s (trying hard to decide)

This again depends on what the criteria is, but a song that I definitely would have to be included would be ‘Friday’.

‘Through the Night’… would 10 songs be too many?

Later on, I might be like, ‘I need to include this song too!’ and the list would get longer,

but right now the songs that come to my mind would be ‘Friday’, ‘Through the Night’, ‘Palette’, ‘Twenty-three’, umm… then ‘Full Stop’.

‘Knees’and‘Heart’ can make it too, right?

‘Celebrity’, ‘Epilogue’, ‘Dear Name’ would make 10 songs in total.

Q27. The reason you control everything?

It’s because I know player IU best (T/L note: ‘player’ refers to IU as someone being controlled in the ‘game’ of the entertainment industry), since I decided that I’m the best person to control her moves, I’m also the best at making use of myself in multiple ways, that’s why I have continued to take on the role of producer.

In my 30s, I’m thinking of letting someone else do the producing for me.

I feel that I’ve sufficiently done what I want to do in my 20s.

It would be refreshing to receive directing for an interesting project for a change.

Q28. Don’t you worry that you will lose your objectivity?

I’m not sure what I’ll be like right away next year, but for almost 15 years of my career, that’s something I am confident about. I’m good at being objective about myself. I don’t get excited about useless words, I don’t get hurt by useless words either and I think I’ve done a fine job with that so far. In this world, right now among the people in my life, I feel, ‘I know myself best’ and that ‘I know myself well career-wise’. And eventually it worked on me (laughs) so I think I made the right decision

(T/L note: IU means the mindset that she knows herself best worked on her because it kept her objective).

Q29. What is the reason behind you being thoroughly objective about yourself?

I think I have always been like that from a young age.

When I was young and even before I started this career…

It just seemed to be accurate all the time.

I tend to be accurate about my judgement of myself.

Just that when I was young, I was stricter (T/L note: in judging myself) and now less so.

I think my parents gave it to me.

All the interview translations collated

Q1-29:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/679708931196649472

Q30-37:https://iu-jjang.tumblr.com/post/680648208596205568

Translated by squishy_blob, ChoMin80, yule, jjanghimi, wellstrong_, jieunspoetry, 4seasonswithIU, and forenexiaoseo

Edited by IUteamstarcandy

Please take out full and proper credits, thank you!

IU Documentary ‘Pieces: Winter of a 29 Year Old’ - Secret Letter

Uaenas are the most central puzzle piece in my life :)

I will always keep a place there for uaenas

- Jieun

Note: There is only ONE version of the secret letter.

Éric Rohmer. Une étudiante d’aujourd’hui. France, 1966.