Outside of XO Kitty, Shin is stepping into short film territory with IDOLS, a 20-minute project she believes lands at an interesting cultural moment. With audiences growing increasingly burnt out on the rapid-fire pace of short-form social content, Shin sees a genuine appetite emerging for something with a little more room to breathe. She points to a growing curiosity among younger viewers toward short films specifically, and frames it as a natural reaction to the overstimulation of the scroll. For her, the short film format sits in a sweet spot, and she is optimistic that the format is experiencing a real resurgence.
Tesia Kuh: What was it like returning to XO, Kitty season 3?
Hojo Shin: Being part of a show like this, we call it like summer camp. We’re all like family, so in that aspect, you know, like filming and just getting to reunite with the crew, we would like to think that that gets translated into our work and on camera.
TK: How did you manage playing two different characters in your short film IDOL?
HS: Obviously, I think there are challenges that come with filming, you know, two characters, especially when they meet.
There was a lot of technicality involved, and I’m acting against myself, which is really a big challenge. So I wanted to make sure that I had a through line of their thought process down.
TK: IDOL addresses society’s pressure for perfection, can you relate?
HW: Given my job, just given the fact that I’m a woman, I think it would be a lie to say that I don’t deal with that myself. Also, my character Ji-won for XO, Kitty, um, in this new season, season three, she deals with a lot of that actually. I would say though, that perfectionism is one of the key words for her this season.
TK: How are short films evolving in the entertainment space?
HS: There’s like a camp of people who are saying that because we have been so exposed to those like short form reels, I’m talking about, you know, those like ten second, 15 second snippet videos. I read somewhere that more people are now wanting to just sit down and watch longer form. Our short is 20 minutes, so I think it sits somewhere in between that, um, which I think is why I’ve also heard that a lot of like the younger generation are showing a lot more interest in short films than like our generation, which is great to hear.
I think it might be because of the shift of like the dopamine, excessive dopamine that we get from just like a ten second video. They have their own charm, so I would like to believe that they’re having a little bit of a renaissance.
Watch the full interview here:
