London Korean Links

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Q: Now that you are living in Europe, I wonder if you have been surprised or perhaps amused by the distinction and separation between art house movies, reserved for intelligent intellectuals, and commercial movies? In Korean cinema we don’t seem to have that same sense of separation – it seems to confuse it all.

That’s a very interesting question, one of the ones that I like.

Anyone who has the thought ‘I want to be a movie director or a movie producer’ I would believe will all universally think ‘I want my movie to be in the Cannes film festival’. One of the jury at the Cannes festival called Thierry Fremaux I met a few times and we talked about my movie a few times. He is apparently, well in my own interpretation, confused whether my movie is an art-house movie or a commercial movie, because the Cannes film festival tends to invite more art-house movies. I thoroughly enjoyed his confusion over this matter although one day I would like to be invited as well.

The various Film Festivals – Cannes, Berlin and Venice – looking at the history of their preferences and the directors there. Historically they tend to be non-mainstream, quite academic and quite serious and artistically speaking my movies rebel against this stereotype or their preference. I don’t necessarily want to make films that they enjoy.

Q: In your two clearly political films, or the films that have a political theme ‘The President’s Last Bang’ and ‘The Old Garden’ – it seems that the foreign presence is relatively muted and is very much in the background. Is it fair to take that as a sign of your focusing and dealing with issues, in the first instance, to deal with contemporary Korean society and to persuade Koreans to take a more serious look, or do you think there is an opportunity to talk about the role of foreign involvement in some of these political tragedies? Do you see your later work as dealing with that type of theme – how foreign powers may have contributed to some of the events depicted in the films?

You mentioned two movies and I would like to add the third one which was made prior to both of them ‘A Good Lawyer’s Wife’ and those three are commonly known as the trilogy of looking at Korean’s modern history. The main reason why I make these movies is that Korea has undergone extremely rapid financial growth, economic growth as well as striving for democracy in a very short period of time and Korean people tend to have the characteristic of keep running ahead and not looking back. Despite achieving this phenomenal growth in economics and political democracy we are still not happy - to find out why and look for solutions I believe that we need to look back and these are the three movies that I have approached politically.

As you said, foreigners take an interest in Korean society and they must have their reasons for it. I was born in Korea and have lived there all my life and I have deep deep curiosity and interest in how the world is run and the state of affairs in the world, but I’m not too sure whether I can say a lot about my own country. Like I said, I am very interested in the international state of affairs and looking at 9/11 in New York and 7/7 in London I believe the world has changed somewhat and I feel that there is a need to make a statement on such changes. Although this might be politically incorrect I feel that there have been a lot of comments from the western community and they may hold less weight in the international community. I feel that any observations or statements from non western or white communities might be much more appreciated and that’s the goal of my next French product.

Q: You mentioned there was not enough input from non-western, non-white community, but isn’t there a lot of input from the Middle Eastern community?

That’s a very interesting comment. If you refer to 9/11 and 7/7 it almost sounds as if only the western white community and the Middle Eastern community are allowed to make a statement of such change and advance. My perspective and my role of making this movie are that I am just one citizen in the international globe.

When the world goes through such drastic changes in such as 9/11 and 7/7 everyone can have their say, but politically the white western community has the most power to make a statement and overcoming such difficulties and prejudices if you can just bear in mind there are other communities who can make a statement also.

Q: Do you think that Korean blockbuster movies with lots of CGI in them like ‘D-war’ help or damage Korean cinema?

If you look at the movie you mentioned, commercially speaking, the profit margins had an extra two zero’s at the end compared to my own movies. I continually finance my own movies or make my own movies despite making losses from time to time because diversity is always a good thing. I am grateful that there are different types of movies out there – if you imagine a world with only my movies people would be fed up and irritated and have a headache.

I have no intentions of watching ‘D-war’.

Q: I noticed when he was speaking earlier, there was a sense of pathos that the contemporary Korean movies don’t actually show much of Korea’s heritage in them. I also see from the two I have seen like ‘The President’s Last Bang’ the heritage doesn’t come through. We see the Korean characters, but they could just as well be a Japanese character or African characters or French Characters. I don’t see too much of the heritage. In many cases when one wants to see a film from another part of the world you want to see what made them what they are now in the film. Is it a deliberate thing that you left that out so that you can appeal to the global community?

You mentioned that you could see the film with French or other International characters in them, and I would just like to say that ‘The President’s Last Bang’ was actually based on a true story and I tried to strictly adhere to the facts given. I am deeply Korean sense as I have lived there all my life, and if you felt that the film didn’t appeal to you as specifically Korean but you could see similarities then possibly there was more to do with universal humanity and the way we live – does that answer your question?

It does, I did see some elements where I think the matriarch of the family was speaking with the sons, but you could see the respect coming through. It’s difficult to say obviously, for films nowadays you have to be aware it’s not strictly going to be Korean people who will be watching it. Others will be watching the films and making a judgement about ‘oh is this how a Korean family is.’ How much of that shows through in your work? I know that it was based on a true story but none the less, an international community will be forming opinions about Korean heritage from the film. How conscious of this are you when making these films?

I can’t give you a logical straightforward answer to your question but can state three facts roughly. Firstly, with ‘The President’s Last Bang’ I can say that the international community have embraced and praised the movie much more than the Korean audience did. Secondly, that most of my movies dealing with Korea in general are much more embraced by the international community and thirdly, because I’ve always known that I would work internationally and deal with an international audience, perhaps that’s shown through in my movies.

Why do you think the international community is the more receptive to those particular films – is it because the political issues are too sensitive to be shown?

My movies ‘The President’s Last Bang’ and ‘The Old Garden’ are dealing Korea’s modern history and politics they are uncomfortable for the Korean audience to watch as you are confronting them with facts that they don’t want to see. The audience’s responses can be full of hatred or complete avoidance of the movie which I am aware of, whereas the international community are devoid of that kind of characteristics and embrace my movies much more.

In terms of saying the word international community you can divide that word into critics or international juries at film festivals. If you take the different classes of people in that community and their roles in the international community do you think that reflects the preferences for your films and embracing of your films?

Look at the audience today and look at the people who attend such events. Are you upper class? Extremely academic? Or noble backgrounds? Or are you here because you just enjoy his movies?

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