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Q: I wonder if you set yourself limits regarding violence on the screen? The reason I ask is because when I recently met Mr. Roger Corman, now around 85 years old, who made such bloody films as ‘valentines day massacre’. He told me that he thought violence has now reached the point of obscenity and that there should be a label similar to pornography regarding violence. Is it something which you are cautious about when you shoot? What is your view on too much violence in a movie?

I’m much familiar with Roger Corman’s work and I read his autobiography. I would like to ask you if he ever mentioned that his own work is violent to the point of obscenity?

No, no, he said that the actual movies have become so violent that they are nearly unwatchable and the violence has reached the point of obscenity. He said something like ‘if you cut off one arm piece by piece what else can you cut with all this blood’. In his generation the violence was softer in a way, but I just wonder if you are worried about the violence? Do you limit it, do you try respect some limits or not at all? Are there things you are not ready to show?

For all the members of the audience here today who have come to see me, I believe you are all great academics, but I would like to say that I am not - I am more closer to being a businessman and in one of the lines from Roger Corman’s autobiography he says that every 15 minutes in a movie there has to be some nudity and I follow that in my own work.

[In English] Truly!

However I am always cautious when it comes to violence in my own movies. If you look at my trilogy, especially ‘A good Lawyer’s wife’ there is a lot of nudity in it am my official stand point is that I don’t put in a lot of nudity and sex scenes just to sell, although I won’t deny that at all. I think a great artist has a way of producing a movie that shows a lot of sex which sells but does it in a subtle manner which doesn’t show deliberate intentions quite so clearly.

If you look at the movie ‘Gladiator’ directed by Ridley Scott, there is a scene where Russell Crowe is fighting in Rome at the coliseum and he shouts to the audience ‘do you want to see more, do you want more’. That scene electrified me and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, because its almost as if Ridley Scott is saying and asking the audience ‘do you want to see more violence’ although its quite an obvious question. It reflects the fierce competition and the harsh workplace that directors have today and although Ridley Scott is much hated or disliked by critics at international film festivals I think he is a great director in his won right.

[laughs] Rather than all the great directors who get invited to international film festivals, where they don’t receive any money, I’d rather be Ridley Scott earning a lot.

Q: Which film makers both international and Korean have influenced you the most and which do you admire the most?

Imamura Shohei

But why?

If you see his movies, I’m sure you’ll see why. As a director I don’t actually see or watch a lot of movies, but when I do watch his, I always get the feeling ‘oh no, he’s done what I wanted to do.’ He’s a Japanese director who has won the Palme D’Or twice in the Cannes Film Festival but he’s not widely watched, so I guess I just have to go forward with my own ideas.

Q: Could you tell us a bit more about your current French project?

[English] It’s about an Asian woman who lives in Paris a very long time so she is almost Parisian. She can speak French fluently, but you know, as an Asian woman, it’s very hard to survive by herself – there is no family background or nothing. Normally in that situation, she is to be taken advantage by French boys. In my film she takes advantage of many kinds of French boys. She is a ‘bad boy’. She had many boyfriends – white, black, Asian, Mahgreb, and she survives. It’s going to be a very erotic comedy, but still it has some racial, political provocation in there.

Who is the star?

[English] I didn’t finish the script yet, but I need some gorgeous Asian actress who can speak French. How about Maggie Cheung? [laughs]

What is the specific nationality of the actress to be in the movie?

Either Korean or Chinese. It’s a natural choice for me to pick a Korean movie star, although the French producers are saying that they will cover the cost if it’s a Chinese actress, so it’s all a delicate financial matter.

Would you consider casting Jeon JiHyun?

[English] No Way!

[Untranslated Question]

[English] I cannot speak French, but I try to make French film. It’s kind of crazy, but I have to. You know what? [Korean] I need to make this French movie and I am making it in French dialogue, but you don’t see American or English directors coming to Asia and making Chinese movies in Chinese dialogue. So why do directors like myself go out and make these international movies? Well, that’s because the West is the centre of the world today, they have the most political power, they’ve got the most money and the biggest market. You can appraise that, but that’s the harsh reality of today.

My favourite Japanese director that I’ve mentioned Imamura Shohei, he lived in Japan all his life and never probably thought of making and international movie abroad. That can be said for the Korean director Im Kwon-Taek as well, but times have changed since and people who have learned their work like myself feel the need to go abroad and make an international film.

My intentions to make more international movie is if the French project is successful. The intentions are such as, given that the audience today you all enjoy Asian cinema, and this is because of the distribution in Paris and London. That only targets a very small market, a niche in Asian cinema, so if I was to make a French speaking movie with French producers the same as another French director I can fight head on and compare myself and can see who does better.

If you look at some of the projects that have gone before and compare it to my French adventure from now on, you have ‘The Flight of the Red Balloon’, but I am not too worried about any comparisons because the director was watched by very few people at home or abroad anyway. In terms of ‘Blueberry Nights’ by Wong Kar Wai, he had very disappointing results and I can just state that I think he’s overrated anyway. I believe that he is at a stage in his life where he has passed his peak in directing and just happened to make a film internationally and it wasn’t really a striving for a greater public anyway. If you look at Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, he went to France to make another movie and then you can see from his work that it seemed to lose some of its intensity and appeal. That’s a risk for any director who works abroad and out of his own comfort zone and that same risk applies to me but I am not scared of this opportunity and challenge.

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