His latest film may be romantic, but that doesnt mean hes done with extreme violence.
Decision to Leaveis in theaters now.
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Park Chan-wook knowshe has a reputation for shock.
When youre having a conversation, its not just about the definition of the words, he said.
Youre a Hitchcock fan.
Is it fair to say thatDecision to Leaveis yourVertigo?
The fear of heights doesnt really come fromVertigo it comes from my own fear of heights.
What is very similar is the two-part story structure where, in the second part, time has passed.
The man who was shattered reunites with the woman, who has now turned into someone totally different.
I realized that the structure itself is so cliche, so typical of noir films.
At the end of the day, youre bound by the genre.
But I do genuinely love Hitchcock.Vertigois the film that made me want to become a director.
It really felt like being sucked into a daydream.
When I was growing up, we didnt go to movie theaters a lot.
What I watched on TV at the time was mostly older French films or classic Hollywood movies.
Of the Hitchcock films, I remember my mother likingRebecca; she liked those romantic movies.
Meanwhile, we couldnt see a single Japanese film at the time they were banned by the government.
Obviously, films by Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and Mikio Naruse.
Youll discover new things as you grow older.
By the time you went to college, thepro-democracy movementwas under way, fueled by student activism.
Were you involved in the protests?
Were your friends?I didnt participate in it myself it didnt go well with my personality.
But I had a lot of friends who were involved.
There was freedom in finally speaking the words that were banned by the government, our slogans.
I felt this complex mix of emotions throughout college, as did everyone who grew up in my generation.
I was in charge of various tasks there, ranging from selecting films to designing posters.
Robert AltmansVincent & Theois one of the films I dealt with for work.
Arguably,Oldboywas the first film of yours to get more attention in the West.
A lot of people still say, Thats my favorite film.
But a lot of my other films have that kind ofextreme violenceas well, so I cant complain.
The octopus was the result of my search for the right expression of the characters loneliness and fatigue.
I had no idea it would become such a famous scene.
You never know what my next film will be.
It might be more violent thanOldboy.Who knows?
This was not me trying to say,Oh, I can make softer movies, too.
A lot of people and reviews have said that Tang Wei is playing the role of a femme fatale.
Id expected that response, which is why we needed part two of the story.
You graduate from the noir genre, and you move away from the male gaze as well.
We see scenes of her alone.
The woman is the one observing the man.
She would learn Korean by the book; she wouldnt pick up colloquial terms.
Would you say languages and language barriers are a particular interest of yours?
InDecision to Leave,there are complex elements that come out of the differences in language.
you’re free to tell shes desperate from her expression.
The audience may be curious but may not have the answer immediately.
Some may say this is a bad thing.
But Im the kind of person who would say this is a good thing.
I also heard a lot about how the film was quite long.
I loved the translation parts.The frustration the audience feels parallels how Hae-joon is feeling.
Seo-rae is so heated, and you really want to know what shes saying.
They get to experience a more active form of movie watching.
But still Im trying my best with awards campaigning.
All directors think of their work as their child.
Its just that I dont really have much to comment.
Im working as I have before.
Bong and Hwang are superb directors, and I respect them very much.
As for BTS, I met RM in person and he was a very intelligent man.
He told me he enjoyedDecision to Leave I think he said he watched it six times.
What was it like to find that out?
Did it affect your ability to get work made and seen?I was speechless.
But because a blacklist isnt public, its very hard to provide evidence for whats really going on.
The mechanism is discreet collusion.
He had these documentaries that hed applied for funding for and didnt get.
I assume this is also because he, like myself, leans more politically left.
But of course, we have no evidence to prove it.
Do you think film can be an effective vehicle for politics?I do.
Do you consider your films political?It depends on the work.Joint Security AreaandSympathy for Mr. Vengeanceare political films.
WhySympathy for Mr. Vengeance?Because it was a film that tackled class struggle.
Regardless of the country, I think any foreigner tends to feel small in their unfamiliar environment.
They sometimes feign even more confidence because they dont want to feel that way.
But all portrayals can have a political meaning behind them.
What do you think makes for a good political film?Every film obviously tells the story of individuals.
Yet the claims it makes should not be conveyed in words but in the plot and in cinematic form.
This is where the difference lies between a political film and propaganda.
Have your own politics evolved over the course of your life?
Looking back on those days, I feel disappointment and I question to myself what humanity really is.
But when you observe history in the long term, you will realize that the radicals have been right.
It is undeniable that their radical struggle is what led to the expansion of human rights today.
I believe in its power.
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