[Subsuda] "Let me live"... 'Demaca' Park Yu-rim's words of comfort

"What can I do? We have to live again. Uncle Vanya, let us live. We live through long long days and long long nights. Endure the trials of fate and even if there is no peace of mind, even at this moment, even after we get older Let us work for people, and one day we will die peacefully when the end comes. And go to another world and tell us that we suffered. We cried. We were tormented. Then God will be kind to us. And you and I are bright and wonderful and dreamy. Then we will be able to smile with joy and look back at our misery now. So at last we will be able to rest in peace. I believe so. I believe with a fervent heart. When that time comes, we can rest in peace. There will be. You will be able to rest in peace."

- From the play 'Uncle Vanya' in 'Drive My Car' -

Was the word 'live' such a beautiful and powerful word?

The verb, which was nothing more than a typeface, came to life and pierced his chest.

After looking into the deeply wounded lives of Gafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Misaki (Toko Miura), this line met with a strong resonance and decorated the end of the play and the movie.

A language full of determination and determination was not a word.

It was a gesture and a gesture that reflected the mind.

Park Yu-rim, who appeared on the stage in the movie, as Yuna and Sonya, delivered the message to Una Banya, Gafuku, and Misaki in sign language, 'Let us live'.

Most people don't know sign language.

But for that moment, it was not a language of understanding or interpretation.

It was a gesture of sympathy.

Audiences who saw this movie were definitely comforted.

'Drive My Car', directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, tells the story of a director and actor 'Gafuku' (Hidetoshi Nishijima), who has a scar on his dead wife, and his exclusive driver 'Misaki' (Toko Miura) and recovers his life. Green movie.

Starting with winning the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival last year, the film, which has been relaying awards all over the world, has been spotlighted by receiving the International Feature Film Award (Foreign Language Film) at the American Academy Awards held in March.

Korean actors Park Yu-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, and Ahn Hwi-tae also appeared in this film directed by a Japanese director and starring Japanese actors.

The most striking actor is Park Yu-rim, who appeared from the middle of the film and delivered a message that penetrated the film through sign language acting.

Park Yu-rim is an actress who plays sign language, 'Yuna'.

The image and acting in the movie were all the data we had about Park Yu-rim, so we couldn't know what kind of actor he was.

Park Yu-rim, who entered the interview room, was a person full of bright and cheerful energy.

She was also a hot actress, armed with her passion and unwavering faith in her acting.

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Park Yu- rim is an actress who is unknown except for her name.

The actor, who had no dreams until his late teens, said he enjoyed watching movies and dramas.

Then, suddenly, I had a thought.

'What kind of world is that world?'

This curiosity made Park Yu-rim step into the world of cinema.

He said, "When I watch a movie or a drama, the first thing that catches my eye is an actor, so I naturally became interested in acting. I want to learn, and as I learn, acting is fun. That's how I've come this far."

Although discovered by director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the newcomer has gone through a long preparation process.

She majored in acting in college and struggled for years to pursue her dream of becoming an actress.

Like any rookie, he knocked on the audition door many times, but he wasn't given many opportunities due to his seemingly ordinary appearance and hidden charm.

“The number of auditions is relative, but I also experienced a lot of challenges and failures. I think I started auditioning in 2017 and fell for three years until I met this movie in 2020. I can say I've seen it. I've been rejected numerous times over the years, but it's okay. I think it was a process to meet this film."

It was a repetition of the process of fiercely challenging and adapting to the results.

Park Yu-rim, who remembered those times, said, "In the beginning, I had a vague mind that 'it will be someday', but later I cried a lot. Giving up requires courage, but I don't think I had the courage to do that. He said, "I gave a lot of support at the show. Even though I didn't show anything, my family and friends constantly said 'I can do it' and 'I'll do it'. It gave me strength."

Even though he calls himself a 'obsessive person', he says, "I'm not unreasonably stubborn. I'm only obsessed with what I really want and am sure of. I push without listening, and if I'm not sure, I tend to listen a lot to the people around me."

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Park Yu-rim auditioned three times to win the role of 'Yuna'.

The first round was an online video audition, the second was a face-to-face audition, and the final audition was held in the form of matching her acting breath with her partner Jin Dae-yeon.

In the case of the first audition, it was not easy because it was an audition held while looking at a laptop monitor rather than making eye contact with the director.

Park Yu-rim said she practiced by pasting pictures of him in her room to build her inner affinity with director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, she said.

“I think I had the first audition around February 2020. Yuna gave me the script of the scene where she was auditioning for ‘Uncle Vanya’ and asked her to read the lines. At that time, I acted in words rather than sign language. I shared my thoughts on the project as if chatting with a close friend. Also, we talked for a long time about the life I had lived. I liked the feeling. After watching the first episode, I was looking forward to it.”

Director Hamaguchi said After moving to Korea, a face-to-face audition was held.

Park Yu-rim said, "It was terrifying to see director Hamaguchi in real life, but I liked it. At that time, he gave me the full screenplay and asked my thoughts on it. And he asked me to prepare sign language with any gesture. I tried it. For sign language acting, I found a sign language dictionary site and made it by combining each word from there."

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After the 3rd audition in which she and Jin Dae-yeon matched the acting ensemble, Park Yu-rim was notified.

It was the moment she found a ray of light through a long tunnel of darkness.

Filming was scheduled to begin in Busan two months later.

However, around that time, a large-scale confirmed case of Corona 19 occurred in Daegu, and the filming location was changed to Japan.

"I waited for contact while practicing in Korea. As time passed, I started to feel anxious, 'Isn't it possible?' I was so happy when I got the call." Park Yu-

rim learned sign language under the guidance of a professional teacher before filming 'Drive My Car'.

Even when she arrived in Japan, she continued to learn sign language with the help of her teacher.

Her goal was to learn sign language rather than memorize it.

Her appearance of Yuna in her play, showing her own acting calmly at her audition, was the 'embodied gesture' intended by Park Yu-rim.

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The acting direction of director Ryusuke Hamaguchi

The method that theater director Gafuku pursues in 'Drive My Car' is Hamaguchi's method.

It uses the method of putting the actors together and having them read the lines over and over without emotions.

"It's very special, but it's very special. I wasn't surprised because I knew the director's style. Even at the first audition, I asked, "Isn't Gafuku's style the director's style?" Of course, it was my job, so I didn’t have any doubts, and I think I had fun the whole time. At the same time, how would I act in front of the camera? How would I look? I think I continued reading with these questions.”

The 'experiment' mentioned by Park Yu-rim is a process that combines repeated script reading and improvisation from the field.

The actors' performances are usually achieved through repeated practice.

At this time, practice does not stop at reciting the lines written in the script, but contains breathing and emotions just like in real life.

However, in Hamaguchi's method, the lines are read over and over without emotion, and the acting is improvised in practice.

"It was good to feel the emotions of each moment differently than when I went prepared mentally. I thought of it as an 'impulse'. The process of feeling and acting on a certain impulse was fun. I just felt emotions and acted in it. When I was reading the script, I practiced without emotions, and it was nice and fun to act with emotions on the set. So I was always excited to go to the set. Just imagining it would happen was so good.”

Director Hamaguchi did most of the shooting in script order.

The amount of Park Yu-rim, who appears from the middle, was filmed over a period of about a week.

Due to the director's style, which emphasizes the first feelings of actors on set, there were not many filming takes.

There was no on-site monitoring process that an actor could necessarily do at a domestic film set.

"Only the camera director and the director monitored the film. He said that he didn't like actors seeing themselves on the camera in advance. I saw it as a movie, and it was trembling and scary. When my scene came out, I was so stiff and nervous that I remember watching it with my eyes wide open.”

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Park Yu-rim's appearance cannot be said to be long, but every scene in which she appears was impressive.

In particular, I was curious about the story behind the scene where Gafuku saw Yuna (Yurim Park) and Janice (Sonia Yuen) standing up and said, "Something has happened".

Did the actor who directly performed the performance that aroused the director's pleasure felt 'something'?

“It was a scene where all the other actors were sitting and just the two of us acting while standing. We had to really concentrate because we didn’t know how the other side would act. After that, I put on a facial expression. I think I had a lot of 'impulse' back then. I did a lot of reading, so there was no anxiety at all. Rather than that, I was more curious about how the other person would act."

Regarding the acting ensemble with Sonya Wien, Park Yu-rim said, "When the other person tossed something, it felt like I was receiving it and tossing it again. It was an exhilarating urge. Directing isn't complete freedom or complete control, but it has the effect of putting the actors at ease."

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What does the final scene of 'Uncle Vanya', which gave a great impression to the audience who saw 'Drive My Car', mean to Park Yu-rim?

"It was a line that gave me a lot of comfort. All the scenes were important and precious, but I wanted to share the lines with the people who would see the movie, not just me. Director, actors, staff, and the audience were also comforted. I also wanted to convey the feeling that ‘you worked hard.’ I’m so proud that the audience liked that line.”

Park Yu-rim, who finally finished all filming for this performance, said that she had heard from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, "I was lucky to be cast as Yuna."

“It seemed to have answered questions like ‘Why did the director cast me?’ and ‘Am I good at acting?’ I also had little confidence that I did a good job, but I think I got the answer from those words.”

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When asked what he thinks the charm of director Ryusuke Hamaguchi as a member of the film co-creator and audience, Park Yu-rim answered, "There is no answer."

“It gives me the feeling that what I think is right and what you feel is right. The director’s film doesn’t just end as a movie, but enters the audience’s life. Rather than trying to explain something clearly, it has the power to make each individual feel. I think that is the charm of Ryusuke Hamaguchi.”

“What kind of actor do you want to become?” Park Yu-rim thought for a moment and then said, “You were curious about me. I wish I could," he replied.

“Um… I want to meet the audience as a character who has the things I’m worried about. That’s what ‘Drive My Car’ was like. It was the first time I felt that I was able to meet my worries and emotions with the audience. I want to become an actor. I still want you to consider me a ‘curious actor

.