Won the Best Director Award at the just-concluded 75th Cannes Film Festival with "Resolve to Break Up"
Park Chan-wook: He made Korean films lauded again
South Korean director Park Chan-wook won the Jury Prize of the Cannes Film Festival twice with "Old Boy" in 2004 and "Bat" in 2009. At the 75th Cannes International Film Festival, which ended in the early morning of May 29, Beijing time, he once again won the Cannes Film Festival. "Resolve to Break Up" won the Best Director Award.
Foreign media commented that Park Zanyu turned the standard police and criminal detective film "Resolve to Break Up" into the most crazy romantic love movie this year, and for Park Zanyu, most of his crazy romance was given to the movie he loves.
In his acceptance speech, Park Chan-wook said that during the epidemic, the borders were closed, and it was difficult for everyone to communicate as in the past, and even feared.
The cinema is empty and the filmmakers are very sad.
But now everyone is slowly returning to the cinema. "There is nothing more joyful than this. We will overcome the virus. The filmmakers will continue to work hard to bring more audiences back to the cinema."
Tailored for Tang Wei, her graceful performance adds unpredictable tension to the film
The movie "Resolve to Break Up" tells a story between a criminal policeman and the deceased's wife. The criminal policeman Hai Jun went to the mountains to investigate a death incident and met Xu Lai, the wife of the deceased.
In getting along, Hai Jun's suspicion and concern for Xu Lai are growing day by day.
Xu Lai is Chinese and works as a nurse in South Korea to take care of the elderly.
As the wife of the deceased, Xu Lai's calm response made the experienced Haijun suspicious and put her on the list of suspects.
After the film was screened in Cannes, director Park Chan-wook said with a smile, "Thank you for watching my long, boring and old-fashioned story." Referring to the original intention of filming the film, Park Chan-woo said that he usually likes to watch police and gangster films, but The protagonists of these kinds of films are usually cops or detectives. "I love these kinds of films, but I always thought that the descriptions of the protagonists in these stories were so far from reality that they were either very tough and violent, or some kind of genius detective. I I've always wanted to see a cop movie where the detectives are like you and me, just like a normal person, being a police officer is just going to work and working in a normal way."
In addition, Park Chan-wook admires South Korean director Kim Soo-yong very much. Kim Soo-yong won the Best Director Award at the 14th Asian Film Festival in 1967 for "Fog Jin". Park Chan-wook likes this movie and the song "The Fog" in it, "This song is in It's recurring in the movie, and I've loved this song since I was a kid. I've always had the urge to use it in a love movie."
So, the inspiration for "Resolve to Break Up" came, "This is the type of movie I've wanted to make for a long time, a special detective movie, plus the romantic feeling of this song, I want to combine the two, But I don't want it to be just a cop movie with a romance."
All in all, although it is a romantic police and gangster film, it must be in Park Chan-wook's style, as Park Chan-wook emphasized in the opening chapter of his essay collection "Park Chan-wook's Montage" - "The first is personality, the second is personality, and personality is higher than personality. everything."
And this time, it was actor Tang Wei who helped Park Zanyu to complete this very individual "Resolve to Break Up".
When Park Chan-wook told his old partner, screenwriter Jung Swee-kyung, about the film plan, Jung said, "Okay, the female characters in the film should be Chinese. That way we can cast Tang Wei." Park Chan-wook liked the suggestion, and he immediately agreed.
Park Zanyu said with a smile that he was a fan of Tang Wei, and he liked it very much after watching Tang Wei's "Lust, Caution".
"Tang Wei is hard to read, like a deep well, enough to keep people curious."
Therefore, "Resolve to Break Up" was based on Tang Wei from the stage of script creation.
Park Zanyu said that if Tang Wei refused, it would mean that the script had to be rewritten, so he met with Tang Wei before he finished the script outline, and spent an hour or two telling Tang Wei about the movie, and Tang Wei was also very happy agreed.
For Tang Wei, Park Zanyu praised: "Tang Wei expresses a bold and mysterious character through her elegant performance, adding unpredictable tension."
The Xu Lai played by Tang Wei in the film is Chinese, so although she speaks Korean, there are many "Chinese elements" in the film.
For example, the mountains and the sea are two key dramatic scenes in the film, and the book Tang Wei was holding when she visited her mother was "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", which she tried to translate from Chinese to Korean. One way, also because she loves the book.
The character played by Tang Wei also quoted the famous saying of Confucius in the film, "The wise man rejoices in water, and the benevolent man rejoices in mountains." Tang Wei also revealed that these lines were written in the script, "the director and the screenwriter planned everything."
Although the "revenge trilogy" refers to "revenge", it emphasizes morality
"Common Security Zone" is Park Chan-wook's third work after "The Moon is the Dream of the Sun" and "Three". At that time, even Park Chan-wook himself thought that if the film was not successful, he would have to work with the director. Farewell to this profession.
At that time, someone asked what Park Chan-wook was trying to break through or subvert in "Common Security Zone"?
Park Chan-wook replied, "I'm trying to kill 'me'. I focus more on communication than language; I focus more on the general public than a few loyal fans; I focus more on theme than self-awareness; I focus more on direction than direction. Focus on acting; I pay more attention to emotion than style; I pay more attention to politics than aesthetics. In general, I try to make it an A, not a B. In order to minimize the presence of the director, I try to I gave my best and I'm proud of it no matter the result."
"Common Security Zone" was a huge turning point in Park Chan-wook's career, and his "revenge trilogy" composed of "I Want Vengeance", "Old Boy" and "Kind Gold" made Park Chan-wook an international director.
Regarding the theme of "revenge", Park Chan-wook once stated: "With the development of a society's level of civilization and education, people have to deeply conceal their anger, hatred and jealousy, but this does not mean that these emotions have disappeared without a trace. With the increasing complexity of interpersonal relationships, anger will also grow. As the mental burden of individuals in modern society increases, while anger grows, the outlet for venting anger is getting smaller and smaller. This situation is unhealthy, and it may be because of this. There is art."
He said that although his film is about "revenge", it emphasizes morality more, "guilty conscience is the core theme. In the end, I hope that revenge becomes an act of redemption, and those who carry out revenge are seeking to save themselves. the way of the soul."
This time, in "Resolve to Break Up", Park Zanyu did not have the "heavy taste" of his previous classic works. Park Zanyu called it an "adult movie": "When I say this is an adult movie, my Meaning it's actually about mature relationships. It's for people who've lost someone or had to let go of someone, and it's also for people who understand the experience of having a nuanced, elusive romantic relationship Yes - it's a very complex psychological change that happens to you throughout your life."
As for the darkness and despair that are common in his films, Park Chan-yu once said: "Watching a movie is not necessarily a comfortable enjoyment. It is better to go to a bathhouse to be comfortable."
Started writing film reviews as a sophomore, and decided to be a director because of Hitchcock's "Vertigo"
Park Chan-wook was born in Seoul, South Korea on August 23, 1963. He graduated from the Department of Philosophy of Sogang University, majoring in aesthetics. When he was a high school student, Park Chan-wook had a dream of directing. Those who study hard."
Although he went to the Philosophy Department, Park Chan-wook did not stay away from film. After he went to college, his ambition was to become an art critic. Since the school did not have corresponding courses, he could only learn through photography and watching a lot of films.
In his sophomore year, he and his classmates established the Xijiang Film Association at school and began to write film reviews, so much so that Park Chan-wook was once known as "the director with the most movies in Korea".
After watching Hitchcock's "Vertigo" as a junior in college, Park Chan-wook decided to become a director like Hitchcock, and he later recalled, "At the time, there was a voice in my head that kept shouting: 'If I don't try to be a director. I'll regret it before I die.' Just as James Stewart blindly pursues a mysterious woman in Vertigo, I'm aimlessly searching for some kind of irrationality beauty of."
After graduating from university, Park Chan-wook began to work odd jobs on the set. In order to earn money, he wrote various articles.
In 1994, he published "Secrets of Watching Movies", a collection of film critics known as the "Bible for Moviegoers".
In 1992, Park Chan-wook directed his first film, "The Moon is a Dream of the Sun," which cost $1.6 million and failed miserably at the box office.
Park Chan-wook lost his chance to be a director for the next five years.
It was so silent for many years, until the "Common Security Zone" in 2000, Park Chan-wook once said: "In the ten years since I got married in 1990 to the filming of "Common Security Zone" in 2000, I have no fixed job, and I rely on my wife to maintain it. Livelihood. Especially after having a child, the family of three lived very hard, and only with the blessing of his wife could they survive."
"Common Security Zone" is based on the relationship between the North and South of the Korean Peninsula, and tells the story of the soldiers of the South and North Korea who developed from opposing garrison soldiers to friends but met each other.
The film was released in South Korea on September 9, 2000, breaking the record of South Korean film history at the box office, and was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Golden Bear Award at the 51st Berlin International Film Festival.
Park Chan-wook's first collection of personal essays, Park Chan-wook's Montage, contains the creation story of "Common Security Zone".
Park Chan-wook revealed that he had always dreamed of making a movie about the division of the Korean peninsula from north to south, and he had written such a script before his debut.
"A South Korean radio correspondent living in West Berlin went to East Berlin to interview a North Korean-born female flute player who won a competition. The two fell in love, but the intelligence authorities of South Korea and North Korea at the time fell in love. The two were forcibly separated. This is probably the storyline. This is the only romantic love story I have ever written. For this, I spent a lot of energy, checked a lot of information, and wrote it for a long time. But A few days after I left the script, the newspaper published a report about director Park Kwang-soo's upcoming filming of the "Berlin Report", and the film company immediately abandoned the script after getting the news. In fact, we have nothing in common except for the love story that happened in Berlin. But what can I do now? Because of that incident, I was greatly impacted, and I even wanted to give up my debut and decide to emigrate.”
The family motto for my daughter is "don't let it go"
Although Park Chan-wook's movie atmosphere always makes people feel "suffocating", Park Chan-wook in life is not so "terrible".
In "Montage of Park Chan-wook", many interesting things about him are recorded.
For example, he complained that in an interview with reporters, when faced with the same questions, he had to answer painfully like a repeater, but he had to do it for the movie box office.
Another time, in an interview at a cafe, when asked what he thought of the sluggish box office of "I Want Vengeance", Park Chan-wook suddenly waved his hand and shouted, "Waiter, I'm going to pay the bill!"
Of course, Park Zanyu, who has a personality, will also attack reporters. For example, when he feels that the question is not in his favor, he bluntly said: "I want to remind you that you'd better think about it before asking an insulting question, otherwise You'll find that this is the last question for today's interview."
Park Chan-wook is very disgusted by the fact that film critics are keen to figure out the "director's intention", interpret certain scenes in a high-conceptual manner, or make his own assertion that the director has borrowed and paid tribute to the works of his predecessors, and then narcissistically and triumphantly came to the director for confirmation.
Park Zanyu believes that the so-called interpretations of many film critics actually imprison the audience's understanding space. Different understandings are the second creation process of the audience, which has nothing to do with the director, and should not be restricted by the critics' opinions.
At home, Park Chan-yu is a good husband and a good father. He and his wife met in the university film club. He said that the most important moment in his life is to accompany his wife to give birth.
When my daughter was born, "I cried all of a sudden".
Once, when the teacher assigned the task of collecting family lessons, Park Zanyu thought about it for a few hours and wrote a sentence to his daughter on a blank piece of paper: "If you can't do it, forget it." If the result is not satisfactory, just say 'no, forget it' in a cool way."
In Park Chan-wook's view, modern people always arrogantly believe that as long as they have the will, they can change anything. In fact, very few things can be changed by the will alone.
Those who harbor such arrogant ideas will undoubtedly experience frequent setbacks.
He said to his daughter: "We should learn to let go when we try our best and still fail to meet our expectations. In this society where everything is advertised as competition, what is really precious is the philosophy of giving up, the philosophy of renunciation. Your father and I had a dream. All hope that "I Want Revenge" can set a box office record and surpass the film made by your father's friend, but the ending is terrible, and the box office is only one-twentieth of his." As a result, after the daughter reported this "family lesson" to the teacher , the teacher said: "How can there be such a family teaching of virtue in the world?"
My daughter liked small animals when she was a child, but Park Zanyu was allergic to pet hair. Seeing her daughter's disappointment, Park Zanyu adopted a cat. As a result, Park Zanyu was sent to the hospital due to breathing difficulties. The doctor said that the cat would live longer than Park Zanyu. long.
Later, Park Chan-wook moved his home to the suburbs and provided the cat with a spacious basement.
After the "revenge trilogy", Park Chan-wook made a romantic comedy called "Robot Love" in 2006, saying: "I want to make a movie for my 12-year-old daughter, I hope she likes it . If the Revenge trilogy is a big meal, full of big fish and meat, then "Robot Love" is a light side dish, a delicious dessert."
We should respect the showing of movies in cinemas
"Resolve to Break Up" is Park Chan-wook's first feature film after six years of filming "Miss", during which Park Chan-wook directed a TV series, a short film and a photo exhibition.
How does feature filmmaking feel different compared to these mediums?
Park Chan-wook says he values all forms and mediums of work, so he can't rank them by priority or value.
"But I would say that being able to watch a movie together in theaters is something really special after this long and difficult period of the pandemic. It was something we all took for granted before the pandemic. What I value most is the feature film format, It requires people to go back to the cinema for an uninterrupted collective experience. So I really hope that audiences will let go of some of the movie viewing habits they have developed over the past few years - watching movies on the small screen, constantly pausing their phones, fragmented So, it’s not particularly important for me to go back to work in the form of a feature film, but I cherish the fact that my audience can come back to the big screen together and really step into the world of my films.”
Many filmmakers are pessimistic about the future of cinemas. Park Chan-wook said that he is not so pessimistic. "I also shoot short films on Youtube, and I also shoot series on the platform. I think each work has its suitable platform. But no one can take away our right to a collective experience in a movie theater, and we should respect the way a movie is shown in a movie theater."
Park Chan-wook once designed an "epitaph" for himself: "He directed 69 feature-length films and 35 short films in his life, and provided scripts for 48 films, he is a director who is not too selfish, and is now buried here. ."
From this point of view, director Park Chan-wook needs to continue to work hard and generously dedicate more good movies to the world in order to achieve his preset life goals.
Text / reporter Zhang Jia