Director Lee Jun-ik built up a lofty reputation with "King and the Clown," a surprising hit which sold more than 10 million tickets in 2005. Naturally, expectations are mounting for his latest project, titled "Sunny" (Nim-eun meongose)."
But Lee expressed his displeasure at the current film industry trend in which the public judge a film only in terms of ticket sales. "Making films is not a record-setting competition," he told reporters on Monday at a news conference held in Seoul to promote his new film that cost a hefty 7.1 billion won to produce.
Lee's terse remark came as a response to a reporter's question about his conjecture about the number of viewers. "Nobody knows how many people will watch my film," he said. "Even though the film industry is now going through a drastic change, we should try to strike a balance between cultural value and economic value."
Set in 1971 when the Vietnam War is under way, the movie features Sun-i (played by Su Ae) who takes up a performing art job and embarks on an unlikely journey to reunite with her missing husband in the pernicious war zone.
Lee said he has made particular efforts to highlight the role of a female character for "Sunny." "I have been criticized for making male-oriented films, so I have tried to change my style to bring to the front a female character," he said.
The focus is duly placed on the trouble-laden path of Sun-i, who belatedly searches for her husband (Uhm Tae-woong). She summons an incredible courage to track down her loved one, and to that end, joins a troupe that is set to head for Vietnam to stage a performance for Korean soldiers. In the process, she relies on Jeong-man (Jung Jin-young) to make it to the dangerous region.
Director Lee stressed that Su Ae, a queen of Korean melodrama, was a perfect match for the cinematic image he had conjured up for the drama. "No other actress in Korea has the distinctively pure image that Su Ae has," he said.
The character she plays offers a totally different perspective about the movie, in a welcome departure from the traditional war movies where male voices dominate and female characters are largely sidelined. "A woman's point of view provides an objective angle that can reflect the war as it is," Lee said.
Su Ae said she took a two-month training to refine her dancing and singing, which are poetically inserted into the film. "I was very worried about whether I could pull off this character, and once the shooting started, the character itself was evolving on a daily basis, so I had to dig up the character to get it right," she said.
Jung Jin-young, who has long worked with director Lee, said the role he takes in "Sunny" was an interesting trip to a new world. "He always brings me to a new, exciting place, and I'm curious about where I should be led when we work together again," he said.
The Vietnam War is an important -- and troubling -- chapter for Korean history. Back in the 1970s, Korea was desperate to kickstart its economic growth and the country opted for joining the controversial war, and the movie, to be released here on July 24, tackles the issue from a fresh angle.
Director Lee said it's time to look back on the Vietnam War in a different, more objective angle. "When men ponder the war, the result is almost always black and white, good and bad, in a chain of confrontation. But when women look at the war, all the men, whether they are Vietnamese, American or Korean, are by and large the same human beings," Lee said.
By Yang Sung-jin (insight@heraldm.com), image from empas.com
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/
