The following group interview took place at the KCCUK in London on 12 November 2019 as part of the London Korean Film Festival:

Interview:

Hangul Celluloid: I’d like to start by asking about your decision to virtually avoid music completely in Scattered Night, aside from the closing credits. What led you to that decision, and was that your intention to very outset of the script stage?

From the very beginning we did not want to use music for this film, with both myself and my co-director we are both not fond of overusing music in film, in general, because we think it disrupts the emotionality and sentiment of the film from the narrative. Our story is not the most dramatic kind, so we thought about, perhaps, in the process of editing we considered adding music if there are suitable scenes, but we couldn’t find the right moment to do that. For the very last scene, when you are facing the wall, we thought that perhaps using music at the end it would enrich the atmosphere, so that’s why we decided to do that.


EasternKicks: It’s quite a poignant film about a family separating, and it resonated with me on a personal level. What was the inspiration for the story, for you and your co-director?

My co-director Lee Ji-hyeon, it was scripted by her so she did say that this is not 100 per cent autobiographical, but the reason she thought about this story is because around the time she was writing the script she thought a lot about her family history, and she just wanted to reflect on the complex issues that came out of her family. At the beginning it was more focusing on the grown-ups, and surrounding their story, but later, as it developed, it moved on to the perspectives of the children.


Film Doo: How would you describe your collaboration with your co-director, how did you divide up your duties, and where do you think your strengths lie?

It was scripted by Lee and myself and another friend of ours in the university we went to gave feedback to her once a week, while it was in the process of development, and we did share other processes together from casting to location hunting. Because one of the most famous co-directors are the Dardenne brothers, the Belgian directors, we studied how they collaborated on their films together. So, we decided to divide our labour loosely into two halves. How to direct the actors and the performers were done by Lee, and I focused on the cinematography, how to shoot the scenes, and continuity. We shared a monitor of course, so we were each focused on the area we were responsible for. I think the strengths of director Lee is she can keep a very objective stance throughout the process, because it takes a long time to develop a film, you are just thinking about the story and you lose your own perspective on the project. But she can stay cool, which was very helpful. My strengths, I’m not so sure, but I think I can say that I have a very keen sense of observation for the movement of the actors, and how to frame things, so this is something that I was trying to focus on, and I thought it worked out quite well.


Hangul Celluloid: The entire cast gives great performances, but Moon song-ah as little Sunmi blew me away, she was exemplary. Even more so considering how young she is, I wondered was the way she directed different to the adult actors? And given she gave such a superb performance, how was she guided before and during filming?

There wasn’t a huge difference in directing the grown-ups and the children, we did lots of rehearsals, and there was preparation during shooting as well. I worked intensely with the two children together, we at first tried to explain the reasons why certain things happened a particular way, and how things happened and why, but I think we tried to focus on each moment, and how different emotions rise for a particular moment. So, I tried to use metaphors to explain things easily, using music melody as a metaphor for different emotions, from C onwards, so in a particular moment she could be at a C but then in another she would feel better so she would be higher, maybe at an F. We used that as a reference so that she could understand. These two children, the co-director asked her how she was approaching the role, and after the long process she said she would just follow her mind in that particular moment. We did a good job directing her, but I think she’s just a talented actor herself, so we were very lucky.


EasternKicks: In Korea, and in Korean society, being divorced in frowned upon, and you can see that during the film at Sunmi’s birthday party the kids have to lie to their grandmother that their parents are still together. With your film, do you think it might change the perspectives of people who watch it?

My simple answer is no. Even though this film deals with the subject matter of divorce I think we were more focused on the emotions and sentiments surrounding this topic, so we didn’t really have big ambitions to change the larger discourse. But in Korea the situation is changing so the perception of divorce is becoming less biased and more accepting.


Film Doo: When you were working on this film, did you ever feel like you were judging your own characters. Or was it important to you that you didn’t take sides in the conflict that is happening?

We tried to keep a certain distance from all our characters, these children because they are going through their parents’divorce, they could easily be sympathised, but we tried to avoid that. Also, because these two adults are causing these problems for their children and they’re responsible for it so they are character who should be blamed, but we didn’t want to do that because they are all entangled in the situation. They’re trying to deal with the situation as best they can, so that was very important for us.


Hangul Celluloid: The closing credits for your film for your cast and crew are both in Korean and English which, even today, is rare for a Korean film. Does that mean you were, from the outset, thinking of an international market as well as the domestic market? Did you have plans to get the film screened at foreign film festivals like the London Korean Film Festival?

The world premiere of this film was at the Jeonju Film Festival this year so the condition for submitting the film was to have English subtitles, so I had to do that. But also, for me, when I watch foreignfilms, I’m always curious about who’s involved and how many people were involved etc. so when the credits were only a foreign language it makes me curious and a bit frustrated, because I wanted to find out about that. So, because it’s very useful information so that’s perhaps the reason. Regarding international market, I really did it for the Jeonju Film Festival, I wasn’t aware of how to approach other foreign film festivals because I was in such a hurry to submit my film for Jeonju.


EasternKicks: This is your first feature film, were there any challenges you and your co-director faced while making it?

The challenge was the fact this was co-directed, because we are working on one project together and we had to sustain the tone and colour throughout the film but there are two people involved so we had to constantly negotiate, and one of us had to compromise. So, that was difficult but at the same time it was a great learning curve for me, I honestly don’t think I would have made this film by myself, so I have mixed feelings about that.


Film Doo: One aspect of the film that interested me is the two siblings spend a lot of time together discussing the divorce and try to figure out if they’re separating. Even though in the final scene Sunmi is worried that they’re going to drift apart and it’s going to become awkward between them, do you feel that in some way this emotional experience they share brings them closer together?

I agree with your reading, as they discuss and think about how to deal with their parents divorce and what they would do if they lived separately, they kind of create a certain shared concern that helps their bonding. But, equally, as they eat ice cream together after school and doing recycling together, I think all these moments are also very important for them to build their bonds and stay close.

 

On behalf of everyone involved, I'd sincerely like to thank the London Korean Film Festival and the Korean Cultural Centre UK for allowing us all to interview director Kim Sol at such length.

(Many thanks, also, to Roxy Simons for transcribing the interview).

The following director group interview took place on 8 November 2019 as part of the 2019 London Korean Film Festival:

Interview:

Hangul Celluloid: If I could start by asking what your motivations were in using a story about an elderly couple, their family and their carer as the subject matter for you debut feature A Bedsore - social, personal or simply cinematic?

Shim Hye-jung: My motivations were both personal and based on social issues. People of my age often speak about caring for the elderly and the family conflicts that often come from that. As I was writing the script for A Bedsore there was a lot of talk about social immobility taking place in Korea - it's quite similar to here if you think of the metaphor of the gold spoon etc. In Korea it's becoming increasingly difficult, some might say impossible, to move between classes. It has become much more stigmatised and it is just like a bedsore - it's just kind of stuck there - and that was really where the story came from.


Asian Movie Pulse: Could you tell us more about the character of the carer in A Bedsore? She is quite controversial in a way being an illegal immigrant and being from a different area, not exactly Korea, so what were your thoughts when you were first including her in the story?

Shim Hye-jung: Actually, my mum was ill for a while and had to be cared for by helpers and a lot of that type of work is done by Korean-Chinese groups. It used to be about 80% Korean and 20% Korean-Chinese people doing these jobs but now it's virtually reversed and it's kind of become a phenomenon. It's such a low paid job but there is such a need to understand Korean culture to do the work effectively that Korean-Chinese have become the vast majority of those doing domestic and caring help.


FilmDoo: I think A Bedsore presents a very interesting perspective on modern families, like the way a character has to move away from her family to support them, another character having moved to the US and the elderly couple's children overall appearing to be in their own world, caught up in their own lives and self-interests. I wondered, do you feel your films gives quite a despondent view of the modern family unit; is the family unit falling apart?  

Shim Hye-jung: Korea has long presented a strong picture of traditional society and I feel that we are approaching the end of that now. I think often  with old traditions when it reaches its end it in a way reveals its essence and I think that's what is happening now. I very interested in how the old traditionalism remains and how it carries certain meanings about society so that's why and how I presented the issues.


Screen Queens: There is an American film about an undocumented Filipino woman working as a carer for a Russian woman in trans-America. Why do you feel the role of care-givers is appealing to film-makers around the world at this time?

Shim Hye-jung: I think there are a lot of migrant workers in Koreas but there aren't enough stories about them. Care-giving is such an intimate job - you are right inside a person's home - and that means they are really deep within society as well. But I don't think it is discussed enough and though there have been some stories about migrant workers in Jeju, for example, it's not portrayed a 'everyday'. I feel this is a major social issue that shouldn't be considered as sensational but far more commonplace and I'm interested in the psychology of the Korean people and how they perceive these migrant workers.


Hangul Celluloid: Having personally dealt with elderly bedridden relatives, bedsores and indeed discussions of home or institutionalised care, A Bedsore hit me powerfully. While the film is specifically Korean, from my point of view its issues are global. As the film began being screened internationally were you nervous about ho foreign audiences would relate to the narrative or were you confident that the issues covered are universally relatable and relevant?

Shim Hye-jung: From my understanding, Europe has much better care and support for the elderly than Korea and what I was curious about when I was making A Bedsore was whether foreign audiences would perhaps be curious as to why that care in Korea is the whole responsibility of families. I thought that aspect might be very specific to Korea but the idea of family conflicts, competition between siblings etc. I was fairly confident would be universally accepted.


Asian Movie Pulse: I think it is very interesting that you see the film as very Korean because to me it felt very feminist. I first saw the film in Seoul and I instantly noticed that the female characters are so strong and the pressures on women in terms of the responsibility of elderly care. What are your thoughts on that?

Shim Hye-jung: All my short stories have women as the main protagonists. In A Bedsore the elderly man, Chang-sik, is the main protagonist but I think I'm ultimately more interested in minor characters whether they are women, elderly or migrant workers. I also like the idea of strong survivors who work very hard and the main female character in my film has a real presence and energy that I really wanted to portray.


FilmDoo: The carer in A Bedsore feels she needs to get married to stay in the country and the father of the family even offers to divorce his wife to keep her there. I wanted to get your perspective on that. Do you perhaps feel that marriage is becoming outdated as an institution in Korea?

Shim Hye-jung: That's a bit of a complex situation. If you remember just before the two decide to get married they have a discussion the different approaches to marriage - the fact that both are married already, etc. and with that I wanted to show that the understanding of marriage is becoming much more flexible.


Eastern Kicks: This is your debut feature film. Were there any particular challenges you faced while making it?

Shim Hye-jung: Yes, when I made short films I could see the whole outline very easily, but with a longer feature film there are different ways to think about the structure, there are many more scenes and as you put the together you can't easily see how they will ultimately work. So, finding the structure for the whole film was certainly challenging. Also, I couldn't find one sole investor to finance the entire film so I had to use a number of different sources so I had to spend a lot of time doing that rather than actually getting on with making the film.


Asian Movie Pulse: Where did the money come from?

Shim Hye-jung: The funding ultimately came from the Seoul Media Film Committee and the Jeonju Project Market.


Screen Queens: Because the subject matter of A Bedsore is so personal, as has been discussed, I wondered how the actors approached their roles, as the film is so psychological.

Shim Hye-jung: All the actors in my films come from theatre. I don't know how other directors work but I talked to the cast members a lot, we read the script together and we spent a lot of time preparing for shooting. I had a limited budget so I couldn't do much during the shoot which made the need for a lot of prep work beforehand even greater. British film-maker Mike Leigh is someone I really admire and I know he works a lot with theatre actors. I find the way he creates characters quite amazing so I studied how he works with actors a lot and having a growing understanding of his process gave me confidence in the cast giving what was needed by my film.  


Hangul Celluloid: I am obsessed with independent Korean cinema and the difficulties it has when put up against big budget commercial blockbusters, many of the latter screening in a huge number of cinemas shutting out those independents in the process. You have already spoken of the financial difficulties you faced when making A Bedsore but you are also not only an independent film-maker but also both a female director working in a still predominately male dominated industry and indeed a debut feature director. Would you say the main problems you faced came from your position as a debut feature film-maker, as a female director or indeed because you film was an independent production?

Shim Hye-jung: There is another factor: I am not young [Shim Hye-jung laughs]. Korea is a society that takes age very seriously - age is a very important factor in all walks of life. If you are successful then the fact that you are old is something to be celebrated but if you're not then being old comes across as somewhat of a problem. I'm only a first-time director so I can't really comment on the entire film industry but based on my own experiences and conversations I've had with my cohorts, Korea society doesn't respect diversity as much as it should. Capital is just taken for granted and what is seen as competent is rarely questioned. So people just say to just make a well made film or just make well attended films and all of the other nuances are not necessarily appreciated. This sort of score-based culture is something that everyone seems to desire. I've heard the screen quota might be brought back in Korea so that might help boost independent cinema but I still think many of these aspects really need to improve to give independent cinema a real fighting chance.


Asian Movie Pulse: Many directors that I've spoken to in Korea have talked about their desire to have theatrical movies and successful theatrical releases. Does that appeal to you too and what are your goals as a director, especially having come to making features at a later age?

Shim Hye-jung: I'm not so sure that having my film theatrically released is really the most important thing but I do think a lot about how to meet audiences with my films. Now that I have made a feature I can start to think about having it screened theatrically but when I've made short films that hasn't been a possibility. So, where to show it and how to meet who is something I'm now thinking more about.   


FilmDoo: What is next for you? What will your next project be?

Shim Hye-jung: Yes, I'm already working on my next project. We just bought the rights to adapt a novella called Flower Out of Mould so I'm going to be adapting that into a new feature film.


Eastern Kicks: You've talked about using theatre actors in A Bedsore. Was that also the case in your short films?

Shim Hye-jung: Yes, I always use theatre actors. I do like going to the theatre and I really don't like the auditioning process - I don't trust myself in that process - so I cast actors from seeing them in theatre or TV. I guess |I monitor some actors with my films in mind.


Hangul Celluloid: We've got the story of A Bedsore and within that, of course, the bedsore in question stands as an allegory of societal ills in Korea. Which came first? Did you have the family drama and later added the idea and theme of the bedsore or did you first think of societal ills as a kind of a bedsore and try to shape the story around that?   

Shim Hye-jung: It was pretty much simultaneous. I wanted to tell a story about the elderly and familial relationships and difficulties but at the same time I thought the idea of a bedsore could be amazing as a symbolic sort of metaphor, I suppose, so both appeared at kind of the same time allowing me to focus on both from the outset.

 

On behalf of everyone involved, I'd sincerely like to thank the London Korean Film Festival and the Korean Cultural Centre UK for allowing us all to interview director Shim Hye-jung at such length.

Lee Byeong-hyeon

Introduction:
Lee Byeong-hyeon began his career in 2009 as a script editor on Kang Hyoung-chul’s hit comedy 'Scandal Makers', making his directorial debut that year with the short film 'Smell'. His writing credits include 'Sunny', 'Tazza - The Hidden Card' and 'Love Forecast' and his directorial debut came in 2012 with 'Cheer Up, Mr. Lee'. This was soon followed by 'Twenty' (2014), 'Be Positive' (2016) and 'What a Man Wants' (2017) (all box office successes) but it was his 2019 word-of-mouth sensation, Extreme Job, that truly defied all the odds to become the second most successful movie ever in the Korean market.