The following interview took place at the Korean Cultural Centre UK on April 26th 2012, prior to a screening of 'Always' and director Q&A at the Apollo cinema (Picadilly, London).

Interview:

Hangul Celluloid: If I could start be asking: A lot of your early films deal with some fairly philosophical ideas – different perspectives, differing perceptions and almost a search for peace and truth, as well as mixing fantasy and reality. How has your perception of the themes you choose to focus on in your films changed over the years?

Song Il-gon: This could be a very long answer. I think I was a very serious person in my youth, in my twenties, and I spent a lot of time thinking about existence itself. As you know, I studied film in Korea and then later at the National Academy of film in Poland. I considered the deepest aesthetics and philosophical points in film and, as an artist, I wanted to explore these issues as deeply as possible. The more I studied film, the more of these types of questions I had but when I was studying in Korea I couldn’t find the answers to satisfy my curiosity. It wasn’t until I went to Poland and was surrounded by good teachers and colleagues that some of these questions began to be answered.
I adored many Eastern European directors [Song Il-gon specifically mentioned Tarkovsky and Kieslowski but this wasn’t translated in the interview] and I really adored their work, and I wanted to make great films such as theirs. I think my short films are definitely the expression of my thoughts in relation to the philosophical question of existence, especially ‘Liver and Potato’ and ‘The Picnic’, and I think that carried through until ‘Flower Island’ and ‘Spider Forest’. I was trying to reconstruct these issues and use existential expression to details the points and questions surrounding existence.


Eastern Kicks: How difficult was it to transition from making short films into your first feature ‘Flower Island’ in terms of funding and the whole production of a 90min/2 hour movie?

Song Il-gon: I think I was very fortunate. I made my ‘Liver and Potato’ in Korea and later ‘The Picnic’ in Poland, and ‘The Picnic’ won many international awards, for example at the Cannes Film Festival, and because of this many funders in Korea became aware of me and my work and I got a lot of offers to make films both in Korea as well as in France. At the time I was also working on a historical film called ‘The Sword’, and after much consultation and deliberation, I decided to go ahead with my own script for ‘Flower Island’ - which was a low budget – and, as mentioned I my previous answer, I was a very serious youth, so rather than focus on the commercial aspects of the business, I wanted to try my best to make this serious film despite it being low budget. I don’t feel that production was difficult until making ‘Flower Island’ because previously my films were all low budget, and at the time it Korea it wasn’t that difficult to get investment to make serious films as there was still a trend to make films of that type. Until ‘Spider Forest’ I was very serious about my filmmaking and my films’ philosophy and the problem was that ‘Spider Forest’ wasn’t that successful,  even though it received extremely positive feedback from film festivals internationally, and after making the film, I had a really tough time and an exhausting period and needed a lot of political support as well. So, as a result, I was looking for a change and wanted to make some lighter films, and in films like ‘Feathers in the Wind’ my film philosophy changed as well.
At that time in Korea, we also began to see large investors, such as Samsung, coming into the film industry and that changed the Korean film industry as a whole to a model much closer to that seen in Hollywood. My film philosophy isn’t necessarily to go for either art house or low budget films, but the investors always saw my films as being not commercially successful and of that type. So, because of their prejudices, it was a real hell-like experience trying to get funding for my films, including films such as ‘The Magicians’ and ‘Feathers in the Wind’ and films that could communicate with an audience, for example Always’. ‘Always’ took about six, seven, eight years to make from start to finish. I think I talk too much [Song Il-gon laughs]. I’ll try to answer in short bursts from now on.


New Korean Cinema: On that note, a couple of months ago you said that you wanted to move away from deeper philosophical works and be able to communicate with your audience much more easily and, last month, Park Kwang-su said something similar: He said he needed to find out what worked on home soil in order to talk to a much broader audience and communicate more that with his political films and messages. If you believe you’ve given this a go with ’Always’, as you’ve suggested, what are your thoughts on that and do you think that for good or ill you’re with a band of directors who have been forced towards making safer films?

Song Il-gon: Some of these questions are issues that I think about a lot and I don’t believe it’s necessarily the case that deeply philosophical messages always result in serious films. I think that those messages can be expressed in films in an entertaining manner that the audience enjoys, and I think it has taken me twenty years just to realise that. So, for example, there’s a film by Fellini called ‘Amarcord’, which is one of my favourite films, and I think that the films in that period of the 80s and 90s are different from those produced in the 60s or the year 2000. I believe that every period reflects a different taste of the audience at the time. For example, if I took Fellini’s ‘Amarcord’ to investors now, it would be impossible to get funding, but the film was loved by audiences at the time. Furthermore, Fellini was loved by both audiences and film festivals and audiences would frequently laugh out loud or cry while watching his films. It’s true that the funding system works differently today than it did back then, but I do believe it’s important to fit in with the current trends in film investment as well as what the audience wants now.  I think it’s really important that films are being put out there to communicate with current audiences, rather than appeal to a minority film festival audience and I also don’t believe that “easy” films are not philosophical in their messages. The film that is screening tonight, ‘Always’ hit an audience record of a million, and wile that’s not commercially a huge success, for me that exceeded any number of my previous films. So I secretly sneaked into a cinema to see audience reactions to ‘Always’ and I saw a middle-aged woman who had come up from the countryside sobbing her eyes out while watching it. This was a very different feeling for me than being present at, and attending, film festivals and it really strengthened my resolve to make films that anyone can enjoy seeing. I definitely feel that the period of literature is gone and that it’s important to make films that today’s younger audience can enjoy.


Hangul Celluloid: On that subject, is that the reason you choose a somewhat classic melodramatic idea for the narrative of ‘Always’, rather than any other genre, to specifically target an audience and connect with them?

Song Il-gon: Not Exactly. ‘Always’ also had difficulty in getting funding and at the time I even considered quitting filmmaking. I’d gone to Japan, to a place called Yakushima, to film a documentary about a tree that was over 7,200 years old. It was when the main actor was cast that I was able to finally get the funding for the film and the entire reason that the film was made was because funding was possible.
As you have pointed out, it is a very classical and traditional story and within it I wanted to express sincerity and truth rather than use clichés and stereotypes and bring some classic ideas, such as seen in Chaplin’s films for example,  into a modern-day story. It wasn’t my choice that this film got made, but rather the choice of the investors out of several possible scripts.


KCMassive: Because ‘Always’ was made specifically to a target audience, were any changes to your style of filmmaking required? Did you actively think “I can’t do it that way because the audience might not like it”? If so, was there anything you didn’t like changing or any compromises you had to make?

Song Il-gon: I don’t believe the directing style is very important in filmmaking. As I mentioned before, I studied film for over six years and I deeply explored the aesthetic and visual aspects of filmmaking. Following Lars Von Triers statement about dogma, I decided not to follow the aforementioned principles. I think a director’s style is basically a question of how best to express the script in front of you and I think the idea that any director has a style simply means that they have become stagnant. Directing style is something that can always change: For example, an artist who paints using the colour yellow should easily be able adapt if they don’t have it, and use any old pencil that they have at home to paint instead. Again, directing style is not something that I think about hugely. While on set of ‘Always’, I shot the film to my tiny heart’s content and had extremely good collaboration with the actors, the part that was difficult was the editing part and I have a lot of regrets about that. Five to ten minutes were censored out of the final cut and the result isn’t what my first choice would have been. However, I have to accept that situation and the end result because I didn’t have the power to fight that decision. Previously, I had never been interfered with during the editing process, not even a single scene, and it was really difficult for me to be in that position where I really had to fight for my choice. In fact, the investors did regret that decision after the film was released. So, there weren’t really any issues while making the film, but the subsequent fights really dried out my blood.


MiniMiniMovies: Leading on from the subject of funding: In ‘Always’, there is a small section that is set in Thailand and I wondered if it was actually filmed there or if it was a studio or filmed in Korea? And also, you tend to like a lot of locations, whether it’s an island or Cuba, for example, and I wondered if perhaps there is somewhere you would like to shoot but haven’t had the chance to?

Song Il-gon: Regarding the scenes  in ‘Always’ that were set in Thailand, the street scenes were the only ones filmed on location, and for all the other scenes, which were indoors, we created a set in Korea and that’s where we shot them. Regarding your second question, I am a bit of an itinerant and I seem to have some gypsy blood in me. I really like to travel and go to different places and I guess that’s just something that I was born with. Last week, I had a documentary released called ‘Forest of Time’ which is another more philosophically oriented film on the topic of travel and I’m preparing another documentary at the moment which will be going round all of South America, similar to Che Guevara, and that’s on the theme of music as well.


Hangul Celluloid: Talking about music, ‘Feathers in the Wind’ uses music and dance in a very evocative manner, and music and dance play a huge part in ‘Dance of Time’ as well.  Since you’ve mentioned it as part of your next project, why are those elements so important to you as a filmmaker?

Song Il-gon: I think the elements of dance and music are important to not just me but everyone. They are an instinctive passion and love that I have, as well as for travelling and drinking and having a good time. After shooting ‘Spider Forest’, I was in such a physically and mentally exhausted place, I just left with me closest friends - some of the crew and the actors – and I wrote the scripts for both films in a matter of two hours, while having a good time every day and drinking every day. I love to watch dance and, of course, everyone loves music, and I really feel alive when I listen to it and I feel the vitality of life. I think I must have been a South American in my previous life. I’m just really drawn there and I really want to go to Argentina - I love a lot of the music there as well and I also love the tango - so, again, it’s just an instinctive love I have.


Hangul Celluloid: In ‘Dance of Time’ did you specifically go in search of a dancer and a musician to form some of the stories told or did the people you found just happen fit in well with your love of dance and music?

Song Il-gon: I feel that a documentary has several different aspects to it and it is different to journalism, for example, and I think it should show things in a new or different light than journalism perhaps would. So, looking at ‘Dance of Time’, it’s a story that other broadcasters and agencies could focus on, so I wanted to emphasis different aspects of that journey.
Coincidently, I met a fifth generation Korean dancer there, and a father and musician who was in his 90s, and within the documentary, the history and story is very short, so I chose to focus on a different aspect such as the inner journey or the emotional story within that journey and how they manifested as dance in a culture like Cuba’s. The ballerina in the film is extraordinarily beautiful and I very much enjoyed filming her, especially after filming a grandfather in his 90s. The shooting director for the documentary and also ‘Feathers in the Wind’ is a very close friend of mine – we’ve worked together for ten years, and we just had a really good time drinking every day and having a great time shooting.


CineAsia_Online: Why did you choose to make the film about Cuba? Was it because of Che Guevara and the revolution? Do you find that Cuba is a place that you could go to find hope? Also, how do you feel about shooting in other countries and places, considering the fact that other directors such as Park Chan-wook are shooting films outside Korea?

Song Il-gon: I really adored Che Guevara and I was extremely curious about his philosophical ideals, communism and how things would look 50 years after his work. After reading about him further, I was enraptured by what he had tried to achieve and I definitely wanted to visit Cuba and see it for myself. At that point, I found out that 100 years ago there was a huge migration of Korean people there so I began planning this documentary. It also taps into the question of the North/South Korean divide which is a serious and quite personal matter for me as I’m living in a country with a division. Also, I absolutely love mojitos [Song Il-gon laughs] and that was another of the reasons why. AS I’ve mentioned before, I’m an innate wanderer and I’m quite footloose, it’s just in my blood, and I did live in Poland whilst I was studying film and in Europe for six or seven years, so there’s no pressure in working abroad for me. Perhaps that explains why my films aren’t rooted in the Korean perspective and are much more universal. When I was studying in Poland, my films had to be easily understood by my European teachers and fellow students and, as such, I studied how to structure films in a more universal manner, for example. There is a film that I’m going to produce abroad that is actually in the works right now and I would also like to shoot in London, so I need to do the work of transferring the location to London. There  is another project in the works as well, in Hollywood. I do like working in Korea but it would also be very interesting for me to work and produce films abroad.


MiniMiniMovies: Going back to ‘Dance of Time’, obviously you were aware of many of the stories before, such as the story of ‘The Woman in the Box’,  but were any of the other stories revealed while you were shooting?

Song Il-gon: Of course I saw all the material that was available in Korea before going over to Cuba to shoot, because we had such a small budget and we couldn’t afford to travel such a long distance many times. However, there wasn’t much material available anyway and it was only when we went over there and began to interview the people that we could begin to envisage what the film would be like. All of the interviewees were so generous and welcoming and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to their interesting stories and while there are times when you have difficult shoots, it wasn’t like that in this case at all. There was no pressure and I could shoot with enjoyment and I was deeply touched by the stories being told.


New Korean Cinema: Can I ask what your relationship is like with cinematographers? You’ve worked a number of times with Park Yeong-jun, Alex Hong etc. Have there been any major turning points for you regarding your work with cinematographers? You seem to be fairly technically involved with lenses, lighting, colouring etc, but are these things that you have become more involved in and learnt more about over the years as you’ve worked with more cinematographers?

Song Il-gon: With the film ‘Spider Forest’, I controlled everything in the film and cinematographers got extremely upset with me because of my perfectionist tendencies and my insistence on following everything rigidly to the nth degree – such as the choice of lenses, the exact distance of the cameras – everything was under my control and I realised how much I was harassing people. After ‘Spider Forest’, I became more liberated from these tendencies. I have a good working relationship with Park Yeong-jun, we work together well on the sets and we’ll work together in the future as well. I used a different cinematographer for ‘Always’, he’s quite a famous cinematographer, and when making the film there wasn’t too much trouble or disagreement. When I’m working with Park Yeong-jun, I don’t discuss too many of the technical aspects with him, I don’t really care what cameras he uses and I can have a good time behind the camera while he has a much harder job and actually has to work. Of course, it always depends on the film and it’s a different scenario case by case. Like I said before on the analogy of style, you might have yellow oil paint you need for a piece of work, but if you don’t have it you use a different pencil and I think that’s the mark of a good director. However, my next project is quite a big production and I’ll be aesthetically focused on every aspect and detail. So it really depends on each individual film.


KCMassive:  Having studied in Poland, what effect do you think that had on you and how do you think you would be different as a person and filmmaker if you had studied in America?

Song Il-gon: That‘s actually a question I think about a lot. How would I have turned out if I’d gone to America? And would I even have started to work in film? Would I have wanted to become a director like James Cameron and follow the Hollywood style desperately? I think the way it’s worked out is destiny, and I’m sure things would have been different if I’d gone to America instead of Poland. However, you only know this in retrospect. At the times that things are unfolding, it’s difficult to know what the outcome will be. For example, ‘Flower Island’ was so applauded and received numerous awards but if it had failed I would probably have made a commercial film as my next project. However, because of its success, I became stereotyped as that type of director. I try not to ponder too much about destiny and the way things are fated and I try not to get stressed out by it. All I can do is try my best within the limits of the situation and we don’t know how things might change and unfold in the future. In  terms of what I got from Poland, I met some extremely good friends and now colleagues and I was touched by their hardcore passion towards filmmaking and their determination towards studying. I had a reunion today with one of them and it was quite a touching experience. It reminded me of the time we all studied film. I loved the respect they had for their art and how happy we were just studying film. I think it was also the case that in Poland there isn’t actually anywhere to go and have fun, and so we had no reason not to focus on studying.

I would sincerely like to thank the Korean Cultural Centre UK for arranging for me to interview director Song Il-gon.