By Tony Rayns (Sight & Sound)
Translator: csh
The translation was first published in "Iris"
Bong Joon-ho (b. 1969) graduated from the Korea Academy of Film Arts in 1994, and his graduation work is still considered one of the most witty and original short films created by the school's students. The work, titled "Fractured" (28 minutes), is a four-chapter social satire with a sharp-edged ending. Later, Bong served as co-writer and director assistant for Park Ki-yong's "Hotel Cactus" (1997), and he also co-wrote Min Bing-tian's thriller "Submarine Ghost" (1999).
His own feature debut was "Kidnapping the Door Dog" (2000), a well-known original comedy featuring dog lovers, dog haters, and dog eaters. This establishes Bong Joon-ho's unique style: a deft balance of empathy and a sober perspective, with a keen focus on the issue of social inequality. (For this film, Bong’s preferred English title was “ A Higher Animal ” rather than the now-used “Barking Dogs Never Bite.”) This The film toured at the festival and won some awards, but it wasn't very popular in Korea.
Since the success of "Memories of Murder" in the film market and critics, Bong Joon-ho has also produced two digital short films. "Ups and Downs" (2003, 7 minutes) is a short film designed for the third generation of mobile phones, which was shot to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Korea Film Academy. Trend Suicide (2004, 30 minutes), a tragic story told entirely through surveillance video, participated in the annual digital video project of the Jeonju International Film Festival. Both of these short films are fantastic. Currently, he is preparing his third feature film, the core of this work will be a strange creature similar to the legendary Loch Ness monster.
This interview was conducted in Seoul in December 2003. Bong Joon-ho mainly speaks English. I would also like to thank Kwon Jae-hyun for his occasional translation support.
Reporter: Why shoot a murder story?
Bong Joon-ho: In Korean cinema, crime films represent an ancient tradition that is very different from plot-oriented Hollywood thrillers. I want to make some of these movies. Old-fashioned Korean movies are inherently human and emotional - that's why I love them. I've always loved crime stories and read a lot in middle school. I love watching how people react when they get involved in crime. My first feature film was also about serial killers of dogs.
Reporter: The film is based on a series of true murders in 1986. How faithful is the film to the truth?
Bong Joon Ho: It was the first real serial murder case in Korea, and I remember it was a sensation. It took place in and around a rural town not far from Seoul, with a total of about ten murders over a six-year period. There was no monetary or revenge motive for these murders, they were pure, blatant rape and murder.
Once I decided to make the film, I started doing a lot of research. I became obsessed with the content of the case. I went through all the newspaper reports and started interviewing the people involved: journalists, detectives, the townspeople at the time.
The person who influenced me the most was a former police officer who was involved in the case. While we were talking, he burst into tears several times. This put me in a dilemma - I never liked the police, probably because I fought them all the time as a student, but talking to this guy allowed me to rethink. What impressed me most was his strong desire to catch criminals.
When writing the script, I shortened the time span to one to two years and also reduced the number of victims. Most of the horrific details can be read in the official records. For example, the murder of a schoolgirl by a murderer, and the most brutal and real slaughter - but I also added Band-Aid details. Actually, this detail was stolen from Kubrick's Lolita.
Reporter: So, is your character fictional?
Bong Joon-ho: In 1996, Kim Kwang-rim wrote a drama about serial murders called "Come and See Me". When I saw this show, I was working as assistant director. Later, I borrowed some ideas from the drama: the hookup of the three prime suspects, the connection between the murders, and the radio show playing a song.
In reality, many detectives would come from Seoul to investigate, and the theatrical work reinforces the tension between them and the local police, who pursue leads independently of each other. And I think it would be more interesting if they had to work together and switch roles.
My producer Cha Seung Jae wouldn't bother buying the rights to this drama because the whole case is based on facts. But I still liked some aspects of the drama, so I stuck with the purchase. However, the characters themselves are all my own inventions.
Reporter: The first scene in the police station eliminates the concept of a crime "type", and by the time of the climax, we still don't know that the criminal can be found.
Feng Junhao: Perhaps its main thread lies in the anonymity of crime. In fact, these murders were never detected. The more I study this case, the more I think about the characteristics of the era: Like the killer himself, the socio-political situation at the time was the culprit behind these murders. I don't even know if the third suspect is the real murderer.
Reporter: Considering the speed of change in Korean society, it must be a difficult task to recreate the society of the mid-1980s.
Bong Joon Ho: Very, very difficult. There is almost nothing left of that period, not even the rural period.
The art director and I traveled all over Seongnam until we finally found what we needed. We tried to amplify the feeling of the past by highlighting the props and buildings of the 1960s and 1970s. We use railroads to unify places that are actually miles apart. The reason why the climax of the film occurs next to the railway tunnel is based on this strategy. I had already decided on a shoot, but an assistant director found the location, so I used it.
I wanted to emphasize mostly the time rather than the place, but I also didn't want to be too specific - so I dropped the practice of showing President Chun Doo Hwan on TV. Of course, many viewers who watched the film in South Korea have first-hand memories of that period.
Reporter: Like "Kidnapping the Door Dog", in this film, you also introduced elements of superstition, but you didn't take it too seriously.
Bong Joon Ho: Reality is more interesting and bizarre than anything in movies. A sorcerer suggested that police strip naked by the sea and bow to a bowl of holy water, and the sheriff did. When they did, they were mistaken for North Korean spies and had to flee. I decided not to use this scheme: I'm obsessed with what I can see on the face, so I stick with the starring close-up.
Reporter: Was the casting for this film difficult?
Bong Joon Ho: When I wrote this script, I already had three main characters in my mind. Song Kang-ho, who plays Detective Park, told me that he was interested in working with me. Bian Xifeng, who played the chief of the local police station, once played the janitor in "Kidnapping the Door Dog". I also "discovered" Park Hae-il as the third suspect - long before he starred in Park Chan-ok's Jealousy Is My Strength.
It wasn't until I "discovered" Kim Sang Kyung in Hong Sang Soo's "The Discovery of Life" that I realized he could play the role of the Seoul police. In that film, he presented a completely different self from the TV series. Hong Changxiu introduced him to me and he proved to be a perfect choice.
Reporter: When you were at the London Film Festival with Kidnapping the Door Dog, I gave you a copy of Alan Moore's comic "From Hell," which you mentioned in many Korean interviews, saying that it was a pair of "Murder Memories are important, why?
Bong Joon Ho: I was very interested in Jack the Ripper even before I came to London. It's one of the major unsolved serial murders, and it's clearly a precedent for the South Korean case, albeit in very different contexts.
I am curious to know how British writers can deal with the unsolved mysteries of a century ago. I was delighted to find a "Jack the Ripper section" in a London bookstore: novels, essays, speculations about cases, everything. The day before you gave me that copy of From Hell, I bought Jack the Ripper: The Final Plan, which turned out to be the primary basis for Alan Moore's writing.
Reading "From Hell" was a huge benefit to me: Moore urged me to think less about the real killer and more about the zeitgeist that led to the murder. Moore ultimately pinned the blame on the times themselves.
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