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| Kim Hee-ae, center, and Kim Sang-kyung star in the upcoming thriller "The Vanished." / Yonhap. |
By Park Jin-hai
Veteran actress Kim Hee-ae returns to screen with her latest film "The Vanished." The film has grabbed much media attention, since the 50-year-old actress is making her first appearance in a thriller. In the Korean remake of the 2012 Spanish film "The Body," Kim plays a corpse that goes missing.
The film, directed by Lee Chang-hee, tells the story of a detective investigating the disappearance of a woman's corpse from a morgue and trying to uncover the cause of her death.
Kim takes on the character of a rich dead woman, murdered by her husband. Although Kim's role is small, she commands the entire film.
The actress, who accepted the role purely out of curiosity about the story, said, the film was the most "economic" film she has ever worked on. "The director had these perfect continuity notes and actors didn't have to prepare for alternative takes. For me, it felt like shooting a TV commercial," said Kim, during a press conference to promote the film at a local theater in Seoul, Wednesday. Out of the entire 110 minutes film, only ten minutes were cut during editing.
Lee, who is making his directorial debut with the film, says he put a lot of time in working on continuity notes. "Since I had to shoot in a compact space and timeframe, I worked hard on the continuity notes. If you look at it closely, everything is connected with small dots," he said. Many scenes were shot at the National Institute of Scientific Investigation morgue and the entire story takes place in one night.
The focus of the film is the biggest difference from the Spanish original, according to Lee. "If the original is more of a revenge story, the Korean remake is about the process of finding the missing corpse," he said.
Actor Kim Kang-woo takes on the role of Park Jin-han, the evil husband who believes he has perfectly poisoned his obsessive wife. Actor Kim Sang-kyung, known for his detective role in Bong Joon-ho's 2003 crime thriller "Memories of Murder," bags another police detective character who traces the missing corpse.
Kim Kang-woo said he initially hesitated to take on his role. "I thought people might hate this character. He killed his wife, while cheating on her. Because of some uncomfortable elements my character portrays, it took some time for me to join this project," he said. "But, after I saw some short films by the director, he seemed really good at maximizing suspense in a limited place. That changed my mind."
In the Korean version, the story has been edited to boost the characters and the detective's role has been modified the most. He looks dull usually but boasts of a sharp eye and gut instinct while on the job.
"The Vanished" will hit local theaters March 8.
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