Director debuts with thriller 'The Vanished'
Director Lee Chang-hee, of “The Vanished,” poses prior to an interview with The Korea Times at Sidus headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
By Park Jin-hai
Lee Chang-hee, 34, director of the thriller “The Vanished,” currently topping the local box office, says it took nearly two decades to make his feature film debut since he made up his mind to become a director.
“Watching my first short film, which was 29 minutes long, I felt like my 29-year life was being judged. Now seeing my first feature film, I feel as if my whole life devoted to filmmaking is being tested,” said Lee during an interview with The Korea Times at Sidus heaquarters in Seoul, on the first day the film hit the local theaters, Wednesday.
“The Vanished,” a Korean remake of the 2012 Spanish film “The Body,” starring veteran actors Kim Hee-ae and Kim Kang-woo, tells the story of a detective investigating the disappearance of a woman’s corpse from the morgue and who is trying to uncover the cause of her death. Since its March 8 release, the film has attracted more than 650,000 viewers, taking the top spot at the local box office.
Lee says when he was a little boy he insisted on watching “King Kong” and “The Body Guard,” instead of kids animated movies. He grew up intrigued by the stories of Andrei Tarkovsky, the renowned Soviet director, who spent his last few months finishing his film after he was diagnosed with cancer. “I started to wonder how good a movie has to be that makes a person devote his last moments to it,” he said. Lee made his first short film when he was a high school freshman and continued to study film and theater at Suwon University, in Gyeonggi Province.
After graduation he spent many years in the local film scene, participating in film production and seeing many of his projects being canceled in the middle of working on them without getting any payment.
He made his mark with his first short thriller “The Hideout,” which tells the story of a journalist who has been isolated in an Internet cafe in a rural town with alleged criminals. His 2011 short earned him the top award in the thriller category at Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival, where former winners include “The Wailing” director Na Hong-jin and “Kundo: Age of the Rampant” director Yoon Jong-bin.
Lee says with his first awarded short thriller, his attention has been naturally heading to the genre. “Thrillers touch on what lies deep down in people’s psychology. I’m attracted to projects that put characters into extreme situations and see how various people show their human nature,” said the director.
Regarding his latest film, he says although it’s an original film and has a clever plot twist, he didn’t want it leaning too much on unexpected and shocking ending scenes. “I wish my film would be felt like one with natural flows,” said Lee, who says he admires director Park Chan-wook.
“Marvel doesn’t need the same director to make many Captain America movies. But Tarantino movies cannot be made without him. I also like to make movies that have my hallmark, something that cannot be made without me,” said Lee.