Director Kim Jee-woon makes Korean 'armor' action film
Director Kim Jee-woon, of “Illang: The Wolf Brigade,” poses prior to an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Warner Bros.
By Park Jin-hai
Director Kim Jee-woon, one of the three most recognized Korean auteurs along with Park Chan-wook and Bong-Joon-ho, is known for his long profile of diverse genre movies with great mise-en-scenes. Since his debut in 1998 with the comic thriller “The Quiet Family,” the director has never stopped challenging new genres.
Kim has made the comedy-drama “The Foul King” (2000), psychological horror drama “A Tale Of Two Sisters” (2003), action-noir “A Bittersweet Life” (2005), neo-Western “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” (2008), action horror thriller “I Saw the Devil” (2010) and epic spy thriller “The Age of Shadows” (2016).
Kim, who says “I have never feared failures” in his two decades as a director, returns to the silver screen this summer with his latest challenge _ making a Korean-style sci-fi action flick using “armor gear” like Iron Man's suit.
“I have really wanted to make a Korean-style sci-fi noir movie for a while. Initially, I wanted to make the film adaptation of Japanese animator Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell,” Kim said during an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Seoul, Wednesday.
“But after I learned that its remake rights were sold to a Hollywood studio, I watched Oshii's other iconic grim-dark animation Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade again and was captivated by the image of the lead character walking from darkness into light in an underground tunnel in his protective mask and helmet, carrying machine guns.”
The 20 billion won budget film “Illang: The Wolf Brigade,” starring Gang Dong-won, Jung Woo-sung and Han Hyo-joo, which premiered on Wednesday, depicts the chaotic Korea in 2029 after the country agreed to unify with North Korea. As protectionist regional superpowers impose economic actions against the country for fear of the two Koreas' sudden rise, the outraged public in financial difficulties mobilizes an underground anti-reunification terrorist group called the Sect. The film follows the story of Im Joong-kyung, played by Gang, a member of the special police unit Wolf Brigade, organized to stop terrorists.
The suit of armor in the film was designed by the same design team that made Iron Man's suit.
“I thought that I might be able to make the action film gear like Iron Man, RoboCop or Batman. Since Korea has undergone similar socio-political chaos as featured in the Japanese original animation on its way to fast economic development, I was also confident that I could depict the original's pessimistic world views in my movie,” the director said.
In retrospect, however, he thought his latest film had been a “reckless daredevil” challenge. “There has been a lot of pressure to make one of the most acclaimed animations into a live action movie with scenes like the underworld, the violent clash between protesters and police and the protective armor. Also, its characters are not clear-cut good or bad and the original's gloomy worldview has been definitely hard to interpret,” said Kim, who calls his latest film the second-most-reckless challenge he has done after his 2008 Western film “The Good, The Bad, The Weird.”
“Yet I wanted to tell the story of the individual and the system one belongs to. Im, a member of the special police unit, kills innocent civilians following orders of his organization and suffers from trauma. He relates with a friend, a woman and a superior personally, but they symbolize bigger systems. My film is about people returning to become individuals from being part of a big system. It is about awakening,” the director said.
Asked about his untiring attempts and challenges in filmography, Kim said, “I've never taken a safe path where success seems in arms' reach. I've never tried franchise movies in which success is already guaranteed to some degree.”
He added, “Who I admire the most is Che Guevara, because I've been deeply impressed by his life path, how he returned to the jungle, refusing to stay in a comfortable life after the success of the Cuban Revolution. I also refuse to stay where I am in the present and want to make myself busy and move forward constantly. In that sense, I wish my films and I would stay forever young.”