'Train to Busan' director takes on micro budget thriller 'The Ugly'
Actors Park Jeong-min, right, and Kwon Hae-hyo in a scene from "The Ugly" / Courtesy of Plus M Entertainment
Director Yeon Sang-ho, known for "Train to Busan" (2016) and the Netflix series "Hellbound," has taken on a new challenge by making his latest film “The Ugly” with an ultra-low budget of around 200 million won ($143,600).
"I've made a lot of films, and with each one, I always think, 'I want to make a new kind of film.’ And one day a thought suddenly struck me — if I want to make a movie with a new soul, it needs a new body,” Yeon said during a press conference in Seoul Friday.
"So, I thought, what if I tried making a film in a way that's completely different from what I've done before.”
“The Ugly" is a mystery thriller that follows Im Dong-hwan, the son of Im Yeong-gyu, a visually impaired seal engraver. When Dong-hwan discovers the skeletal remains of his mother, who has been missing for 40 years, he begins to dig into the truth behind his mother’s death.
Actor Park Jeong-min takes on a dual role, playing both the younger Yeong-gyu and his son, Dong-hwan, while Kwon Hae-hyo plays the older Yeong-gyu.
The film is an adaptation of the graphic novel "Eolgul," the Korean word for face, which Yeon wrote and illustrated in 2018. To keep production costs down, the crew was limited to about 20 people, one-third the size of a typical commercial film. The shooting schedule was also shortened to 13 sessions in just three weeks.
Actor Park Jeong-min in a scene from "The Ugly" / Courtesy of Plus M Entertainment
The director said he initially felt pressure over the possibility of the film falling short of expectations due to the low budget.
"I worried about what would happen if the video quality or the final product didn't meet expectations. However, as soon as we started the project and the team and actors gathered, all that fear disappeared," he said.
"It was a limited budget, but budgets are always limited. I've never shot a film with an excessive budget. I've always been rushed for time. Paradoxically, with 'The Ugly,' we had the most abundance, the most flexibility, and were able to use as much time as we needed."
From left, actors Park Jeong-min, Kwon Hae-hyo, Shin Hyun-bin, director Yeon Sang-ho, actors Han Ji-hyeon and Lim Seong-jae pose during a press conference for their movie "The Ugly" at a theater in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap
Park revealed that he first suggested to the director that he play both the younger Yeong-gyu and his son.
"I thought that if the son's actor plays his father's younger self while uncovering his past, it might convey a strange emotion to the audience," he said.
Kwon, who took on the challenge of playing a character with a visual impairment for the first time, said that his late father-in-law had a similar impairment, which allowed him to naturally embrace the role.
"To play Im Yeong-gyu, I wore lenses that actually made it difficult to see," Kwon said. "My late father-in-law also had a visual impairment. Having witnessed his life, I think I was able to naturally accept the difficult parts of the role through my acting without even realizing it."
“The Ugly” will be in theaters starting Sept. 11.