Actor Ha Jung-woo returns as a director with his fourth directorial film, "The People Upstairs."
On the morning of the 19th, an open talk for the film The People Upstairs (director Ha Jung-woo), invited to the 30th Busan International Film Festival (30th BIFF), was held on the outdoor stage at the Busan Cinema Center. Director and actor Ha Jung-woo and lead actors Gong Hyo-jin and Kim Dong-wook attended and spoke with Baek Eun-ha, director of the Actor Research Institute, about the work. However, the event was delayed by about 15 minutes due to road traffic conditions. Ha Jung-woo, Gong Hyo-jin and Kim Dong-wook rushed in and greeted the waiting audience.
The People Upstairs is a film that depicts unpredictable events that occur when the upstairs couple (Ha Jung-woo & Lee Ha-nui) and the downstairs couple (Gong Hyo-jin & Kim Dong-wook) end up having dinner together one night due to nightly sex-related noise between floors. Actor Ha Jung-woo draws attention as his fourth directorial challenge after Rollercoaster, Heo Sam-gwan and Lobby.
The film is based on the Spanish film Sentimental. Ha Jung-woo said, "I watched the original and found it very funny and interesting. Even though it takes place in a single space, it felt diverse. Of course, the characters were charming enough not to be boring and the situations of their conversations were immersive, so you hardly felt it was confined to one space. Compared with the Spanish original, I composed The People Upstairs to be somewhat more varied. Scenes like yoga and cooking. I newly added those parts during the script work. When I watched the film and received the translated script, I felt the potential for expanding the story and thought that if done well it could be an entertaining work, so I accepted the offer, prepared and worked on it."
To that end, Gong Hyo-jin and Ha Jung-woo appear as co-actors in the same work for the first time in 13 years since Love Fiction. In The People Upstairs, Love Fiction is also depicted with its title changed to Love Tension, adding a small laugh.
Gong Hyo-jin laughed, "I remember Director Ha Jung-woo saying in Rollercoaster during the flight attendant conversation, 'Gong Hyo-jin rode it too.' This time, in Love Tension there is a line where someone says the actress acted too seriously and it wasn't great. I think that is Ha Jung-woo's confident humor and wit," and said, "As viewers will see, Director Ha Jung-woo's presence is strongly reflected in the film. You can look forward to it."
She said, "Love Fiction is already a work from 13 years ago. It was a 2012 work. Back then we were really young. Both I and oppa (Ha Jung-woo) were much younger. At that time during filming it was about the relationship between men and women. While filming I thought that men and women had different psychological standings."
She continued, "This time, after a long time I saw him as a director and felt we had to present far better, more developed acting than back then. As a director I felt a responsibility to be satisfied and to show developed acting to others. Yesterday he complimented my great acting. I think he said it because he was drunk, but I said I would cherish those words for a long time. It was an enjoyable experience," she laughed.
She also joked, "He gave little bits of praise, but he had to be the director too, so the stress on set must have been considerable." 'Little bits of praise' was a line from Love Fiction in which Ha Jung-woo and Gong Hyo-jin expressed their love in their own language, eliciting fondness.
Lee Ha-nui recently gave birth to her second child and was unable to attend. The actors mentioned Lee Ha-nui and expressed affection. First, Ha Jung-woo said, "Lee Ha-nui set the tone well. If four people were splashing underwater, Ha-nui supported the rest by immersing herself in the water. She appeared as my wife, and Ms. Kim is someone who speaks plainly without a filter. She would control and steady things in between and play a supportive role. You may have seen Lee Ha-nui's other charm in the 'Aema' series, but this was a different, quiet yet very strange and charming character."
Especially Gong Hyo-jin said, "I worked with Lee Ha-nui on Pasta. That was more than a decade ago. Personally, she is a younger sibling I often contact and share life with. Our film's method was unusual. The clothes and hair didn't change, and the four of us filmed all the scenes in order. That meant the four of us had to work together for long hours all day," she exclaimed.
But Lee Ha-nui was a great support. Gong Hyo-jin said, "Ha-nui is the type of person who doesn't get tired and is always in a happy mode. A consistently happy mood radiates from her. Also, when filming in a dark set, we shot in that dark place for many hours."
She added, "That was when she had just found out she was pregnant. Even though it was early pregnancy and difficult, she held and led us like a mental coach with good energy," and said, "We talked a lot yesterday. I wish Ha-nui had been here. We will promote it together in earnest, and if she's watching, I miss her so much and want to encourage her for her hard work."
Ha Jung-woo personally painted props and pictures as a director. He said, "The artwork hanging on the set is my painting. The illustrations that appear in the chapters were created by the film's art director. We discussed what painting style would fit. I thought that adding illustrations could make the story feel realistic or unrealistic. I added illustrations to give a mischievous fairy-tale-like feeling for adults, thinking it might be good to take a bit of distance when looking at this story."
In addition, Ha Jung-woo-style details, such as yoga that was almost acrobatic enough to astonish the actors and a mustache that became a stroke of genius, add to the fun.
After releasing Lobby in April, Ha Jung-woo quickly presented a new directorial work and said, "I'm grateful to have the opportunity. How did the timing work out like that? There's nothing special; starting with Rollercoaster, my intention to pursue directing hasn't changed. It just so happened that the opportunity came then and I seized it."
The People Upstairs is scheduled to be released in December.
[Photo] OSEN reporter Lee Seok-woo.
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