(Continued from interview ③) "The director looked at his phone, let out a deep sigh and drank whiskey." Actor Park Hee-soon described the on-set atmosphere of the film No Other Choice, which was filming on the day of the Dec. 3 emergency martial law incident.
Park Hee-soon conducted an interview on the afternoon of the 25th at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Jongno District, Seoul. At this meeting, he met with domestic reporters and talked about the film No Other Choice (director Park Chan-wook), which opened on the 24th.
No Other Choice tells the story of Mansu (Lee Byung-hun), an office worker who felt he had "accomplished everything" and was satisfied with his life, but is suddenly fired and prepares his own war to protect his wife and two children, to keep the home he had struggled to acquire, and to pursue reemployment. In particular, the film has attracted attention as the new work of director Park Chan-wook, beloved for many masterpieces such as Joint Security Area (JSA), Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave.
Park Hee-soon, who was such a fan that appearing in a Park Chan-wook work was on his bucket list, said he finally encountered the director's world as an actor and was "a little doubtful that because he is a world-renowned master he might focus on overseas audiences. But most of his directions were about the Korean language: tempo, rhythm, making some sounds softer and others louder, the prosody and beauty of Korean. I was very shocked that he tried to convey that."
He said, "Of course, films introduced overseas all have subtitles, so you might think he needn't worry, but I felt his great love for the Korean language. I was surprised that he didn't worry much about whether Westerners could accept our emotional sensibility. His top priority was Korean audiences, the general viewers: he wondered whether they would see what he intended. I was surprised he prioritized Korean audiences."
He marveled, saying, "He values the most basic things. He is faithful to the words that are most fundamental to actors, not mise-en-scène or cinematic techniques. Those fundamentals need to be solid to unleash cinematic imagination. That made me respect him even more."
Above all, Park Hee-soon admired Park Chan-wook's character. Before the release of No Other Choice, Park Chan-wook drew attention by sending encouragement in advance payment to participants in the impeachment rally in front of the National Assembly in Yeouido during the Dec. 3 martial law incident that shook the nation last year, even though he was filming this work at the time.
They were actually filming No Other Choice at a location in Gangwon Province during the Dec. 3 martial law incident. Park Hee-soon said, "At that time, Seon-chul (played by Park Hee-soon) was drunk, his face was red, and he was being jabbed in the side to induce a hangover effect. Everyone was murmuring and looking at their phones, and it turned out the martial law incident had occurred. But we couldn't stop filming and had to concentrate, and the director kept looking at his phone and seemed distracted."
He joked, "When the director immerses himself in a work, he really immerses himself, but he still does everything that needs to be done," and said, "I didn't expect him to be that relaxed. I thought masters would be sensitive and cynical. Even so, he had composure and romance. Then suddenly he let out a deep sigh, took a small flask of whiskey from his bag, set it up and took a single sip. It seemed all of the director's emotions were contained in that sip. I'll never forget that moment." He added with a laugh, "I wondered, 'Should I ask for a sip? Would it help my drunk acting?'" while emphasizing that it was "a scene I'll never forget."
Park Hee-soon added, "If he were just a director who made good films, I wouldn't praise him like this. But his character is so good, he's humorous, and he's someone to be respected as an elder. On top of that, he's funny. The group chat isn't just the director and actors, but it almost became like a comedy club."
[Photo] Provided by CJ ENM.
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