Director Park Chan-wook revealed behind-the-scenes of actor Lee Byung-hun's powerful performance.
On the morning of the 9th, the "Masters Talk" released on Cine21's YouTube featured director Park Chan-wook and Kim Tae-ri. Director Park Chan-wook is currently meeting audiences with his new film No Other Choice. Kim Tae-ri, who formed a bond with him in the past on The Handmaiden, discussed the work with director Park Chan-wook.
No Other Choice tells the story of office worker Mansu (Lee Byung-hun), who felt his life was as if "everything was fulfilled," but is abruptly fired and, to protect his wife and two children, to keep the house he barely bought, prepares his own war for reemployment. In addition to Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin appears as Mansu's wife Miri, Park Hee-soon as Mansu's rival Seon-chul, Lee Sung-min as another of Mansu's rivals Beom-mo, and Yeom Hye-ran as Beom-mo's wife Ara.
Among them, Kim Tae-ri laughed as she mentioned the scene where Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin lively portrayed the couple's quarrel between Mansu and Miri. Director Park Chan-wook then laughed along, saying, "Lee Byung-hun can be proud. He acted well then, but Lee Byung-hun's reactive face is really funny. At Miri's 'You're handsome too!' his expression of 'well, that's true' — that expression seems like someone who has suddenly lost the ability to speak. He has nothing to say."
He continued, "The following line is one of my favorites; I think it contains one of the themes of this film. There Mansu has nothing to say and has lost the argument, but still tries to reverse the situation and says, 'I'm at war right now, for my family,' and utters ridiculous things like 'god, trust.' Mansu sits while Miri stands, so he looks up and, acting like a man, tries to win, which I found funny," he joked.
Still, director Park Chan-wook emphasized, "If it were the young Lee Byung-hun from the Joint Security Area days, no matter how good an actor he was, he wouldn't have been able to do that." He added, "Also, during postproduction we made fine adjustments. In editing we put in and took out frames by a few frames. During mixing we suddenly lowered the volume of a line a bit. The lights come on and the speech falters, and when he says, 'You know…' we slightly reduced the finishing volume. We emphasized the sense of shrinking and losing confidence." Then director Park Chan-wook joked again, "Lee Byung-hun should know more about this, but I don't tell him," adding to the laughter.
[Photo] OSEN DB, YouTube source.
[OSEN]