(Following interview ①) Actor Park Si-Hoo expressed his feelings about presenting a new film after 10 years with the movie "Shinui Akdan".
Park Si-Hoo held an interview for the film "Shinui Akdan" (director Kim Hyung-hyeop, distributor CJ CGV, production Studio Target) on the 24th at a location on Seosomun-ro in Jung-gu, Seoul. At the event, he spoke with domestic reporters about the film and his recent activities.
"Shinui Akdan" starts from the outrageous premise that an officer of the North Korean Ministry of State Security organizes a fake praise troupe to earn foreign currency, and depicts the process by which 12 people with different motives become "real" from "fake." It is scheduled to open on the 31st and meet audiences. Among them, Park Si-Hoo delivered a passionate performance as Major of the Ministry of State Security Park Gyo-soon, the protagonist of the work.
In particular, through this work he is presenting a new film for the first time in 10 years. Park Si-Hoo's previous film work was "Saranghue" released in 2015 but it was not released. The most recent film released was the 2013 film "I Am a Murderer." Regarding this, Park Si-Hoo said, "I haven't done an interview like this in over 10 years. I did it for the work. I had never done it before," expressing a sense of the times.
He said, "It was almost my first film shoot in 15 years. I had been shooting only dramas, and 15 years ago I also shot only dramas and then did a film shoot once, but the set was so different. Drama felt like a live broadcast, while film felt like family atmosphere and I have very good memories. This time I had high expectations and we filmed leisurely in a family-like atmosphere in Mongolia," he revealed.
However, Park Si-Hoo said, "But this time it was harder than drama. Because of the overseas location we had to shoot everything within a limited time. It wasn't Korea. There were location issues and various variables. I think the shooting was almost as tough as drama. We stayed on location for about a month and a half to two months," he said.
Enduring bitter cold approaching minus 40 degrees on the Mongolian snowfield, Park Si-Hoo, who played a North Korean military officer, performed North Korean dialect and even sang for a scene where he joins the troupe as a member. Park Si-Hoo explained why he was drawn to "Shinui Akdan" despite these hardships: "I enjoyed the movie Miracle in Cell No.7. I heard it was written by the same writer, so of course I felt I had to read it and I did. Reading the script gave me a very good feeling. I was attracted to the power of the script. Gyo-soon is cool-headed and, rushing toward success without caring about danger, meets the troupe and is reformed; also, I was very drawn to the synopsis that has emotion at the end," he said.
He added, "The North Korean dialect was really very difficult. It was so unfamiliar. I took one-on-one private lessons and asked the teacher who taught me professionally to record it so I could listen to it dozens or hundreds of times on set and memorize it. I kept listening and practicing until before shooting. I kept practicing constantly on set. There was no other way. If it had been the Chungcheong-do dialect it would have been easier because it's my hometown. In the past, during Cheongcham-dong Alice I sometimes used Chungcheong-do dialect so it was comfortable, but this time I worked hard," he said with a laugh.
He forced a wry smile and said, "The cold was tremendous," adding, "During the first shoot tears and snot come out just from staying still and they froze again. The camera stopped in just five minutes. It took a long time to thaw the camera. It was that cold. It was almost minus 38 degrees. I wondered how we could finish this shoot. Because the first shoot was so cold, early on we moved to indoor scenes, and after about two weeks when we went outside the weather had eased a lot to minus 20 degrees. Many actors suffered frostbite. I was okay. A few people had a hard time," he exclaimed.
He also said, "Singing was the hardest. I asked if I could be excused from it. Others are opera singers. There are also former idols, so they are all good. I couldn't even match half their level. Even on set while acting, until the end I kept begging, 'Can't I be excused from the singing?' But when singing on set I focused more on emotion than on singing well. That emotion turned out to be better than I worried it would be. On set I approached it with the feeling of conveying emotion rather than singing well," he said.
After a movie hiatus of more than 10 years, Park Si-Hoo shot HBO's planned Korea launch project "The Mentalist," but its release has been prevented by HBO's failed entry into Korea. He said, "Filming is all finished. It was a highly anticipated project with a large budget and a lot of attention; there has been talk that HBO might enter Korea or Netflix might acquire HBO, so I'm hopeful," he said.
He also laughed about the recently down market in the film industry, saying, "I absolutely believed it would do well and approached the film positively." He added, "Rather than that thought, I feel excitement and anticipation and the feelings I had 15 years ago. It reminds me of the excitement and anticipation from 15 years ago because it's been a long time since I filmed a movie. The feeling seems similar now. I came with only the expectation that it will do well rather than worries that it won't," he said with a laugh.
He went on, "Each work is precious. Because of that thinking I'm very cautious when choosing projects. So if a work doesn't appeal to me I just rest for a year or two. I chose this project and the upcoming film 'Karma' because I have confidence in them," he added. "I wait for the work rather than the character. I have no standards. Genre doesn't matter. I value the first impression," he added.
(Continued from interview ③)<
[Photo] Provided by HuFactory, Studio Target.
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