Director Ryu Seung-wan opened up about the concerns he shared with actor Zo In-sung.
On the 20th, an interview with Ryu Seung-wan about the film "Humint" was held at a cafe in Anguk-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.
The film "Humint," a story about people with different objectives clashing in Vladivostok where secrets and truths are submerged in a cold sea of ice, was released on the 11th. "Humint," which deals with the story of four people who gathered in Vladivostok to find clues to incidents occurring in the border area between North Korea and Russia, is performing well as a work that further expands director Ryu Seung-wan's stage.
Through "Humint," director Ryu Seung-wan collaborated with Zo In-sung for the third time following "Mogadishu" and "Smuggling." Laughing, he said of Zo In-sung, who has released works in succession and has now become a film comrade, "He seems to have grown a lot taller."
Director Ryu said, "When we first met, he had already lived a long time as a star, so it was difficult, but watching him I thought this person ages well. I felt he accumulates time with dignity, and on set he doesn't waste his energy. When you go on overseas location shoots for months like for 'Mogadishu' and 'Humint,' there are moments when people get tired, but he doesn't show it. This time, since he was doing a lead roll, I saw him embrace things with greater responsibility, and it felt like he was lightening the load beyond just an actor-director relationship," he recalled.
Director Ryu, who said he also shares many concerns about Korean cinema with Zo In-sung, said, "What we talk about a lot these days is, 'How do we create our juniors?' How can the younger generation inherit our playground? We've been sponsoring film festivals since last year and doing it again." He added, "Since COVID-19, it's become so fragmented that at press conferences I say how can we return theaters to being a playground for audiences? To do that, we should at least do well with what we do; let's start with ourselves. He is now a really good friend."
As love for a film grows, so does the desire to meet audiences well. Especially for recently released films, early audience reviews can determine box office success. Asked whether that ever makes him stubborn, director Ryu Seung-wan laughed and said, "I haven't had that kind of stubbornness for a long time. I'm not at an age to be stubborn."
Director Ryu said, "I felt good doing stage greetings. The theater felt bustling after a long time; there were a lot of people in the lobby, families attending together — how long has it been? You can't help the flow of the times. You can't only blame whether this is successful or not, and the theater seems similar to a bathhouse," he analogized.
He added, "Now everyone showers at home and says, 'Why go to the bathhouse?' But everyone who drank banana milk at the bathhouse remembers it. Then you need something better. Maybe a jimjilbang is good, or something besides roasted stone eggs. Movies are like that too. The flow of the times is inevitable, and I'm grateful that people still show interest. Anyway, it's about talking about films."
Asked whether his sense of editing, which drives without boredom, is an innate talent, director Ryu Seung-wan shook his head and said, "If it were innate, how nice would that be?" He said, "When writing a script, creating storyboards, editing, even while recording I worry and am busy. I think the moment of scene transition is cinematic, and I wonder how to transition so that audiences, especially in the short-attention era, can engage in a tense back-and-forth for two hours with the film," he revealed.
Director Ryu said, "I don't really know either, but looking back at my method it seems to only torment me. Still, when I look now, parts that don't satisfy me come up. I constantly question and don't trust myself. There's no answer other than that." Because of this, Ryu Seung-wan said he seeks advice from those around him: "Working alone is too hard. Then I can fall into judgment errors, so I keep bothering people around me. Some on the set staff are about the same age as my children. I ask these friends too and keep bothering the people I work with."
In this "shorts era," when action may come an hour later and you make genre films without humor, you might think of other ways to captivate audiences. On this concern, director Ryu Seung-wan said, "That's why actors seem important. I think fun contains many things: there is the joy we conventionally think of, but there is also pleasure gained through awe, pleasure gained through tension, and showing the state of an actor carrying a certain energy is also very important."
He continued, "During filming, there are times when the on-set staff concentrate and times when they can't. We share those moments whenever the on-set energy is anxious. It's not just watching my subject; are we ourselves, who are making this, unable to concentrate? Are we filming what is concentrated? I watched those things while making it."
Director Ryu also explained the focus of "Humint," saying, "For this film I wanted to make a character-centered movie. While focusing on relationships and to maintain continuity, it's fun to move the editing along at a fast tempo, but I thought that continuously attaching and connecting relationships would, when accumulated, increase the density of relationships."
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