(following interview ①) Director Son Jae-gon of the film Wild Sing was amazed by actor Gang Dong-won's passion as he even practiced actual headspins.
Director Son Jae-gon conducted an interview on the morning of the 28th at a café in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. At the event, he met with domestic reporters and talked about his new film Wild Sing.
Wild Sing, which opens on June 3, is a comedy film about a once chart-topping but unexpectedly embroiled-in-scandal three-member mixed-gender dance group called Triangle that disbanded overnight and now makes a reckless attempt to seize a comeback chance after 20 years. The film is a new work from the production company behind Extreme Job, the 2019 comedy that thrilled about 16.26 million viewers, with director Son Jae-gon at the helm.
In particular, Wild Sing has drawn attention as actors Gang Dong-won, Park Ji-hyun and Um Tae-goo play Triangle members Hyun Woo, Domi and Sang-gu respectively, preparing the film by practicing actual dance and singing. Smiling, director Son Jae-gon said about the casting, "I had very mixed feelings." He added, "Everyone was probably excited and nervous. But this isn't just about this project; from personal experience I can't be sure of anything because it depends on how audiences react in theaters. Even if we laughed and thought it was fun on set, the theater reaction is often different, so I felt conflicted personally. But the team making it liked it a lot from the styling stage onward."
He also said about Gang Dong-won, "He decided to join the project from the early stages. Among the entire crew, he seemed to know the film's styling and the music of that era the best. Gang Dong-won already knew well the style, music and atmosphere of that era. So it seems he chose to do it himself. Of course he also really likes comedy acting. Therefore, not only Hyun Woo but the overall styling and musical feel of Triangle reflected many of Gang Dong-won's ideas."
He continued, "When we worked together it said there would be headspins, b-boying and break dance, and perhaps because he saw the most changed scripts, the dance setting was probably there from when Gang Dong-won first received the script. After his casting was confirmed, we added settings like headspins. I thought that if an actor like Gang Dong-won was going to do it, the character needed an extreme pursuit fitting him that would suit comedy. So I put that setting in."
He recalled, "I worried about how the actor would take the adaptation. At that age doing headspins. But he said, 'I'll try.' I knew how hard Gang Dong-won works when doing action films, and he said in his own words that dance can be more difficult than action. It might be because he wasn't used to it. So we roughly set the training process, but it seemed he thought he shouldn't do it at just an adequate level."
Director Son Jae-gon praised, "I only watched occasionally, but at some point he took the lead and added more sessions to the schedule, and we postponed choreography-related shooting whenever possible so he could train more until then. Even on days off he brought choreographers from the provinces to practice separately. It was almost apologetic. I felt Gang Dong-won doesn't let things slide until the end no matter what project he's on."
(continues from interview ③)<
[photo] Provided by Lotte Entertainment.
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