Im Sang-Soo Talks 오래된 정원 (The Old Garden)

When 처녀들의 저녁식사 (Girls' Night Out) hit theaters in 1998, Korean viewers were used to sex, but more in the form of voyeuristic films borne out of the mixing influences of 70s hostess films and 80s erotic melodramas. But here he comes, talking honestly about sex, with a playful yet mature take on relationships, and how they're affected by sexual desire. Two years later, he came back with 눈물 (Tears), an affectionate portrait of the angry youth of this generation, perhaps the first mature film covering this issue after the emergence of 90s teen angst films, which had 'actors' from boyband in droves, but very little meat (or, in other cases, enough machismo to make Choi Min-Soo look like someone from 'Queer Eye For The Straight Guy'). The film got mixed reactions from critics, and was largely ignored by the public, but it had the kind of energy which would show up later in Im's other films. But it wasn't until 2003 and his amazing 바람난 가족 (A Good Lawyer's Wife) that people started accepting the fact we had a tremendously talented director on our hands. Several awards later, Im Sang-Soo was one of the most striking voices in Chungmuro, but that came back to haunt him, eventually.

Although he probably expected 그때 그사람들 (The President's Last Bang) to be the subject of hot debate, I don't think he ever envisioned the son of former president Park Jung-Hee to raise a fuss and almost force the deleting of two important scenes from the film. Still, Im's talent came through, and the film showed he not only kept all his wit and talent for snappy dialogue intact, but also that he was a master filmmaker when it comes to rhythm and visuals. In short, 'Last Bang' was a success on all fronts -- with the possible exception of of box office, even though it sold more than a Million tickets -- and finally introduced Director Im to a larger audience overseas, if 'A Good Lawyer's Wife' didn't do it before.

His new film 오래된 정원 (The Old Garden) has been on top of my 'to see' list for a long time, not only for being an adaptation of Hwang Seok-Young's novel, but for the period it's set in, dealing with an unique love story between an activist and an art teacher, with the Gwangju Massacre as the background. We covered the film a little more in depth here (scroll down), so you can read that to get a general idea of what we're dealing with. But first take a look at this, a tremendous interview with Director Im from Film2.0. I'd love to translate it all, as it's immensely fascinating -- as always with Im -- but here's a few highlights:

The day you heard about the judgment which ended up deleting scenes in 그때 그사람들 (The President's Last Bang), did you cry?
Im Sang-Soo: The lawyers must have been the ones who cried the most.

And you?
Im: It was January 31, and I got a call from one of the lawyers in the evening, he was completely drunk. The moment I got the call, I said I was sorry, I mourned on the phone for an entire hour. So I cried too, I guess.

Did you have enough confidence to overturn the ruling?
Im: When Park Ji-Man [Park Jung-Hee's son] applied for the provisional disposition, I went out drinking with three of our lawyers, and we said half jokingly: "If we lose, let's all jump in the Han River and die'. The lawyers were confident in terms of the legality of the whole thing, but they felt uneasy about the judge's eventual decision. They know that better than anybody, with all the habitual practices and irrationality that happen within legal circles. At the end, we were stabbed in the back. As for me, I thought it wasn't really a matter of using those scenes or not [the documentary parts which were deleted], as they were a part of the film I couldn't get rid of, but at the end they cleverly cut them out, that was their judgment.

It must have been really hard to deal with.
Im: No, it's just... I learned a lot, there were many things I didn't know, and I realized that pretty quickly. People think of me as a cynical person, and there's certainly a cynical side of me, I'm not denying that. I know I'm not a naive person, I know our society is quite a complicated world, but I also know they lied a lot. They didn't fool me there. So I guess because of all this, I assumed a certain cynical stance regarding the issue. But on the other side of the fence, they were much stronger, more experienced and trickier than I could possibly ever think.

Did the film screen in the US as planned, this October?
Im: I got the mail informing me the film was a flop (laughs).

The reaction at overseas Film Festivals was good.
Im: Well, in Korea the film wasn't debated much, if not for issues that had nothing to do with the film itself. But, on the other hand, it looks like outside the country people accepted the film just the way I wanted, not taking it so seriously. The reaction in Toronto and New York was good, and I don't know at what kind of level they were, but I met a few producers who were willing to cross bridges and talk with me. I was in the press' spotlight, too.

'The Old Garden' was published in 2000, and that's when you probably read it, but why did you decide to turn it into a film now?
Im: After working on 'The President's Last Bang', I thought I could pretty much deal with 'The Old Garden', too. At first, I cried reading it, but I never thought it could be made into a film. But as I experienced working on 'Last Bang', I started to believe we could do it. Just like we painted a picture of those people's lives, their point of views and the truths hidden behind that aspect of their lives in 'Last Bang', I started thinking I could reveal some other truths by letting people know about the reality of those who lived on 'the other side', on a completely different playing field.

If 'Last Bang' dealt with the 10/26 accident [Park Jung-Hee's assassination] and the people who caused the accident , 'The Old Garden' is a long story using 5/18 [the Gwangju Massacre] to show the life of some of the many people affected by such event. And on top of that, it's a melodrama. Doesn't it sound like an easier and more comfortable issue to deal with, compared to 'Last Bang'?
Im: I don't know about that. Whether you participated in those demonstrations during the 80s or not, there's things people don't want to talk about, things they don't want to hear, terrible experiences they don't want to relive. It might also be because politicians have used that angle so much, or because novelists are so sentimental about it, so people grew tired of the whole thing. I think that's what people who weren't part of those movements could feel today. There's also people who did participate, who for other reasons just want to live comfortably, without the need to go back to those issues. But when it comes to 'The Old Garden', it's the kind of novel that didn't need to resort to those tactics of denial, as it's extremely well written. Besides making a portrait of those movements, the film delves into the lives of the those activists, and because it also focuses on the love story between Oh Hyun-Woo and Han Yoon-Hee, I think the film could appeal to viewers a lot more.

Why weren't you an activist, then?
Im: First, I was part of the bourgeois lifestyle; second, I was already precocious politically speaking, and third, I kind of dislike all kinds of organizations and groups.

Recent Korean films that use the 80s as background don't seem to worry too much about the era they're set in, appropriating the decade as a cinematic device, and not feeling too much pressure about the fact History can repeat itself. On the other hand, the films about the 80s which appeared in the 90s were much more open and regretful about our country's recent history. You can look at films like Jang Sun-Woo's 꽃잎 (A Petal), several Park Gwang-Soo films, and even Kim Jong-Hak's TV Drama 모래시계 (The Sandglass) for that. It feels like 'The Old Garden' is a little different from the nostalgic films set in the 80s that are appearing nowadays, with a kind of nervousness you can't find in today's films of this kind.
Im: Actually, amongst all of Jang Sun-Woo's film, 'A Petal' is one of his masterpieces. It doesn't really deal with Gwangju in a direct way, right from the beginning. Instead, it focuses on the most universal feelings people have about the Gwangju Massacre, by emphasizing their guilt. So, looking at it that way, I think it's a masterpiece.

So, if 'A Petal' deals with the guilt of the Gwangju Massacre, what does 'The Old Garden' deal with?
Im: How do you reward conviction? Other than being something a lot more valuable and nobler than money, when history plays a bad joke on you, what else can you live off? It's about a man's gloomy situation, and the rewardless road he decides to follow. He comes out of a lengthy prison term, for confessing in front of a judge he was a Socialist. Society has changed while he was away, so how can he live the rest of his life now? He has no idea what to make of the remaining days he's got. But, more than becoming an Assemblyman, I think his real reward is meeting Han Yoon-Hee, and the loyalty existing between the two. The kind of loyalty professed Socialists have for each other, promising to never betray the other.

In the novel, the characters call their relationship love, so why did you see it as loyalty?
Im: That's because I don't like that word too much.

So, for a director who dislikes love, what kind of love story are you going to make?
Im: I just want to delve deeper into that sentiment. Not just a fleeting passion, but something pure, deeper. Watching several Korean films, the feeling I get is that people who make those films don't do something fitting their age, it's too childish. I want to show a really mature, adult-like relationship, and want to make that kind of film.

I wonder, did you ever regret not becoming a novelist?
Im: There was a time when I dreamed of becoming one. But now I think it's a blessing I didn't end up doing it. Nowadays I don't even read too much... what can I say... seems like I'm destined to make movies.

[Source: Film2.0]