Son Jae-Gon Talks 달콤, 살벌한 연인 (My Scary Girl)

After his studies, young Son Jae-Gon took 350,000 Won (roughly $350) he had been saving for a while, and shot a 52 Minutes DV film entitled 너무 많이 본 사나이 (The Man Who Watched Too Much). It was a strange mix of thriller and comedy, with an even stranger outline. Seung-Soo is the voyeuristic type, filming a (female) neighbor in all his horny escapades... until one day she gets murdered, and he catches it all on camera. Two problems arise: 1) the tape is brought to the video store she works part time at by his sister Seung-Mi and 2) the killer wants the tape, obviously. Now, while this man rainsacks all the video rentals in the neighborhood, Seung-Mi starts showing him all the films her brother enjoyed, all his favorite directors, especially Hitchcock. What happens then? The killer even forgets his initial intention, and influenced by all that movie goodness, drops the knife to fulfill his new dream: film director!

The film was too long and too 'expensive' to participate in that '100,000 Won Film Festival' Son wanted to screen his film at, but word of mouth spreading on the net about this hilarious little film reached even the Bucheon Film Festival, which screened the film in 2000, making it one of the most popular of the entire event. Although Son shot another short film (this time for 5 Million Won, so a blockbuster by his standards) in between, the success of his initial film led him to take part in the script writing for the parody film 재밌는 영화 (Fun Movie). Mixing hilarious parodies of some of the most famous Korean films of the 90s and early 2000s, from 쉬리 (Shiri) to 초록 물고기 (Green Fish), from 엽기적인 그녀 (My Sassy Girl) to a side-splittingly funny rendition of the s&m scenes in Jang Sun-Woo's 거짓말 (Lies) mixed with elements of Kang Woo-Suk's 투캅스 (Two Cops), the comedy was a decent success, and although it does overstay its welcome by a good 30 Minutes, pretty good as well.

Although Son spent the last 3 years looking at scripts and watching films without doing anything special, his new film My Scary Girl is perhaps one of the finest examples of the new wind that's hitting Chungmuro's production structure. The low cost and shorter shooting time associated with HD is gaining popularity in an industry which finally seems to have learned its lesson, after most of the blockbusters from the 2005 season flopped to varying degrees. And the secret of its success is not just down to paying attention to details, like dialogue, script, and casting people who fit the tone of the film and aren't just walking product placements. Most reviews, even those who aren't that interested in the film, point out it's fun in ways other Korean comedies rarely can be. That the sometimes dreaded 반전 (twist) does happen, but it's not the usual comedy to melodrama. Better yet, it's completely the opposite. This film is not likely to set records at the box office, or to make huge inroads overseas (a lot of the dialogue is a little too local to translate, especially the net-jargon and jokes associated with popular culture, including Yonsama and his scarf). But it will surely leave a lasting impression on Korean viewers, for quite some time. Sitting down with Film2.0 for a recent interview, here's what Director Son Jae-Gon had to say about the film's popularity:

You must have been confused by all the instant popularity after 너무 많이 본 사나이 (The Man Who Watched Too Much) screened.
Son Jae-Gon: While people said the film was fun, on the other hand there were many indicating it was also very amateurish in some ways. I think it was the perfect excuse to tell me not to show that kind of feeling in my works in the future. After that, I did other things for financial reasons, and even though people kept asking me why I wasn't making any film, to be honest I really had no idea how to do it. But then through a friend, I learned Sidus FNH and MBC were looking for a director for an upcoming co-production, so I threw my hat in the mix. It first I just thought showing them a few ideas I had would be good enough to impress them, and one of the two items I showed them was 달콤, 살벌한 연인 (My Scary Girl).

Although the scale is certainly different, your new film is a sort of parody like 'The Man Who Watched Too Much'. Not so much a scene-based parody, but a parody of genre tropes as a whole. How come you're so interested in parodies?
Son: I don't watch as many parody films as I used to, and actually am not as interested in the genre nowadays. It's just that I'm the type who loves the subjects used on Dramas, films and novels, even if they might not be that realistic. So I kind of got used to genre betrayal and the use of traditional genre tropes all in one. I wouldn't say the film's major selling point is in finding all those parodies, but in the fact I was trying to show something different to people. When I was writing the script of 재밌는 영화 (Fun Movie), parodies had already become part of popular culture, and I started thinking all the parodies coming out on standup comedy shows on TV were better than anything I wrote. So that's why I sort of lost interest in parodies after that.

How did you react the first time you saw the finished product?
Son: Expecting the final product to completely stick to the initial concept is pretty much useless, because while shooting several factors influence the course of the film. The biggest change concerns the characters, as the actors' personal skills and interpretation styles influence and often change the characters compared to the script, but also in the editing process, or when we added the soundtrack. There were things which remained the same from the concept to the final film, but also many things which changed eventually. I'm just the kind of person who accepts naturally that kind of process as an inevitable part of making films.

The most surprising thing about the film was Park Yong-Woo's acting. Not only the image change, but also his performance was quite impressive.
Son: Well, when we were casting, I just brought him in as I thought he'd do really well. But then I also think he was very confident about this character too. His acting might go overboard more or less, but this kind of film allowed him some space to do so. But mostly I think he abandoned his traditional ways and completely immersed himself in genre-specific acting. At first I wanted him to avoid that kind of acting, but he thought that would be the best way to go, to ensure popularity. At the end of the day, I thought his approach was right, and it actually helped the film immensely. He's the one responsible for those changes and improvements.

People could argue Mi-Na (Choi Kang-Hee)'s character shows elements of your self-consciousness. She doesn't know who Mondriant is, but since she likes the painting, she buys it. Do you think if you truly like something, you can do everything?
Son: There's a fun side to making films, but also many hardships. One of the main reasons why I didn't make any films the last five years was because I disliked certain aspects of the filmmaking process. Perhaps that was because I avoided chances on purpose, and never focused on any project positively.

Did you have the HD format in mind from the beginning?
Son: Not really, I didn't choose HD because I necessarily liked the format, it was just a project the production company had been preparing. Since I wanted to shoot my film, I didn't really discriminate against that. To be honest, format is not really that important to me. It's just that, if you use HD, you can film at a quicker pace, so there was really no reason not to shoot the HD way.

Do you think making a parody of genre tropes is a notch above simply doing parodies?
Son: Whereas traditional Korean comedies go from comedy to melodrama, My Scary Girl does the opposite, going from melodrama to comedy. Throwing thriller elements in there was a little difficult. While monitoring, showing the film to people without any information, I saw they reacted too strongly to the thriller parts, so I said I'd focus a little more on the comedy and had a hard time. That's why I removed most of the blood and all the heavy music from the film, and in a way why we cast Choi Kang-Hee in the first place. The best thing about her is that she's got this strange image, looking strong but then again not giving you that feeling completely. There might be people who'll feel sad because of all the thriller elements I removed, but then again we were making a commercial film after all. And I have credit card debts to pay (laughs).

Won't those people be sad about the exclusion of thriller elements exactly because they liked Mi-Na's character?
Son: In a way, yes. They'd probably wish this was a little more on the 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) side of things (laughs). But we cast Choi Kang-Hee for other reasons too. She does have a friendly image, but on the other hand she has also that kind of mysterious beauty, removed from mainstream canons. I thought viewers wouldn't easily sympathize with Mi-Na the moment her secrets are revealed, but we couldn't just lump all the comedy together, and after talking with her I decided to move the character's focus from thriller to melodrama. As a whole, the film might be a comedy, but I thought you'd need to feel something for the melodrama portions as well. That's what Mi-Na helped with. If you wanted the rest of the comedy to work, those initial moments of melodrama had to work effectively.

Didn't you want to simultaneously mix breezy and serious tones from the beginning?
Son: One of the reasons why I enjoy serious films is also because I'd like to make films like that. I'm not the kind of person who reads a lot, but I never read best sellers or trendy Japanese novels. Time permitting, I like classics from authors like Dostoevskij, Stendhal and Balzac a lot more. Still, my favourite contemporary writer is still Hemingway, but to me his works are a way to relieve stress. Unlike those classic writers, contemporary writers rarely even try to tackle grandious themes like the religious sense of eternity, man's inner demons and similar things, otherwise they'd just elicit laughter and be ridiculed. Reading works with those themes as the central focus, you can forget about all of reality's problems for a moment. I mean, humanity is suffering... how can credit card bills come to mind (laughs)? I'm not the type interested in illicit affairs of parking lot fights.

If you had to give us a little hint of your next project?
Son: Treatment already got here, but the marketing team doesn't want me to talk about it. Well, they didn't want me to talk about The Man Who Watched Too Much either (laughs). It's again a mix of comedy and crime thriller tropes, but this time I promised myself to turn down the comedy a little.

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달콤, 살벌한 연인 (My Scary Girl)
Director: 손재곤 (Son Jae-Gon)
Cast: 최강희 (Choi Kang-Hee), 박용우 (Park Yong-Woo), 조은지 (Jo Eun-Ji)
Official Website
Theatrical Trailer (Streaming, 700k, Windows Media)
Theatrical Trailer (Downloadable, Windows Media)
Teaser Trailer (Streaming, Windows Media)
TV Spot (Streaming, 700k, Windows Media)
Poster Shoot (Streaming, 700k, Windows Media)
Making Of (Streaming, 700k, Windows Media)
Movie Stills/Posters
Budget: 1.9 Billion Won
Produced By: 싸이더스 FNH (Sidus FNH), MBC 프로덕션 (MBC Production)
Rating: 18 and Over

[Source: Film2.0]