[시사회 - PRESS SCREENING] 짝패 (The City of Violence)

That idea that Ryu had never made a pure, traditional action film in the past kept haunting him and even his longtime friend and collaborator, Korea's best action director Jung Doo-Hong. It was in the offices of the Seoul Action School that this crazy project took form, even before Crying Fist became reality. The plot is rather simple: the destinies of five friends meeting for the first time in 10 years, reunited by the death of a common friend, open a sort of 'Made in Chungcheong Province' Pandora's box. The Korean title refers to a partnership, a duo formed between Tae-Soo (Jung Doo-Hong), a Detective from Seoul and an old childhood friend of his, Seok-Hwan (Ryu Seung-Hwan). Meeting together after many years at the funeral of their childhood friend Wang-Jae (Ahn Gil-Gang), the two also see old friends like Pil-Ho (Lee Beom-Soo) and Dong-Hwan (Jung Seok-Yong). Not the best of reunions, but it was the first time they saw each other in 10 years. Problem, of course, is that everyone changed, some in very suspect ways, like Pil-Ho. Curious about the sudden death of his friend, Tae-Soo decides to stay in town a few days to recharge his batteries and look into Wang-Jae's acquaintances, which reveals the existence of a mysterious gang possibly being behind the murder, which forces Seok-Hwan and Tae-Soo to look into it and find the culprit. That's it. Two friends reunite in their hometown and go after the baddies who killed their friend. The City of Violence starts with a simple story, but it instantly distances itself from other Korean films of the genre, for featuring actors well versed in Martial Arts, opposed to actors training for a few months for the role. And of course because Ryu and Jung are perhaps the best in the country when it comes to filming and choreographing action scenes, this simple approach is even more effective.

The problem was the money, as it's always the case. Hardcore fans know how good Jung can be if well guided, and Ryu has shown a certain intensity in his small roles, like in Lee Chang-Dong's 오아시스 (Oasis), not to mention that masterpiece which was his supporting 'appearance' in 친절한 금자씨 (Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) [it takes talent to pass by and not be noticed! Or was I the only one who didn't spot him on first viewing?]. But investors are hard to please, and a film with 'only' Ryu Seung-Wan and Jung Doo-Hong wasn't going to sell too well. People close to the two, longtime friends and collaborators told them maybe it would have been a good idea to change the cards a little. When Park Chan-Wook's Moho Films refused to invest in the film, they realized things weren't going to be easy. Investors only came knocking around after Crying Fist released in theaters, in the form of CJ Entertainment's new HD Project, which also involves Park's latest 사이보그지만 괜찮아 (I'm a Cyborg, But That's Ok), to promote low(er) budget films using the new technology. Lee Won-Jae, who wrote the brilliant script of 혈의 누 (Blood Rain) was already in the final stages around the release of Crying Fist, and actually completed the script on the flight back from the Cannes showing of the film. This new connection with CJ brought in Art Director Jo Hwa-Seong from Sympathy For Lady Vengeance and DP Kim Young-Cheol of 파이란 (Failan). The project started with HD in mind, but to better portray the action scenes moved to Super 16mm.

The Chungcheong setting is curious, not so much because of its 지방 (jibang, area outside Seoul) origins but because it's not the usual Gyungsang or Jeolla Province setting. In describing the project, writer Lee talked of a 'two men 用心棒 (Yojimbo) turning into 七人の侍 (The Seven Samurai)'. And the area wasn't just there to take advantage of some funny dialect: Director Ryu is from Onyang in Southern Chungcheong, Jung Doo-Hong from Buyeo (always Southern Chungcheong) and Lee Beom-Soo is from Cheongju in Northern Chungcheong, so there will be no need for approximation when it comes to all the nuances in the dialect -- which, as well as people like Im Won-Hee in 쓰리, 몬스터 (Three... Extremes) tried to represent is not that immediate. But of course what will probably remain inked in people's memory is the final fight between Ryu and Jung together against 100 (yes, one hundred) foes. For the action in the film, we don't only have Jung Doo-Hong, but all the top tier of the Seoul Action School, which includes Yang Gil-Young of 올드보이 (Oldboy), Kwon Seung-Goo of Arahan, Park Ju-Cheon of 불멸의 이순신 (The Immortal Lee Soon-Shin), Lee Hong-Pyo of 바람의 파이터 (Fighter in the Wind) and more, including Park Hyun-Jin from Jackie Chan's stunt team..

The 2.5 Billion The City of Violence had its press screening on May 8 at the CGV in Yeonsan. Present at the screening director Ryu and Jung Doo-Hong. Release is set for May 25.

Press Screening Clip (Downloadable, 14mb, Windows Media)

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INTERVIEW WITH PD Kim Jung-Min
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When did you start working with Ryu Seung-Wan?
Kim Jung-Min: I was line-producer in 아라한 (Arahan), and that led to my first project as PD in 짝패 (The City of Violence). Even at the beginning when I heard Ryu and Jung Doo-Hong wanted to have no special effects, no CG and go the low budget route I thought it was a really fascinating project.

I thought about the film in low-budget terms, but looking at the Teaser Trailer the scale looks much bigger than I expected.
Kim: Well, at first we really were going to go guerrilla style on everything, wrapping up with a 1 Billion Won budget or even less. But then we changed around the story and other things, and the production cost went up to 2.4 Billion. Lee Beom-Soo stars in the film, but the guarantee he received was nothing compared to his usual standards, so if big stars featured in the film this would be your usual 5 Billion Won film. That's why the film doesn't feel low budget, we just put everything we wanted in the film one way or another.

Because the director was starring in the film, it feels like you became a surrogate for Ryu on the set.
Kim: That's why I was the one yelling cut at the end of every scene. Usually Ryu is very calm on the set, so there were no worries for me. To go smoothly in the second part of the shoot, it was Ryu's idea to start working this way from the beginning. So he convinced me right from the beginning, even if I didn't like the idea. The first two or three times I really felt awkward and... things got a little 'improper,' let's put it like that (laughs). Ryu has always been the type who asks many questions on the set, but since he was the one acting this time, he'd always check around to see the reaction to his acting. And based on my experience working with him since Arahan, Director Ryu values time so much he barely eats anything on the set. Even when he does eat, it's just a sandwich and he's never been the type to ask for something in particular. This time he was even acting, so I was telling him going out by himself for some meat later would have been fine.

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INTERVIEW WITH RYU SEUNG-WAN
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The clash between the fantastic elements of the genre and realism seemed to be present in 죽거나 혹은 나쁘거나 (Die Bad) just like in this film. Do you think fans of Die Bad will come into this expecting the same kind of style?
Ryu Seung-Wan: After Die Bad, making the following three films, people kept telling me things like: "Why aren't you making films like that anymore? We're disappointed'.. you know, that kind of story. I really grew tired of that and it even put me through a lot of stress. Back then my answer would just be if they liked that film so much, then all they needed was buying the DVD. That was the kind of film I wanted to make back then, but I'm not going to make films to please other people's tastes, since mine have changed. But honestly people acting like that was just a minority. I even did an informal poll and there were many people who didn't know Die Bad and 아라한 (Arahan) were made by the same director. That's why you have to make films thinking there'll be people who've never seen your work before. If you want to be analytic, then The City of Violence might be the closest to Die Bad in sensibility, compared to the rest of my films. Lee Beom-Soo might be in this, but we're not focusing on that marketing wise. So they're similar in that that there's no big stars, it doesn't follow the production environment of mainstream commercial films and starts from a certain boundary [low budget], the fact I'm acting in the film, and most importantly that this is not an epic film but something starting small and then growing into something much bigger, slowly developing all the relationships between characters. I think Die Bad fans will realize something after watching this film. That by comparing the two they sense I changed a lot, there's been a long period between the two and my style has changed. But of course you can never predict if they'll be satisfied.

Many people said looking at the teaser trailer and that last scene remind of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill and the last scene.
Ryu: Really, I'm tired of people saying things like that for all my films, and this time we tried our best not to recreate those situations. Of course people still think the Climax scene shown in the trailer reminds of Kill Bill, but that's just because they haven't seen the film. Yes, the use of colours and the traditional house setting are a little similar, but if you look at Kill Bill it's more in line with 60-70s Shaw Brothers set. The set we used in 짝패 (The City of Violence) is more similar to Lee Du-Yong films like 돌아온 외다리 (Return of the One-Legged Man) or 무장해제 (Disarmament). Personally for what concerns conventions in genre films, because the sources of those conventions are so familiar you can't do a single thing about people finding similarities, but I just wanted to try a broader approach.

What was the initial concept of the film?
Ryu: First idea was taking characters you'd find in a Chang Cheh or John Woo film and give them an environment similar to Chinatown or L.A. Confidential, then make a sort of 警察故事 (Police Story)-type action film out of that. So more than the traditional idea of film noir, more of an Asian noir feeling, or entering the kind of hardboiled world of James Ellroy's oriental noir novels and making a Jackie Chan film out of that, with reckless and intense action. And I'm not saying I wanted to replicate the style or story of those Jackie Chan films, just that sense of recklessness, all that frenetic action. If you look at the final chase scenes of Buster Keaton films, there's always a moment when the characters can't control themselves, when it's too late to go back and reflect... that's exactly the feeling I'm talking about. And when I talk of oriental noir, including HK Noir, there's characters in Hollywood noir like the Phillip Marlow films or the characters played by Humphrey Bogart, calm and cold characters who feel very intense emotions and who carry them inside. There's many situations when they can't abandon those emotions and find themselves in tragic situations. The biggest difference then between the Hollywood noir and the Asian kind I'm talking about is the way the characters react to those tragic situations. Think of Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, remaining an observer until the end. He never becomes an important part of the incident, but until the end observers events objectively. You know, you start as an observer, then get somehow involved in this situation, and then you have the responsibility to do something and end up having to face it. I wanted to try something like that in this film, starting from a little thing which hides much bigger things inside. That's what really fascinated me about this project: it does have all those elements of friendship found in Oriental Noir, but also the kind of ravaged world of Hollywood noir. I wanted to show my personal take on that, and of course wanted to instill pure action and the excitement coming from it to the film.

You always acted as 짝패 (a duo), but this time you share leading credits, so this carries another kind of meaning for you and Jung Doo-Hong.
Ryu: If you look at my previous collaborations with Jung, there was always a kind of boundary. To be specific, Jung's realistic 'live action' style and its representation on film, blending technique with the environment was a little different from my conception and favourite action, with a little more fantasy thrown in the mix. These two conflicting styles weren't always easy to combine, so the kind of action resulting from our collaboration always had to deal with that dualism. But since this time we're acting ourselves, that clash of opinions which animated our previous working collaborations had become a sort of habit for us, but it feels like we never tried to make a decision on which style was better. You could say this time we took our preferences to the set, and tried to find that conclusion, that decision acting on the set. The film became an arena to voice our differences, and the film carries the result of that little 'debate', I guess.

Compared to Die Bad (2000) a long time has passed. If you had to compare the action back then with what you did in this film, do you feel any major difference, in particular regarding the way your body adapted to those conditions?
Ryu: When we first started 짝패 (The City of Violence), our motto was something along the lines of 'we'll wreck our entire bodies to show you the best stunts in Korea'. But then as we started shooting, it turned into 'after all, storytelling is the important thing in films' (laughs). Of course compared to Die Bad, it was much more difficult, and then again back then if something wasn't going too well, I'd just go 'Eh... whatever, let's just do it that way', but now things are much different. And then again, I wouldn't say now I have better judgment of what's good acting, but now if something doesn't completely satisfy me I continue doing it. Now I have a schedule to follow, I have to think about the budget, and many other things, so I can't really compare the experience. And of course I hurt myself while shooting, so it couldn't be easy.

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PRESS REACTION
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In Korea perhaps more than in any other mature film industry, the key in judging the reception of a film like this is to distance the action fans from those who don't particularly care about the genre. This was a tremendously positive reaction, not in the sense that everyone thought the film was fantastic, but looking at the reaction of certain critics who rarely show any 'affection' for the genre give thumbs up to the film without reserves promises well. The film reminded of others yes, but Ryu was able to give it a distinctive touch and rhythm. Lee Sang-Yong of Film2.0 commented that more than bringing something new to the table, the film put all of Ryu's influences and imagination from the films he loved into an entertaining whole, without compromising the realism which has become synonym with Korean films. So we're not necessarily dealing with 'pure action' the way the old Shaw Brothers films showed, but the purest Ryu Seung-Wan action film. There's not only praise for the action, as Lee Beom-Soo shows a new side to his acting with his first serious baddie role. Now the real issue will be box office, as many said that with the exception of HK action fans other people might not be all that interested in the film. But let's not forget this is a 2.5 Billion Won project, so even only a Million tickets would be well enough to break even. What counts is the fact Ryu has finally given us his personal ode to action films, something which might be his last statement within this genre, but also could be potentially memorable.

Kim Soo-Yeon, Movieweek
FILM: GOOD - BOX OFFICE: GOOD

Kim Do-Hoon, Screen
FILM: GOOD - BOX OFFICE: EXCELLENT

Jo Hyung-Joo, Cinetizen
FILM: GOOD - BOX OFFICE: AVERAGE

Choi Dong-Gyu, Cineseoul
FILM: EXCELLENT - BOX OFFICE: EXCELLENT

Tae Sang-Joon, nKino
FILM: AVERAGE - BOX OFFICE: AVERAGE

Jung Gi-Young, Premiere
FILM: GOOD - BOX OFFICE: AVERAGE

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POST-SCREENING COMMENTS
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RYU SEUNG-WAN
"The first time I talked to people about making this film, they were telling me I must have been crazy. I guess I've always been interested in action films because I grew up getting beat up, so I had this huge desire of hitting, and action films were my vehicle to release all that tension. But since I'm really a fan, I tried my best to give the genre justice, we did everything in our powers to do the best possible action film. 쉬리 (Shiri) could be considered a sort of action film, but there are no professional martial artists in there. In our case, we convey feelings through action itself, we act with our bodies, you know, the kind of adrenaline rush you get from action films? There's many actors who can do action scenes well, from Ryu Seung-Beom to Kwon Sang-Woo, Seol Kyung-Gu, Song Kang-Ho and more. But films using action to portray sentiments are few and far between. 짝패 (The City of Violence) is exactly that, a 순수 액션 영화 (pure action film). There were a lot of difficulties involved. My first intentions were not to be limited by the low budget, at least in dealing with the film's look, which is why we went all multi-coloured. At least that should have been distinctive enough to leave a mark, so we paid special attention to those elements. But then again, since we were shooting with a low budget, many things that are usually taken care of via CG, like falling from the second floor, or hanging from high places while someone grabs your hair... that's just things we did ourselves, why, do you think we had money for CG? When the trailer of the film was released, people noted that it looked similar to Kill Bill, I heard that a lot. Maybe they were saying that because we're using a set like Tarantino's work for the last scene, but the films are completely different, both in story and setting. Of course if you had to mention a quick difference is that we're dealing with a duo instead of a woman. Plus of course they use a kitana, we use a sashimi knife. The girl in there is fine, but we get some finger cutting in here. So it's different, already. One thing though, is we planned a scene involving extreme sports like inline skating, but after watching ต้มยำกุ้ง (Tom Yum Goong) we changed it and decreased its importance. Acting myself in a film like this, I realized how great Korean actors are, it's really one of the hardest jobs you could possibly do, and I don't think you'll see me acting again in the future, at least that's what I feel now. I think this will be my last pure action film, then I'll try to diversify myself a little more. I could suddenly make a melodrama (and then people would probably say I've gone nuts), a comedy too, it's not genre that counts, but the story you tell and the characters inside it. I think I'm slowly losing interest in genre itself."

JUNG DOO-HONG
"Ryu Seung-Wan was really great, even though he injured his knee, he waited until the shoot was over and then went through surgery. That truly shows dedication. I think the fact I've been able to show my best in this film after all those years of acting makes me sad in a way, but I think this experience will help me greatly in the future. I'm quite satisfied in the film, to be honest, and I'd like to give Ryu Seung-Wan 100 points: of course I don't know much about acting so I can't judge that, but as for action is concerned he was great. You won't see too many actors in Korea able to do action scenes like those. In the future I'll try to teach systematically some young actors the fundamentals of action films, to improve the genre in Korea. My dream is to one day walk in a video-shop in a foreign country and see a corner for Korean action films, so that's what we'll try to achieve in the next few years."

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짝패 (The City of Violence)
Director: 류승완 (Ryu Seung-Wan)
Cast: 류승완 (Ryu Seung-Wan), 정두홍 (Jung Doo-Hong), 이범수 (Lee Beom-Soo), 김서형 (Kim Seo-Hyung), 안길강 (Ahn Gil-Gang), 온주환 (On Ju-Hwan)
Twitch Preview
Official Website
Theatrical Trailer (Downloadable, Windows Media)
Theatrical Trailer (Streaming, 700k, Windows Media)
Teaser Trailer (Streaming, 700k, Windows Media)
Teaser Trailer (Downloadable, Windows Media)
TV Report (Downloadable, 12mb, Windows Media)
Making Of (Streaming, 500k, Windows Media)
Interview with Ryu Seung-Wan + Highlights (Streaming, 16:46, Windows Media)
Movie Stills/Posters
Budget: 2.5 Billion Won
Produced By: 외유내강 (Film Makers R&K), Seoul Action School
Distributed By: CJ 엔터테인먼트 (CJ Entertainment)
International Sales: CJ 엔터테인먼트 (CJ Entertainment)
Rating: 18 and Over
RELEASE: May 25

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