"영화는 영화다" (Film is Film) aka "Rough Cut"

Through a friend I met a producer who works for the writer/director Kim Ki-duk. The next day I am on the set watching Japanese fans trying to get glimpses of the Korean actors big in both Korea and Japan. I meet the director Jang Hun; the former assistant director on two Kim Ki-duk films. I also meet So Jim-sob, the editor, the sound man, and a few other people.

A few weeks later I have a copy of the script and am reviewing footage. Every weekend since I was taking trips up to Seoul and taking part in the editing. The last two weekends were the best since I was able to review the entire movie getting closer to final cut and was able to make my own side-by-side edits of the entire film. The editor and the director reviewed my work and discussed if they liked it or not.

Since my Korean is at a low level, I was not exactly able to edit dialogue. However I was able to focus more on flow (we had to cut 30 minutes from the rough cut) as well as continuity (fun!). It is being released Sept. 11th; the Thursday before Chusok. Today I saw some of the posters posted around town. The first teaser poster came out on the internet several weeks before (love that shot) with another poster I spotted today on the web (ㅎㅎ looks so posed). Here is another poster.

In a nutshell, this is a movie within a movie. I enjoy how it continues to go back and forth between what is "real" and what is being filmed for the "movie". The main character has been playing gangster roles for so long he sees himself as a gangster. During fight sequences he really punches the stunt men and has more than an air of superiority. Then he meets a real gangster who finds movies to be his new hobby and things escalate from there.

This is a low budget movie that doesn't feel low budget. Both of the actors are well known and it is getting a large holiday release in Korea. We'll see how it does when it comes out next month.