Interview: Jang Cheol-Soo


Feature by   |  Mar 8, 2011

Jang Cheol-Soo (장철수) first discovered his passion for film whilst studying Visual Design at Hongik University in Seoul, Korea. From there, he was lucky enough to get a foothold in the industry by working as an assistant director for the highly acclaimed auteur Kim Ki-Duk.

His first solo outing was the short film ‘Escalator To Heaven’ which was shown and praised at several film festivals, including Pucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and San Diego International Film Festival. Jang took the helm for his first full-length feature film, the powerful and poignant thriller ‘Bedevilled’ (김복남 살인사건의 전말), in 2009. The film starred Seo Young-Hee (‘The Chaser‘) as a troubled bank employee who returns to the isle of her youth only to find that it has become a vile and spiteful society.

With Jang out and about promoting the UK DVD and Blu-Ray releases of ‘Bedevilled’, we caught up with him to gain a greater insight into his past work and film philosophy.

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Far East Films: How did you get started in the film industry, was it always your chosen career path?

Jang Cheol-Soo: While attending university, in the hope of getting to work in the advertisement industry, I changed my major to visual design. And there, I got fascinated by films naturally hanging out with the people who liked films and helping them to make their short films.

FEF: Who would you say are the major influences that have guided you throughout your career, from starting out in the industry to actually making your directorial debut?

JCS. My art teacher recommended me to watch the films such as `Cinema Paradiso’ and `Taxi Driver’ when I was discouraged by the failure of the Art College entrance exam. I was shocked by those films, realising that there existed such good films in the world. After I began my career in the film industry, the director Kim Ki-Duk was my mentor who led me to my directorial debut.

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FEF: How did your relationship start with Kim Ki-Duk and what did you learn/take from your time together?

JCS: While I was studying films in Japan (I chose to study in Japan as I was attracted by Japanese cinema at that time), I saw `The Isle’ by Kim Ki-Duk and was astounded by the film. So I went to meet him. Director Kim Ki-Duk had never studied film academically. As he just makes films by following his instinct, he didn’t teach me anything such as film theories. He always tells his crew to learn for themselves. To me, the biggest lesson from him is `the instinct for survival’. His initiative and courage got even stronger under worse conditions and it was always very impressive to watch him getting over the difficulties. The only thing he ‘taught’ me is that I should make the audiences refuse to take their eyes off my film. He told me to keep it in my mind all the time when making a film.

FEF: Why did you choose ‘Bedevilled’ to make your directorial debut?

JCS: After booming for several years, the Korean film industry fell into a deep recession and it was almost impossible for a new director to make a debut film unless it’s a low budget film. I thought if I didn’t choose to make this film, my dream would never come true as a film director. The reason why I decided to make such a strong film as my debut is I wanted my film to stand out although it’s a small low-budget independent film.

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FEF: What would you say were the most challenging aspects of helming your first film?

JCS: I think many Korean audiences were shocked by `Bedevilled’ because this film includes many of taboo issues such as incest, killing a family member, homosexuality, damaging a dead body, killing a child, and killing seniors. Also, it describes very violent and grisly scenes to the extreme. The most challenging aspect was inserting beautiful and cheerful scenes as well as filming all those taboo things.

FEF: There seems to be quite a range of films showing the Korean countryside as a dark, disturbing place – from ‘Memories Of Murder’ to the recent ‘The Moss’ – why do you think that is?

JCS: Korean films have dealt with characters who used to live a comfortable life in the city, and then get badly ruined in a rural county or vice versa. But in `Bedevilled’, you can see both places are the same. I wanted to explain that everywhere people live, it’s not so different. In addition to that, I also wanted to show that people are the same temperamentally, as well as spatially showing that the city is blended between the present and future while the countryside is a mixture of the past and present.

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FEF: Asian cinema has long been commended for its strong female characters and ‘Bedevilled’ is no exception. Is this an intentional theme?

JCS: Since I was young, I’ve seen many mothers who are having harsh lives suffering from poverty and obligation to keep their family under the patriarchal system. Naturally, I have thought deeply about living as a woman and mother in this society. I hoped `Bedevilled’ could be a consolation to them in spite of somewhat violent scenes.

FEF: Seo Yeong-Hee seems to fit the leading role perfectly, was she always your first choice?

JCS: Seo Young-Hee was initially recommended by the director Kim Ki-Duk, but wanting to cast a more famous actress I didn’t agree. But after realising that none of the other actresses were willing to take on such a tough role, it inevitably went to the right person. I worried that she had previously played many victims in other films, but later hearing that her own mother had a difficult relationship with her mother-in-law, I realised why she wanted to play the role so I gained confidence in her.

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FEF: When directing scenes of horror, how do you achieve the balance of what should and should not be seen?

JCS: I thought that Bok-nam should not be seen like a murderer even when she kills people, and she should not be seen as crazy when she starts killing everyone after she loses her daughter. Furthermore, it must not seem as though she enjoys the revenge, but the revenge must not bore audiences. And overall, although the film is dealing with a heavy subject, it shouldn’t be accepted as a dark and gloomy film. I tried to show many conflicting things at the same time, and by doing that I could balance my film well. Of course, I determined the order of murders and manners according to the emotion of Bok-nam and each character.

FEF: ‘Bedevilled’ has been showered with awards. Is this the ultimate reward for a director or do you gain more satisfaction from the response of your peers?

JCS: Of course I gain satisfaction from both ways, but when I win an award, I also get compliments from my peers, so I think winning an award is better considering the glories of reward and compliment of peers. (I experienced that someone who had disregarded this film paid compliment for the film only after I won the awards. In this case, I felt a little bit bitter).

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FEF: Would you say you have any personal goals within your future filmmaking?

JCS: I want to make many films and I hope to succeed with every single film that I make. Of course this will not be easy, but it could come true if I keep trying my best and ensure I don’t become vain or lazy. I’d also like to make more mature films when I get older, although more importantly I still want to make witty and fresh films.

FEF: In the current financial climate, is it a struggle to get a film into production? Has there been much impact on the Korean scene as we have seen in the UK with the UK film funding agency folding? Or is it similar to Hong Kong, a cinema mostly dependant now on co-productions for financing?

JCS: It rarely happens in Korea to get financing through co-productions like in Hong Kong because Korean films are consumed domestically in most of the cases. So it is quite difficult to get a film into production, not to mention that the scale of financing is very small. As for directors in Korea, usually they make their debut in middle of their thirties and make a film every 2 or 3 years, sometimes 5 years. And they are called veterans after making just 3 films. There are not many directors who can make more than 3 films in Korea. To many of them, their first feature becomes their last work. In spite of these conditions, many young people still want to work in the film industry without getting paid. In my opinion, they are the ones who keep our Korean film industry going forward. And I regret to see some capitalists abuse these young people’s passion and spirit of sacrifice.

FEF: Do you have any future projects lined up?

JCS: I’m working on the script for my next film which will be about the deserted Korean peninsula after a nuclear war between North and South Korea, with a female lead. I can’t say when it will be made since the financing and casting is not complete, but I’m aiming to shoot the film this summer.

‘Bedevilled’ is available to own from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

Far East Films would like to thank Jang Cheol-Soo and Optimum Home Entertainment for making this interview possible.
Phil Mills
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