At this year’s Film Comment Select series held at Lincoln
Center’s Walter Reade Theater, I had the pleasure of seeing Intruders, the long
awaited follow up to South Korean director Noh Young-Seok’s debut film Daytime
Drinking. It occurred to me, with Unseen Films celebrating a birthday (back
around the time of the screening), that Daytime Drinking was the first film I officially logged a review for on good pal Steve’s little engine that could of
a site espousing the love of film. it be something of a coming around the bend
to be able to interview that film’s director here in New York?
After the screening and Q & A, I humbly approached Mr.
Noh after the film’s about my interest in interviewing him. All too aware of
the potential to come across like one of his films’ hopelessly socially awkward
characters who trap the main protagonists with their overzealousness, I said a
few quick words of appreciation and left him my card before making a quick exit.
To my surprised delight, I heard back and an interview was set for the
following day.
Very big thanks to Stephanie Lee at the Korea Society for
arranging and facilitating the interview.
Very special thanks to Rachel Jackson for a tremendous
assistance with translating, wording, and editing a final draft.
Mondocurry: Can you tell a little about your background
outside of making films?
Noh Young-Seok: My major in college was in Chinese ceramic
design, and I really wanted to make music. I created some music but I didn’t
want to do anything with it commercially.
MC: What types of music are you interested in?
Noh: I like electronic music, rock, metal, jazz, classical…a
lot of different types.
MC: Both of your movies deal with awkward interactions
between strangers. Is this particularly difficult in South Korean society?
Noh: In the US when people meet in elevator, they may say ‘hi’
and be friendly. In Korea people don’t act so familiar with one another. Recently people don’t even communicate with
their neighbors who live next door.
I don’t usually communicate with strangers but when I
have a chance, I notice this, and maybe I observe it more carefully than other
people do.
MC: It is a very interesting style of awkward comedy in your
films that I haven’t noticed in other Korean films. Is this influenced by
personal experiences? Other films?
Noh: I think emotions are influenced by different movies. When
I watched various movies, I try to experience the situations vicariously. If it
were my movie, , I consider what I would do differently. If I met someone in
the movie, I might do something different. So I take notes and make it my own
movie.
MC: Is there such drastic culture shock when people from
Seoul encounter people from the countryside?
Noh: If you go to the countryside outside of the city, rural
people will stare at you because you’re a stranger to them. I think they’ll
want to talk to me. They’d be really
curious about me. But also, they are very anxious about people from the
outside.
Rural people might behave with some meanness because they
are a tightknit group of people and I am a stranger. They are very curious but
very anxious. They try to be very friendly but they have some apprehension
about talking to outsiders.
MC: You were working on something different when the idea
for INTRUDERS came?
Noh: A story called INSOMNIA. It’s about a guy who has a
very sad life. It wasn’t to be a comedy, but a dark drama.
MC: Did you feel an urge to make a film that went in a
darker direction after Daytime Drinking?
Noh: I have a lot of bright, positive story ideas but also dark
ones too. My mind didn’t consciously change about the type of movie I wanted to
make. Many ideas come across my mind. So from time to time I organize them into
a kind of order to put in a movie.
MC: Can you talk about the differences in casting Daytime
Drinking and Intruders?
Noh: Daytime Drinking was made on a very low budget and all
of the actors and actresses were my friends.
For Intruders, I was thinking about who I wanted for each
part before but the film’s investors really wanted to use famous actors. But
the budget was not enough so for some parts, like the police officer and
Hak-su, I cast the actors I really wanted.
For the main character, I was trying to cast a really famous
actor but it didn’t work out because of schedule and money issues. I thought it
would be better to cast a brand new actor than a slightly famous one. So I
looked around and found a perfect match for the main character who was new, and
cast him.
MC: You worked with some of the same actors on both films?
Noh: There were three people in both. The truck driver from Daytime Drinking is a
store clerk in Intruders, and there two people who are eating with Hak Su in
Intruders. But they were only in Intruders for a very short time.
MC: You made the music for your films. But you didn’t have
any formal musical training?
Noh: No, I just taught myself how to do it at home.
MC: Was there anything that especially inspired the score to
Intruders? It has the feel of a classic suspense film score.
Noh: It’s really hard to say I got inspired by any one
thing. I thought about what would match well with the movie. The music came
very naturally when I was making it. I had some kind of similar music in my
head; it came from somewhere…
MC: One of my favorite parts of Daytime Drinking is when
someone talks about dancing to “strange music.” I wondered about how that music
came about…
Noh: I wanted to express something really bizzare and
unexpected. Like, if a woman suggested to someone ‘you’ll really like this
music’ then they might expect something really romantic or catchy, but it turns
out… when you hear it you think “what is this song? Not sure if it’s good or
bad, just really strange.” That’s the feeling I wanted to achieve.
MC: There was a lot of time between Daytime Drinking and Intruders…
Noh: In between, I got married and had kids. In the meantime
I was working on scripts for different movies. Some are finished and some are
not. That’s why there is a gap.
MC: Did you feel any kind of pressure to keep producing
movies in a certain amount of time, or were you not so worried about it?
Noh: I had some pressure before, but it was not like there
was any intense deadline. But I think I need to have a little bit of pressure
to make me work hard on a movie.
MC: You were both the writer and director of the two films
you’ve made. Is this a situation that is important to you?
Noh: I’ve thought of writing a scenario and then someone else
shooting it, but I wasn’t sure if it would work or not. Now, I would consider writing
a movie for someone else to direct.
MC: Were there challenges to directing Intruders?
Noh: I felt it was a shame that I couldn’t shoot in many
different locations and get acting in different atmospheres. But I didn’t have
enough time and the budget was too low.
MC: Did any parts of the story change from what you had
initially expected after first writing Intruders?
Noh: Not much, but I changed some parts a little bit, for
the better, during the editing of the movie.
MC: Was it a challenge shooting in a location like this with
lots of snow and in the mountains?
Noh: We never had to wait for snow at all. It came when we
needed it. The problem was that the snow wouldn’t melt. The location had a lot
of hills so cars couldn’t drive through. We really needed to get ingredients
for the staff’s food but it ran out. We were somehow able to get what we needed
and eat.
It was also really hard to move all the gear because it was
very heavy, and we had to shoot on the hill. There were a lot of challenges
like that.
MC: Did actors in the movie do their own stunts?
Noh: There was a stunt director. He was one of (the movie’s
antagonists).
MC: Were there any hazardous situations for the cast?
Noh: When the main actor fell through the trap door (in the
ground)… At that time we couldn’t see anything under the snow, so when we were
shooting that scene he was injured by a tree trunk.
MC: Have you been influenced by any directors, new or old?
Noh: I don’t have any one specific favorite. I don’t tend to
focus on a certain director. I think more about certain movies…
Rob Reiner has made movies in various genres and he
expresses ideas so well in all of them. I suppose he would be one of my
favorites.
Films that he made such as Stand By Me and When Harry Met
Sally…I’d like to be the director of films that have the same mood and impact as
those.
Me on twitter = @mondocurry
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