NEWS

Park Chan-kyung makes feature film debut

Park Chan-kyung makes feature film debut 2010-08-17 17:29 Director Park Chan-kyong looks somehow familiar ― the round features, the sharp light in his eyes and the way he talks about films. Yes, the 2004 Hermes Missulsang Prize winning media artist and short film director Park is the younger brother of Park Chan-wook, the famed director of “Thirst” and “Oldboy.” The two brothers both show exquisite talent in making films, one for the short and one for the long. “I can’t speak for my brother but I think I was probably influenced by him in many ways although I don’t know exactly what it is. Ever since we were young, he read a lot and knew lot about art and music. We don’t see each other that often because he is so busy but we do enjoy talking about films when we sometimes get together on family occasions. We mostly agree on what is a good film and what is not,” said the younger Park. He may be less known to the public but Park Chan-kyung is no less famous than his brother in the art field for his unique and profound short films, media art and photography. This summer, however, he has been trying something new, advancing into his brother’s genre ― making a feature film. Tucked away in the basement of a small building in Cheongun-dong, central Seoul, the younger Park’s crew ― although some work for both Parks ― were busy glaring at monitors. Park’s first feature film titled “We wish to Reincarnate in Paradise” was just going through some final polishes. The film, a 90-minute-long documentary/fiction about the city of Anyang, is part of the Anyang Public Art Project 2010. It is about research a movie production team conducts before the crank in of a movie in Anyang. Eight different episodes ― some nonfiction and some fiction ― that represent the research are interwoven throughout the movie. “It is not just about Anyang but also about Korea’s small and medium cities and women in Anyang,” said Park. “There used to be many factories in Anyang in the 1970s and 1980s. The film includes historical episodes like the 1988 fire in Greenhill factory in which 22 female workers, who were always locked up in the dorm at night, all burned to death.” As APAP 2010 promotes the participation of citizens in all of its projects, Anyang citizens also participated in the making of the film as actors, musicians and more. Music played by an amateur band in Anyang will be used as background music. The public only started to recognize the trend recently thanks to this year’s Cannes winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, but it has been a while that the border between feature films and short films or media art has been blur, said Park. “It started about 15 years ago when some artists like Cindy Sherman started to use films. Then there is Julian Schnabel, Andy Warhol and many more artists who made some great films. There are also some moviemakers who hold art exhibitions, like Tim Burton. There is really no boundary between the genres any more. If there were, it would rather be a boundary between commercial films and the others,” said Park. He said that his brother found his first feature film interesting. Would Park be heading for Cannes in the near future, too? “It would be great if I could, but I don’t think I am at that level yet. This is my first long documentary film and the scale is not that big. It would be great to have my films showcased like that (in big festivals) but I think I would probably be showcasing my artworks at art exhibitions as my original profession is an artist,” he said with a laugh. Park said that he discovered some unfamiliar joys and charms about feature films. “One of the charms I found about movies is that they have a different kind of audience from those who go to see artworks. You know what they say, only your family and friends see your artworks. You don’t always expect to find entertaining works at an art exhibition and often end up ‘studying’ the works. But at the cinema, the audience expects to see something amusing,” said Park. “Yes, I did try to make the film ‘entertaining,’ at least not boring, although it might not be the kind of fun the public normally expects from movies. I never tried to make my artworks ‘entertaining,’ so it was a different experience for me.” Park’s first feature film will be showcased through APAP 2010 in September.