"Without looking back, I want to build something new."

Broker, Cinematographer Hong Kyeongpyo's new film, is about to be released. Hong is the director of photography who filmed PARASITE, Burning, and The Wailing. The film Broker drew attention through the meeting of Japanese Director Koreeda Hirokazu, Korean actors, and Korean production staff. Before Broker, Director Lee Sangil's film The Wandering Moon met the audience through the 23rd Jeonju IFF. Based on Yuu Nagira's novel, The Wandering Moon depicts a story about people branded as victims and perpetrators of kidnapping crimes standing right in the world's prejudice. Cinematographer Hong Kyeongpyo's camera in The Wandering Moon shows the lake, wind, and moonlight of a small Japanese city, all of which flow together with the characters' emotions. We met Director Hong in Jeonju.

- What impression did you get after reading the scenario?

I read the novel first, and I thought it was filled with good details. In the scenario, the spaces were changed from the novel a little, and I felt they successfully compressed the complex story into two hours.

- As soon as you finished filming Koreeda Hirokazu's Broker, you started working on The Wandering Moon.

Actually, The Wandering Moon offered me to work with first, and I got a contact from Broker later. Since Director Lee Sangil and Director Bong Joonho are close friends, Director Lee once came to the shooting site of PARASITE. We were introduced to each other at that time. Since Director Lee's RAGE was quite impressive to me, I talked about it. When I finished filming Deliver Us from Evil, Director Lee contacted me through Director Bong, saying that he would like to work with me for The Wandering Moon, which is scheduled to start filming the next year. So, exchanging thoughts and ideas with Director Lee through video calls, I started the work.

- Is there any part you got some help from the novel while shooting the film? 

Rather than a specific description, I paid attention to the emotions of the characters in the novel. If you finish reading the novel and close the book, you will feel some faint or vague feelings. I have the impression from it that it is a movie about communication between modern people and a love story that is not well revealed. So, I had to think a lot about how to express such emotions. Also, from the part that describes the main character's childhood in the novel, I noticed the writer is a movie lover.

The Wandering Moon 

- Tell us about the overall concept of the shoot. 

From the beginning, cameras continue to follow the inside of the characters. We have many close-up shots that move slowly and go deep. Also, there are many scenes where the characters act with expressions only without lines. As the characters expressed their inner selves a lot through their eyes, the cameras didn't want to miss their fine expressions. We also tried to express the spaces in the film emotionally. Getting the frame, we tried to express abstract words such as 'loneliness' or lonesomeness and to include things beyond those words. We also tried to show the spaces as wide as possible because the composition is good for conveying such feelings.

- A lot of films must want to work with you. Do you have any standards when you choose films? 

The first one is the director of a film. I tend to work with a director who makes films that I love. I have a desire to make a new movie with him or her. In the case of a director who is not familiar with me, I read the scenario first.

- Is there anything new you tried in The Wandering Moon? 

Although a Japanese director made Broker, the movie itself was filmed in Korea, and both the staff and the actors had worked with me before. On the other hand, the case of The Wandering Moon was totally different. I worked in Japan briefly while shooting Deliver Us from Evil, and that was all. Not only the shooting team but also the makeup team and the costume team were all new to me. I wanted to experience those differences with fresh eyes because the way they managed the process was totally different. So, it was a big challenge for me.

- You shot the scenes in Tokyo and Nagano, Japan. Especially the natural scenery of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, such as the lakes, the sky, and the winds, often appear on the screen.

The air is clean, and the city is beautiful. The cities in Japan are well-decorated. If the cities in Korea are a little rougher, the Japanese cities give the impression that they are well-organized. That point matched well with the movie, and it was good to set the composition and express color senses.

- How did you hunt the location? 

Since we didn't have enough time, we proceeded with the location hunting through zoom during the self-quarantine period. Looking at the pictures of the places, the director and I decided the places and the time zones for certain scenes. However, we didn't choose the important backgrounds in the film, such as lakes, coffee shops, and apartments in the last scene, until we looked around them in person.  We decided on the places by going around there for a week.

The Wandering Moon 

- How did you want to film the 'Moon' in the title?

We shot all the moons in the film in person. Since the moon is crucial in the movie, we decided to actually film it. We could see the moon much clearer in Japan than in Korea because the air in Japan is less polluted, and there is no fine dust. I filmed the moon whenever I had a chance and chose the moon that fits best with the film. While filming the movie, the fantastic skyline and magic hour especially made me happy. We also changed the time zone to shoot scenes a lot. For example, when filming the night, I tried to capture the moon by filming the early night when we still could see the sky. During the last shoot of Broker, I saw the moon in broad daylight in Busan. I sent the picture of it to Director Lee Sangil, and we talked about the moon in The Wandering Moon.

- How did you want to use light?

Natural light was the key. The main character Sarasa's swimming scenes in the lake feature several times. Depending on the character's emotions, the same lake had to deliver different feelings. Some scenes had to show a refreshed lake, and some had to look cloudy, while some had to be windy. We were very lucky to film such scenes. We had only 3 days to shoot the lake scenes, and thankfully, we had the clear, cloudy, and rainy weather within those 3 days, so I could capture various scenes. We filmed all of the scenes we needed within those 3 days without additional filming. Thanks to the help of the weather, I felt good since everything went well as I wanted.

- What is your favorite scene?

There is a scene where two people cross the bridge holding an umbrella when it rains. In fact, it rained a lot, and the wind blew so strongly that the trees around the bridge were shaking. Suddenly, however, a ray of light came down from the sky and passed through the bridge and it was captured on the screen. When the light passes, the two also cross the bridge. It seemed to symbolize the fate of the two, which they'll encounter in the future. I felt the wonder of nature while shooting the moment.

I always prepare hard, but I can't do it without such sheer luck in the end. Of course, I can just film it in the rainy and windy weather, but with a ray of the sunlight, something unexpected goes into the movie. The same applies to the scene where a bird suddenly flies when Jongsu runs on a rice field in Burning, or the sunset behind Chunseong and Innam, when they are talking in Deliver Us from Evil. When I was working on Deliver Us from Evil, on the day, I nearly gave up filming the scenes because it was very cloudy, but the weather changed suddenly, and the beautiful sunset appeared just in 10 minutes. Watching such a dramatic change, I thought the world went crazy. (Laughs) While shooting on location, some feelings that I haven’t intended can be added up, and when those feelings go well with the movie, I feel good as a cinematographer.

Burning

- What values do you consider important in shooting? 

I have a desire to do something new all the time. However, it doesn't mean a new technical skill. It could mean something emotional. Novelists don't write new sentences in every novel they create. It would be nice if the same words in the previous work could give new feelings. The Wandering Moon is just like that. I hope the audience will feel something 'fresh and new' through the film.

- The filming team mainly consisted of the Korean staff, while Japanese staff participated in the lighting team and the grip team at the shooting site. Since you worked with the lighting team and the grip team that you had organized, the background of the staff composition is quite curious. 

I used to work as a team, but after PARASITE, I disbanded all the teams. I didn't want to fall into mannerism and desired to do it anew. When shooting Deliver Us from Evil, I worked with the Japanese team in Japan while working with the Bangkok team in Bangkok. The same is true of The Wandering Moon. I prefer this kind of working style now. For The Wandering Moon, I worked with Yuki Nakamura, the lighting director of RAGE. Director Nakamura worked on many movies that I love and also worked for Director Iwai Shunji's early films like April Story as well as Director Lee Sangil's previous films. He's older than me, but he has good senses, and we are on the same wavelength. Even if we speak different languages, there is something that basically works in making films. Since I had to communicate with the cameramen directly, I took them.

- Following Broker, you worked for two Japanese films in a row. What is the field system like in Japan? 

It's similar to ours. Unlike us, however, they don't have an on-site editing system, and our grip team is more subdivided. The system to shoot Broker was similar, too. Director Koreeda Hirokazu also directed the film while talking with me by the camera without the on-site editing system.

- How was your work with Director Lee Sangil? 

It was good. His Korean is not as fluent as mine, but he had no problem with making himself understood. Thinking of Director Lee Sangil's previous films, such as Villain and Unforgiven, I thought, 'How come did he decide to make this kind of movie?' when I first read the novel version of The Wondering Moon. After exchanging thoughts and ideas, I could understand why he wanted to do this movie. It is minimal compared to his previous works. Unlike the previous works in which several characters appear, the story of The Wandering Moon is compressed into two characters. But if you look into it deeper, you can find there are other stories in it.

Director Koreeda Hirokazu called Lee Sangil 'Na Hongjin of Japan.' It means Director Lee is persistent and stubborn in shooting films. He is very nice and delicate in the field, but also persistent and stubborn. He shots a lot of takes, and he never stops until he gets the scenes he wants. He is a lot like Director Lee Changdong in that way.

Deliver Us from Evil

- Broker will be released in June. How was working with Director Koreeda Hirokazu?

Director Koreeda Hirokazu and I are the same age. I feel that we're the movie comrades. We talked a lot because we had something in common as peers. In fact, I may not have been able to participate in making Broker due to my schedule, but since I wanted to do it so badly, I even adjusted the time.

- Do you have any new plans with Director Bong Joonho, who you worked with to make Mother, Snowpiercer, and PARASITE? 

We're working on an animation featuring creatures living in the deep sea. We are preparing for visual lighting and virtual filming and planning to film it in Seoul or Hollywood while commuting next summer. In Hollywood, such as Roger Dickens of Wall-e and Soul, cinematographers already work as animation DPs (Directors of Photography). I also try to create a storyboard or screen by dealing with things like the movement of light. It's going to be a masterpiece.

- Are you preparing a live-action movie, too? 

Director Woo Minho's Harbin is in the pre-production stage now. I wanted to film it in the Siberian field, but the circumstance now is not easy to film it there. But I will find a similar place in winter and shoot it. I'm going to capture a landscape that nobody has ever seen before.

We should try to get the audience to come to the movie theater. I think that's why movies that can be seen on big screens in the theater are important. I want to film Harbin for that. Director Woo Minho and I are talking about the way to attract audiences to the theater with spectacular scenes.

- You have left some impressive scenes in Korean movies, but is there any special scene you love most?

People tend to talk a lot about the ending scene of Mother or the dancing scene of Burning. For Snowpiercer, I went to Hollywood to work on color correction. At that time, I remember Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, who I like, came and told me that he watched Mother and liked the ending scene so much. I felt so good since I'm a big fan of Director Inarritu's early movies Prieto worked for, such as Amores Perros and Babel.

- 24 years have passed since you shot the film Fly Low in the 1998. What comes to your mind when you look back on the past?

I made my debut in the Year of Tiger. Since this year is the Year of Tiger again, I'm thinking a lot that I want to be newly armed. When I need to upgrade myself, I think it's more important to forget everything I've been doing and build a new one without looking back. Of course, I can't forget what I have been doing even if I decide to forget it, but I want a fresh start. I pursue feelings of being sophisticated and rugged we can find in handmade things. I want to show the power of Korean movies.

- Have you received any inspiration from a film recently?

Since there are so many good cinematographers and good movies, I get motivated a lot. Watching Mati Diop's Atlantics, which won the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes, and Shipei Wen's Are You Lonesome Tonight?, I was stimulated as a cinematographer. While watching Are You Lonesome Tonight?, I thought, 'There is a person who makes Wong Kar-wai style movies in China,' and I felt the power of African films while watching Atlantics. I am watching many movies these days because I worked nonstop last year.