"I hope we can play the role of a little lamp."

Seyeon (Yum Jungah), who finds out that she's chronically ill, leads her husband to find her first love in high school. Their journey bears the happy school days with her best friend who she has lost contact with, and a love life with her blunt husband when he was a sweet guy. Also, singers such as Lee Moonsae, Yoo Yeol, and Lee Seungcheol accompany their journey with songs that Seyeon enjoyed a lot when she was young. Life is Beautiful, a road movie and jukebox musical, is a new work by The Lamp, a film production company that made A Taxi Driver, MAL·MO·E: The Secret Mission, SAMJIN COMPANY ENGLISH CLASS, etc. CEO Park Eunkyung, the planner and producer of the film, Life is Beautiful, founded The Lamp in 2012 and is presenting a variety of films that are not bound to specific categories. To talk about the new film, we had an interview with Producer Park Eunkyung, who has been remarkably active, including winning the Best Producer award at the 2020 Women in Film Korea Festival and the 2021 Bechdelian Producer award organized by the Directors Guild of Korea.

- We'd like to know how the film Life is Beautiful started. Was it planned as a musical film from the beginning? 

= That's right. It's been about 10 years since I planned it. I wanted to make a musical film, and among them, I wanted to approach it as a jukebox musical using great songs. Movies such as Bohemian Rhapsody became successful, and I could gain a little more momentum. I started working on it because Scriptwriter Bae Seyeong loved the story. She outlined the whole story. All I asked was to use the funeral scene while the main character was alive as the ending scene and the scene in Bogildo Island. However, her ideas who wanted to work for a road movie seem to fit mine well.

- Tell us why you wanted to include Ttangkkeut Village in Bogildo Island, the southernmost area of the Korean peninsula, on the main character Seyeon's journey. 

= I'm about the same age as the characters in the film. When we were in college, it was popular to walk across the country. Visiting Ttangkkeut Village and Bogildo Island was also a kind of popular course. I remembered the old memories and thought it would be fun to put them into the story. I went there for the first time since college because of the shooting. In my memories, the island was a very isolated and lonely place but it has developed a lot. It's an island where Yoon Seondo's 『The Fisherman's Calendar』was born. Still, it is a beautiful island.

- We're also curious about the reason why you suggested the ending scene. 

= Come to think of it, you don't have many days to celebrate only for you in your life. You don't remember your first birthday party, the wedding ceremony seems to be the party for your parents, and we rarely have grand parties to celebrate our 60th birthdays these days. If I know the day I die, I'd like to hold a feast before that and spend time with the people I love, because I won't be there at my funeral. So, for a long time, I've been thinking about having a good party instead of my funeral without me. In a way, I thought from the beginning that the musical was only a form of this film, and the film itself was all about 'well-dying'. People talk a lot about how they live, but they hardly talk much about death. That's why we learn about death little and again I only have vague feelings and ideas about it. So, I came up with the idea of the ending, and I’ve actually wanted to do that when the day comes.

- Any special reasons to work with Scriptwriter Bae Seyeong? 

= I love the films Intimate Strangers and Extreme Job she wrote. So, I begged her to meet me and asked her to work with me earnestly. Little has changed from the writer's draft because the draft itself was excellent.

- Musical films have hardly been tried in Korea. Were there any burdens you felt about the genre? 

= Everyone related to the film loved the script. So it wasn't hard to get investors. Making the film just made us feel good and happy. I'm sorry that the film market seems to be shrinking nowadays, but the moviegoers enjoyed the film, and it gave me some strength. While making films, I haven't seen many cases where the audience likes a film this much. Many people say good things about the film through Instagram DM (direct message) and even send encouraging emails to the company.

- In the same vein, was there any difficulty in setting up a production team because the musical genre was rarely produced in Korea? 

= Since musical films are also basically movies, I think it is crucial to make them 

well. Choreographer BEFF is the director of the short independent film Yuwol: The Boy Who Made the World Dance. A musical film is not his main field. I thought I needed someone who knew the camera work well for Life is Beautiful. When we watch a musical at a large theater or a small theater, we see it as a full shot. But the film has a tight shot. One simple finger gesture can also be a choreography. So I put the focus on understanding the movie mechanism well. Director of Photography Baek Yoonseuk made SPLIT with Director Choi Kookhee as well as The Sea of Tranquility and FENGSHUI. Lighting Director Kim Changho and Costume Director Choi Seyeon all worked for PARASITE. Just like an action movie or a comedy film, I think it is a musical-style movie, not a musical on the screen.

- Tell us how you could work with Director Choi Kookhee. 

= I enjoyed the film Default. In fact, I suggested another film to him before Life is Beautiful. Declining the script, he reviewed it, and I thought he was looking at the work intuitively, accurately, and even honestly. So, I asked Director Choi Kookhee to wait for me without deciding on another movie because I was planning a musical movie, and I would give it to him first when the script was completed. He willingly said he would, and I gave it to him as soon as the script came out.

- Do you have any relationships with Actors Yum Jungah and Ryu Seungryong before? 

= I read an article saying Actor Yum Jungah wanted to do a musical film. She already worked with Scriptwriter Bae Seyeong for Intimate Strangers while Ryu Seungryong Actor for Extreme Job. That's why Writer Bae seems to have written the script imagining both of them in mind. Actors know that by looking at scripts.

- The film touches the hearts of the audience from the logline, 'Finding Mom's First Love Who is Terminally Ill.' Were you concerned if the story would be viewed as a tear-jerking drama because of the setting? 

= The film is not meant to make the audience cry. On the contrary, I have heard a lot that it is not a tear-jerking one. You may feel sad because the story touches you, but the film itself is not a sad movie. The actors on the screen are not very sad or serious. That's why it is well received by the audience, I think.

- It has a lot of attractive scenes such as the introduction of the song, 'Early Morning Discount,' set in the Seoul Theater, the group dancing scene of 'The Cult of Solo' at the highway rest area, and the banquet hall scene of 'Passionate Goodbye,' but were there any scenes or sequences you expected at the script stage? 

= Director Choi Kookhee seems to have tried to give each song its own color. Every scene has its own color. But if I have to pick one or two scenes, I will pick the scene where Jinbong goes to the army with the song 'Don't Say Goodbye.' I thought it would be fun because it is a scene that can only be seen in Korea. The last scene of the banquet hall is good to watch many times. I love the scenes where Seyeon makes eye contact with her daughter, where her son waves his hands lightly, and where the couple breaks up smiling.

- Starting with LOVE, LIES, the films you produced in Korea are all set in the past. The main backdrop of this film is also the 1980s and 1990s. Are you attracted to the story of the past? 

= I didn't mean to do that, but I wonder if it's a kind of my taste. However, the upcoming movies are not like that either. Some films have fixed release dates, one is a costume drama, two are modern dramas, and the other is a story going back and forth between the past and the present. I've never intended to make a period piece on purpose. I only think that I should make a good film with a good story.

- After working for Cheil Worldwide Inc. and IBM, you started your film career by taking charge of marketing and investment in Showbox Mediaplex. Is there any reason you chose to start working in movies, especially production?

=I don't think life is driven by any reason or purpose. I just like to make and share stories. I am also attracted to collaborating with many people. Working for the advertising agency, I found it fun to communicate with the public. We care a lot about work-life balance these days, separating work and life, right? But I prefer that my work is my life. Producing a film is a job that can be life itself. The reason why I chose to produce films is that I can cover the whole process of the work. Investment is a job that has to determine whether something is good or bad in terms of the nature of the job. Of course, it is worthwhile, but I thought I wanted to do something that made the good better.

- The Lamp, a film production comapny, a film production company, has marked the 10th anniversary of its establishment. Tell us how you feel about the past 10 years.

= Rather than having a great vision, I just think I will be doing something later if I do my best for what I do every single day. When I started the production company, I just thought it would be nice to make a company where the people I worked with could work happily together. So, it didn't take long for me to have a choice to set up a production company. Since I had to make it, keeping in mind the time of failure, I thought it shouldn't be too late. I had to proceed with business registration, but I couldn't think of a title for the company at all. At that time, I was a heavy user of Aladdin, an Internet bookstore, and the name 'The Lamp' suddenly came to mind. Since there is a company called 'Lamp' that makes lamps, I titled my company 'The Lamp.' I thought it would be nice to play the role of a little sparkling lamp. I'm working with Actor Koo Kyohwan and he keeps calling us 'Lantern Film Company.' (Laughs) I think just a bit of warmth or twinkle should be enough for the role of a lamp.

- What kind of films do you want to continue to make? 

= As a healthy & sound professional, I want to try to make a good movie. I don't think I can do everything just by trying, but I think I should have a tenacious attitude of trying something continuously. Now, we are preparing for Director Lee Haeyoung's Phantom, Director Kang Yikwan's Virus, Director Lee Jongpil's Escape (Working title), and Director Choi Kookhee's Starlight is Shining Down (Working title).