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JK YOUN’s Ode to My Father (2014) deals with modern Korean history from the 1950s through 2000s, through the life of one man. CHOI Dong-hoon’s Assassination (2015) depicts the struggle of independence activists in the 1930s. What these two 10-million-viewer movies in 2015 have in common is production designer RYU Seong-hee.

 

She is a leading production designer who has worked on ground-breaking Korean movies including Old Boy (2003), Memories Of Murder (2003), A Bittersweet Life (2005), The Host (2006) and The Front Line (2011). In Ode to My Father and Assassination, RYU has successfully visualized 100 years of modern Korean history both realistically and cinematically.

 

 

You are right, compared to the amount of work to be done, relatively a very short time was given. For Assassination, we had six months of preparation before the actual shooting began, but for Ode to My Father, it was only three and a half months. Moreover, Gukje Market (the Korean title of Ode to My Father, referring to the old market place in Busan that literally reads “international market”), an important setting for the film, had a big fire in the past, which made it even harder for historical research based on actual evidence.

 

We also had very little data reference. We looked through books and searched on the Internet but it was hard to find the original features of the market. However, towards the very end of preparation, we happened to find someone who had a whole set of old photos of Gukje Market. It was almost like a miracle. He had taken the photos over a long time and kept them. These photos were not only helpful for the film but were also very valuable historical resources in their own right. When you are making a film, you often meet these very rare and benevolent people. Recently I worked on PARK Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden, and a collector who had a vast collection of sexual objects helped us.

 

 

First of all, we tried to be true to historical events as much as possible. In addition, we tried to depict the truth rather than mere exactness, if you like. What I’m saying is, everything has something beyond what you actually see, some kind of truth. For example, suppose you have an old photo where somebody is sitting at the table with a cup and documents on it. Although you arrange the exact objects in exact position, you can’t always depict the sentiments of that time period. What you have to do is grasp the truth, and the relationship between the person, object and space in the picture. We tried hard to stick as closely as possible to the facts, but if we can keep the truth by eliminating one or two facts, then, I believe, it is right to eliminate them. Also, to the audience, it looks more realistic than when done otherwise. That is the beauty of production design.

 

Yes, but that does not mean I study much history. For production design, the eyes are more important than the hands. And the point of view is important as well, I mean the point of view that sees what is seen. You should be able to see the truth beyond a photo, or a sentence. Preparing for Ode to My Father, I looked through materials on the miners and nurses sent to Germany. In the news passages and photos, you see something that specifically belongs to that time. The way the stories and words were written and chosen, which you rarely see these days, delivered a nuance of propaganda and pressure. It is the same with the photos. Most photos with the Germany-sent miners feature gentlemen in then-fashionable and stylish suits, with a heartful smile. However, that is not all there is. Of course they are partly happy but you should be able to read other messages too: such as the purpose of advertisements and propaganda.

 

 

 

The setting up of Gukje Market was tremendously hard. It is a market that still exists and has a long history, and the market itself is an ever so complex space. It took a lot of time and effort to set the place. To set up a shop, you need to pile up hundreds of goods, which are not in the actual market anymore. So our team had to make them individually, one by one. The hardest thing was to decide what to make. It is a film for the elderly in their 60s and 70s, isn’t it? If you see something that did not exist back then, it will bring up unnecessary arguments. So we put a lot of work to make the kind of things that used to be sold in the market in each time period. No matter how small they are, they show the changes in modern Korean history. We carefully put together the kind of goods that were in fashion in each generation, like chocolates, powdered milk, canned good, alcohol and what not. It’s a pity that so little is shown in the film.

 

 

Because I have worked on most periods in modern Korean history, I have always wanted to do Gyeongseong (the name of Seoul under Japanese Occupation) one day. However, until a few years ago, there was this rumor that any film in the setting of Gyeongseong in the 1930s could never be successful. In addition, it would cost a tremendous sum of money to revive Gyeongseong properly, so it was just a dream for me. Then I was asked to do production design for Assassination. Because I had just completed Ode to My Father, I was rather confident as well. If I did Assassination first, both films would have been different from what they are now. Assassination deals with a more remote past, the time period which has little to no trace today. So we were more inclined to the mode of architecture with accentuated design aspects. If it were not for the experience on Ode to My Father, we would have been lost just reviving the time period without deep understanding of the scale and design aspects. And the Ode to My Father production design would have been too pretty.

 

 

 

For a production designer, realizing Gyeongseong is a very important job, risking your name and reputation, because, here, what you are doing is both revival and creation. Gyeongseong is a city where everything was mixed, so it was a lot of work as well. I felt a tremendous amount of pressure at first. I talked a lot with the director and we concluded that we just couldn’t show everything. We built two settings with two different themes. One is the working class area including the market place and the gas station where the first shooting scene takes place, and the other is the banquet hall and Mitsukoshi Department Store to show the Japanese colonial policy. Mitsukoshi Department Store was built with Japanese capital in modernist style, to fascinate and overwhelm the Koreans. They already had an art exhibition hall and elevators inside the building. It was the kind of space that any intellectual would admire. Making that building, I tried to express the kind of sentiment that AHN Ok-yun (Gianna JUN) must have felt as she entered the department store for the first time. AHN has spent most her life in a place almost like a cave, and for her, this department store must have been something beyond imagination. So, to make the audience feel the kind of shock that AHN must have felt, we made the design even trendier than how it actually used to be. However, in terms of architecture style, we tried to be as true as possible. Nothing that wasn’t there has been added,

 

 

When I design productions, I think of the audience who will come to see the film. I was rather late beginning my production designing career, so I clearly remember what I used to feel about films as a normal audience. That is the energy that keeps me going. Whenever I work, I see from the audience’s point of view. And I am rather curious, too. I look up anything, whether old or new, such as music, magazines and what not.

 

It has been seven years since Thirst (2009). When I work with him, we chat a lot about the film, which I find tremendously stimulating. PARK has a deep knowledge not just of films but of art, architecture, music and all that. He chats about everything in every direction, and later you realize they all have to do with the film. Rather than setting the goal first and going for it, his work begins with a challenging and experimental spirit. That’s why working with PARK is always interesting but also puts me in a tense situation.

 

 

 

I have been deeply impressed by Under the Skin and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I liked the narrative style where things are ambiguous and non-descriptive. The visuals were excellent as well. These are the kind of films where the style leads the sentiments. Now that I have quite a bit of experience, and many films that I worked on did well at the box office, I only get offers from big movies. However, it is not entirely good news. Of course big movies have their own fun, but as the size gets bigger, the budget becomes bigger as well, which means you are assigned a bigger responsibility to manage the budget. Rather than with a challenging spirit, you tend to move along with some kind of manual. However, artists get thirstier as time goes by. I worked with BONG Joon-ho and PARK Chan-wook on their early works, and we were all in our 30s, when we never hesitated for challenge and adventure. I still want to have that feeling.