Forgot password

Director CHUNG Yoon-chul is interested in people who are usually not thought of as normal. A leading character in his debut movie Marathon (2005) was a young autistic man who loved running. The messy family in Skeletons in the Closet (2007) stuck out from the rest of the world. A Man Who Was Superman (2008) portrayed a mental patient who thought of himself as Superman after a brain injury when he was young. CHUNG Yoon-chul presented all of them with thoughtful eyes, sending the message in his movies that they are all fine.

As mentioned, he has been known for his ordinary stories, and it is odd that his latest work after a nine-year absence is the epic historical drama WARRIORS OF THE DAWN. In this movie, he shows not only the spectacle of the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592 but also a prince as the main character rather than the fringe characters who were his main focus in the past. However, CHUNG would say that he always envisions these various characters from the same perspective.   

I was working on two or three scenarios over two or three years and it didn’t go well, so I stopped. They were about a lawyer and about a computer game, etc. Meanwhile, a lot of time passed.

I worked briefly on Robert KIM’s story. He was a Korean American Navy intelligence analyst in the 90s, accused of passing military secrets to South Korea and arrested with a charge of espionage. I see him as someone who prevented a war.

To tell you the truth, what I want to do the most is SF movies. But I am drawn to the social issues that we’re living with now. WARRIORS OF THE DAWN is also a story about people who did military service for others. They represent today’s ordinary people who work hard to make a living as well as the reality of the informal workforce who are treated unfairly.

Prince Gwanghae (YEO Jin-gu) is also an unfortunate figure who assumed the burdensome position of a leader as a young boy, in place of a king who fled from the war. Gwanghae’s growth process during this period was very charming to me. This is a story about people who lived other’s lives before their own lives were shaped.

In fact, at 18, Gwanghae led the war over the existing temporary regime, while his father King Seonjo evacuated to the north side of the Korean Peninsula. That should be highly respected. There was Admiral YI Sun-shin in the south, and Gwanghae in the north at that time. But Gwanghae had a mental breakdown due to the 20 years it took to accede to the throne and to gain his father’s trust. He killed many political enemies but was an excellent diplomat.

I always wanted to work with him because he is a talented actor, but I was worried a little since he already had two roles in historical TV dramas. I wanted to show not the typical image of a prince in a historical drama, but the true image of that age group in WARRIORS OF THE DAWN. In real life, Gwanghae went through a hard time sleeping on the street during the war, lost one of his children and almost died from measles. I wanted YEO to show Gwanghae’s basic humane side, and he did a very good job.  You will see that his acting is full of emotion, similar to a young Leonardo Di Caprio.

 

If Gwanghae is Frodo, Tow is Aragorn. He didn’t trust young Gwanghae in the beginning, but he tried to protect him at the risk of his own life after he discovered Gwanghae’s quality as a sage king. Tow was a mentor but he himself was changed by Gwanghae.

He was distressed about his role because it is very different from what he has done before. In this movie, he is a realist with a straightforward, ignorant and strong image. As a character that wanted to be a military officer but was frustrated by discrimination against people from northern parts of the country, his purpose in life became simply surviving.

Unfortunately, there is no female character in WARRIORS OF THE DAWN. There were few chances for women to get involved in the planning. However, Duggi, acted by E Som, is a court lady who raised Gwanghae with her own hands. In fact, Gwanghae lost his mother when he was three. She was the only one with whom Gwanghae could be the baby, but Tow would not allow him to do so. In other words, Tow is like a pseudo-father, and Duggi is like a pseudo-mother to Gwanghae who becomes the avatar of his father in the absence of him.

 

I have wanted to try that genre for a long time. It looks very different from my previous works because it is an epic-scale historical film. Nevertheless, WARRIORS OF THE DAWN is basically a drama, a story about a king and lowly people who find themselves while communicating as the human to human. Therefore, I see this movie as an extension of my previous works. Marathon was a story about Cho-won’s (CHO Seung-woo) independence from his mother. Skeletons in the Closet and A Man Who Was Superman are stories about people who found themselves and grew up.

It was difficult not because it was a big-budget movie, but because it was 100 percent filmed on location. Among all the leading roles and supporting roles, more than 20 people had to be in scenes continuously. Time-consuming make-up and costumes needed to be exactly the same every time, I felt sorry for the extras who didn’t have a single line and yet had to spend the whole time outside everyday. It is just like the movie The Revenant. I came to realize ‘Oh, that’s why historical dramas are all filmed inside the palace.’ (laughs)  In WARRIORS OF THE DAWN, we even built a mountain fortress with rocks. It was worth it to have our own fortress to stage the battle scenes.

For the first time, I started filming right after I signed the contract. I saw the filming schedule and worried it might cause some restrictions for the director. However, I think filming with a schedule is beneficial for the director, too. I could have a break when the staff had a break, and that made me feel that the working environment was more humane. That means filming is now like a regular job without having to work through the night. WARRIORS OF THE DAWN is my first digital feature film. It was advantageous that I could use processes that were different from regular filming. However, I also missed the creative tension that I used to feel with regular filming.

Investors are demanding more. They interfere with casting, monitor the final production results more thoroughly than before, and evaluate each phase. With this change, I feel like it is more difficult to produce characterful works than before.

I was worried that 20th Century Fox might not be able to understand Korean historical dramas, but to my surprise, they provided a lot of good detailed feedback. Also, they were more reasonable in terms of doing business than investors and distributors in Korea. In Korea, people are much too concerned about who is the main actor or actress, but Fox gives more weight to the potential of the work and the director, and they don’t care much about casting. They seem to try to create a variety of films, even with subjects avoided in Korea, and that can lead to works such as THE WAILING (2016). The only disadvantage is that it takes a long time to get an investment decision. It usually takes one week to make an investment decision in Korea, but Fox typically evaluates for 2-3 months before they make a decision. So, it will be a very special experience seeing the 20th Century Fox logo on a Korean historical movie at the theater. (laughs)