Broker had to look as real as the scene in a documentary. Decision to Leave had to be unique so that all spaces existed only in this movie. Let's listen to the story of the location shooting of the two films with slightly different directions from PD Song Daechan of Broker and PD Ko Daeseok of Decision to Leave.

The journey, which began in Busan, follows Route on the east coast, along the Hyeongsan River in Pohang, Yeongdeok Wind Power Complex, Ganggu Port, the coastal roads in Giseong-myeon, Uljin and Wondeok-eup, Samcheok, and Wolmido Island in Incheon. The flow of the movie is exactly the same as the actual moving lines for shooting. PD Song said, "Since Kore-eda was a former documentary director, he values a 'real base' so much. The director thought the atmosphere of the scene could be properly captured in the movie only when the actors and staff were actually there together."

Then, as an alternative, we could find Nosil Branch School abandoned in Samcheok. Since it was used as an office for a while after it was closed, it was very old and needed a big construction to use as a filming site, but Director Kore-eda said, "This place is perfect."

3 months before the shooting, the production team removed the webs of the school, cut down tree vines, and repaired the surroundings by leveling the ground off. Relying on the concept that the orphanage has been running for 3 generations, used basketball goalposts were brought and installed, and flowers were also planted in the flowerbed neatly. The production team renovated the inside of the school and brought doubledecker beds. All the orphanage scenes in Broker were filmed there.

The laundry where Broker Sanghyun (Song Kangho) works was filmed at Yeoncheon Laundry, which has been actually operated for 35 years in Yeonje-gu, Busan. It is said that the traces of life, from sewing machines to old-fashioned interiors, are so well preserved that 'they used the place as it was without touching any of the artistic parts.'

The tiny room, where Soyoung and the two brokers meet and talk for the first time, is also a room that actually exists at the back of Yeoncheon Laundry. Just like a proper house, it has a room and a kitchen with the feeling of time, so they could capture the place on the camera without additional work.

Since Broker was filmed in April, May, and June 2021, when there was a high risk of COVID-19 infection, the team had to cast an entire place for filming. When filming the scene where the brokers meet the first couple (Kang Gilwoo and Shim Yeeun), who are trying to adopt the baby at a traditional market in Ganggu Port, Yeongdeok, he said, "With the cooperation of the merchants in the market, we closed the entire market for a day and minor actors played the roles of the merchants." As PD Song explained, "It seems like I would have filmed it simply because it only came out in the movie for less than two seconds, but it wasn't at all," all the realistic scenes of Broker were completed with hidden contributions from the production team.

PD Ko remembered February 2021, when he filmed the ending sea sequence in Taean, as 'the coldest and most windy day.' "I couldn't shoot it several takes because it was when the tide came in. Park Haeil actually fell down during the shoot, but he kept acting naturally because he wanted to complete the scene in one shot." He also remembered, "The camera was floating on the water using buoyancy, so everyone escaped as soon as the director's okay sign came out."

The scene where Haejun, who was investigating the murder, rides a rope up the rock wall with his junior is a combination of location shooting and set shooting. The side of the rock was filmed on Beombawi Rock at Yeongrang Lake Resort in Sokcho, but it was not high enough for the film. Therefore, we built an open set in Busan and filmed additional climbing scenes as if they were riding a cliff.

The snowy Mount Homisan scene, where Seorae and Haejun kiss each other, was completed by combining Mount Geumjeongsan in Busan and Morundae Cliff in Jeongseon. The scene where they parked the car before going up to the mountain was taken at Mount Geumjeongsan in Busan, but the scene where they kissed in front of the cliff was taken at Morundae Cliff in Jeongseon. CG was also included in this scene. We cut out the cliff behind the darkness sharply to make it look like a dangerous place just like the dangerous love of the two main characters.

Decision to Leave, which was completed by mixing various images, took 5 months for the pre-production period alone. PD Ko said, "It took more time to find a place Director Park liked because he didn't say okay if a place was not perfect for the movie. We had to find perfect places to satisfy the director." It is said that the production team traveled around the country by bus, and the staff members in charge of Busan, where they shot a lot of scenes, couldn't come back to Seoul for a while. Nevertheless, PD Ko said, "Since Director Park Chanwook expresses satisfaction openly, everyone could be satisfied on their own after the filming," remembering the time happily.
by Flora Got Park (E-today)