130, Suyeonggangbyeon-daero,
Haeundae-gu, Busan, Republic of Korea,
48058
-
- NEWS & REPORTS
- Interview
Interview
DATABASE
KIL Yeong-min, CEO of JK Film
Aug 23, 2013
- Writerby TAE Sang-joon
- View2158
"We Prefer 'Economic' Spielberg to 'Ambitious' Cameron"
Is every major player in Korean cinema, be it a director or a producer, working on arthouse movies? No by a long shot. Some are doing great work in the commercial popular film sector as well, and JK Film is certainly one of these producers. From their film debut Sex Is Zero in 2002 to Dancing Queen released last year which sold four million tickets, JK Film has been focusing on well-made commercial films, producing 13 in total, and is a leading player in the field. It is also home to JK YOUN who directed Haeundae, which attracted 11.32 million viewers nationwide, and his friend KIL Yeong-min (both 45) is in charge of the company. Korean Cinema Today met KIL Yeong-min at JK Film’s headquarters, who is busy preparing several films at the moment, including a comic action film The Spy: Undercover Operation and KRW 10 billion (USD 10 million) mega projects Kukje Market (working title) and Himalaya.
- The Spy: Undercover Operation is about to be released next month on the 5th. It was not an easy job, as there have been ups and downs including switching the director, and I guess you must have mixed feelings compared to other films in the past.
It would be a lie to say no. Post-production is almost complete now. We’re just checking on the last few scenes and computer graphics. The running time should be something like two hours.
- The Spy: Undercover Operation is a huge budget movie, with top actors like SEOL Kyung-gu, MOON So-ri, Daniel Henney. It seems like a difficult project for a rookie director like LEE Seung-jun, although he worked as an assistant director on Haeundae and Quick (2011).
It’s not like we were taking a risk by working with a rookie because he was “our” staff and because it was someone else’s money. We chose LEE Seung-jun because he thoroughly understands JK Film’s system. The Spy: Undercover Operation is kind of in the same track as Quick in terms of belonging to the comic action genre, and I had no doubts recruiting him as a director. The circumstances were such that it was not really possible for us to go through preproduction again with a new director. At that time LEE Seung-jun was in the middle of preparing his film debut at another film house, so we had to excuse ourselves and ask for help. He is very quick in his understanding and working with actors.
It’s not like we were taking a risk by working with a rookie because he was “our” staff and because it was someone else’s money. We chose LEE Seung-jun because he thoroughly understands JK Film’s system. The Spy: Undercover Operation is kind of in the same track as Quick in terms of belonging to the comic action genre, and I had no doubts recruiting him as a director. The circumstances were such that it was not really possible for us to go through preproduction again with a new director. At that time LEE Seung-jun was in the middle of preparing his film debut at another film house, so we had to excuse ourselves and ask for help. He is very quick in his understanding and working with actors.
- JK Film has a diverse array of previous works, ranging from huge budget movies like Haeundae and Sector 7 (2011), KRW 3 billion (USD 3 million) medium budget films like Dancing Queen and Harmony (2010), and low budget projects like My Dear Desperado (2010).
We are not working on big budget movies for big budget movies’ sake. We have a principle. JK Film produces movies that both the viewers and investors can rely on. We want perfection from top to bottom. Korean cinema of course needs international film festival winners, but it could also use movies that sell well internationally, for example, movies like K-Pop. JK Film is certainly headed for the latter.
- You have been releasing at least one film per year.
The ideal number is two per year. We only released Dancing Queen last year and The Spy: Undercover Operation this year, so we haven’t been doing so well. (laughs) JK YOUN’s Kukje Market has just begun shooting, and the preproduction of Himalaya, based on the true story of the well respected Korean mountain climber EOM Hong-kil, is also underway. We are anticipating a great year in 2014. Of course, The Spy: Undercover Operation should become a great hit first. (laughs)
- Tell us a little bit about Kukje Market. The budget, at KRW 14 billion (USD 14 million), not counting marketing fees, seems quite large.
You could say it is a Korean version of Forrest Gump (1994). The main character is Duk-su (played by HWANG Jung-min), who is living through the 1950s and modern Korean history. He lost his father in the Korean War and he goes to Germany to work in a coal mine so that he can support his family, and he also takes part in the Vietnam War. Kukje Market focuses on the painful turmoil of his life. JK YOUN is great at drama, so he will be able to communicate to the audience all the details and truthful feelings at every corner of Duk-su’s painful life. I can’t wait to see the film, which will be released next summer.
- HWANG Jung-min and KIM Yun-jin are co starring in Kukje Market.
The major role for Duk-su’s character was especially important, because he had to play Duk-su’s entire life from his 20s to 70s. To our relief, HWANG Jung-min readily agreed to join the project. He worked with us before on Dancing Queen. For his wife Young-ja’s character, KIM Yun-jin (Harmony and US TV series Lost) said yes to this film without even reading the script. Also, OH Dal-soo will play Dal-ku, Duk-su’s best friend. The casting couldn’t be better.
- How is Himalaya getting on? It began before Kukje Market, didn’t it?
Himalaya is a mountain film, presenting a group of climbers taking care of one of the older crew members, PARK Moo-taek, who passed away in the middle of climbing mount Everest. It is to be directed by KANG Dae-gyu of Harmony, and the main persona of EOM Hong-kil has long been assigned to actor KIM Myung-min (Deranged, 2012; PaceMaker, 2011). However, further casting is not finalized yet. This film differs from previous mountain films like Antarctic Journal (2005), in that it’s going to be an “effective” movie, relying mostly on computer graphics, as opposed to on site shooting. Location shooting in Nepal will be limited to 10 days over a fortnight. Our plan is to start shooting before the end of this year.
- Can you tell us about Temple Stay, to be co-produced by Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures in Hollywood?
It has been delayed for the time being. It is not at the top of their production slate, but who knows, if things work out, we can start shooting very soon. Temple Stay is a 100% English language movie with Hollywood actors. It is a science fiction project about an American family that stays at a Buddhist temple on their trip to Korea. They happen to tap on something they were not supposed to, and are sent to a fantasy land.
I guess we were too confident. Originally, Sector 7 was planned as a genre film with a KRW 25-30 billion (USD 25-30 million) budget. However, Haeundae was a very big hit, far more than what we had expected. That got us to very excited and we developed Sector 7 into a 3D blockbuster, a trend at the time, which made it lose its original virtue. Furthermore, neither JK YOUN nor myself have a great interest in the thriller or horror genre. We went ahead without really understanding the appeal of the genre, which was the wrong thing to do. I would say I learned a lot from the failure.
- JK Film is one of the few Korean movie companies that fully values the importance of preproduction.
For shooting to be as sound and effective as planned, you should invest enough time and work in preproduction, it is the same with any movie company. There are many expensive and bad products, but there’s no such thing as a cheap and good product. If you want a good output, you have to invest yourself. Once the budget is finalized, you have to do your best to get the most out of it. Let me put it this way. JK Film prefers “economic” Steven Spielberg to “ambitious” James Cameron. (laughs)
- Are there any foreign film studios that JK Film views as a good role model?
Lionsgate, Summit, and the British outfit Working Title. We are less interested in a company like Focus Pictures, as they are geared towards arthouse movies. JK Film aims to be a movie company constantly producing well made, quality commercial films in diverse genres.
JK Film History
Established in 2001 as Doosaboo Film, Inc., changed name to JK Film Ltd in 2009
2002 Sex Is Zero, 4.3million viewers
2003 Crazy Assassins,1 million viewers
2005 A Bold Family, 1.7 million viewers
2005 All for Love, 2.53 million viewers
2007 Miracle on 1st Street, 2.75 million viewers
2007 Sex is Zero II, 2.1 million viewers
2009 Haeundae, 11.32 million viewers
2009 Secret, 1.05 million viewers
2010 Harmony, 3.07 million viewers
2010 My Dear Desperado, 790,000 viewers
2011 Quick, 3.13 million viewers
2011 Sector 7, 2.25 million viewers
2012 Dancing Queen, 4.01 million viewers
By TAE Sang-joon
-
SHARE
-
SUBSCRIBE
-
WEBZINE
Subscribe to our newsletter
Get the latest Korean movie news.
Your email address will be collected and used exclusively to deliver our newsletter.
- KOFIC will collect the e-mail address of the subscribers for the purpose of the newsletter delivery and will keep the e-mail information until the subscriber cancels the subscription. The user has right to DENY the collection of the e-mail address data, but in this case the user cannot subscribe to the KOFIC Newsletter.