Third Window Films will release the star-packed meta-comedy, Behind the Camera next week Monday. It’s a bit of a meta-comedy. The film is funny but funnier still if you know who most of the cast is. I watched it last week with a broad smile as famous actors, actresses, directors and others poked fun at themselves parodied the Korean film industry in a sly comedy based on the making of an innocuous ten-minute film. The only problem is that director isn’t on set, rather, he’s in Hollywood and directing over the internet and with his absence the production threatens to burst into chaos!
My highlights? Big personalities clashing and Kim Ok-Vin, who I first saw in the vampire film Thirst and who is so gorgeous and adorable in this film she’s returned to my number one Korean actress spot replacing Ha Ji-Won who I saw in Duelist. And with that comment, I return to number one creepiest movie blogger…
Here are the details:
Behind the Camera
A film by EJ Yong (Untold Scandal, Dasepo Naughty Girls)
Korea / 2012 / 90 Mins / In Korean with English subtitles / Colour
Starring:
Yoon Yeo-jeong (The Housemaid, In Another Country, Taste of Money)
Kim Ok-vin (Thirst, Dasepo Naughty Girls)
Oh Jeong-se (How to Use Guys with Secret Tips, Petty Romance)
Out on DVD July 28th, 2014
DVD Special Features: Interviews with director EJ Yong & actress Yoon Yeo-jeong at the London Korean Film Festival, Trailer
Synopsis
Seoul, the present day. Director E J-yong, commissioned to make a promo for a new smartphone, has the idea of making it the world’s first film directed remotely via internet link-ups rather than in person on set. While she is still shooting Im Sang-soo’s The Taste of Money, he invites veteran actress Yun Yeo-jeong to take the lead role alongside a cast of other well-known actors. As the cast assembles in the studio, E addresses them on an internet link from Los Angeles, saying he needs the help of all his friends for him to break into Hollywood. The film, How To Fall In Love In Ten Minutes, is to be shot in only two days and will be only 10 minutes long. Some are excited to be part of the experiment, others are more dubious. As everyone struggles with the process and mounting technical problems, people start listening to E less and less, and an air of mutiny starts to spread through the disgruntled set.
Official Selection – Panorama – 63rd Berlin Film Festival
Director – E J-yong
Since his successful debut in 1998 with An Affair, director E J-yong has proven his knack for capturing shocking or controversial material in an elegant, innovative style, in films such as Asako in Ruby Shoes, Untold Scandal, and Dasepo Naughty Girls. The modern, minimalistic melodrama An Affair told the story of forbidden love between a woman and her younger sister’s boyfriend. The provocative Joseon Dynasty piece Untold Scandal captivated audiences worldwide with its elegant visual aesthetic, and Dasepo Naughty Girls’s brilliant art and musical performances resulted in a delightful interpretation of taboo sex talk. His most recent film, The Actresses, provided full disclosure of the deepest thoughts and secrets of some of Korea’s most renowned actresses, leaving audiences bewildered about the boundaries of truth and fiction within the film. Known for just this kind of innovation in each of his films, E J-yong returns with Behind the Camera, capturing a director’s unprecedented attempt to direct a film entirely from an off-set location. Behind the Camera reveals the true behind-the-scenes nature of actors who find themselves without a director to guide them on set, as well as the chaotic and unforeseeable circumstances that arise as a result.
Director’s Note
Inspiration for a film always comes suddenly and unexpectedly in my case. I received an offer to direct a short film for an electronics company and began toying with some concepts. On one such day, a long cruise through the Web left me convinced that all sorts of information could readily be available to anyone with access to the Internet. With such well-established and convenient systems of communication, couldn’t a director make a film without having to be physically on set? It would mean refuge from the hectic film set, where all eyes are fixed on the director. It meant that I could direct away from the multitude of problems that would arise in the comfort of a warm, heated room. I found no reason to refuse such favorable conditions, especially in sub-zero temperatures. These thoughts were how Behind the Camera came to be. Although copious words depicting “innovation in filmmaking” or “experimenting with film conventions” were not spared to those who asked. And so the project began, and I experienced something truly new and utterly unexpected. This film is the account of that experience
A review will be posted next Monday. Here’s a picture of Kim Ok-Vin so we all know who I’m talking about. Now bask in her beauty and radiance which shine with such intensity I am brought to tears.
;_;7
