- DANGEROUSLY EXCITED
- by LEE Eun-sun / 10.29.2012
- Director KOO Ja-hong
- What made you make this film? How did you get started?I’m a rock maniac. I always hoped to make a film about music. Fortunately, I had a chance to make a low budget film. Then I thought I wouldn’t need much money to make a film about music, so I embarked on this project. The fear of making a small mistake, which would have caused a big debt, was my most important driving force.- I read somewhere that you said this is an anti-music film. Can you explain this?It was a joke when I said it’s an anti-music film. But at the same time, I was sort of serious in a sense. In recent years, a lot of music films have been made not only in Korea but around the world. Most of them share a common theme that ‘music is good’, which I don’t quite agree with. I think music has a mysterious power to scatter people’s minds and excite them to the point that they cannot do anything else. In a short time, it can upset someone’s stable life. It also has to do with my own life as I had trouble entering University because I was too focused on music during high school. I thought it would be fun to take a different approach to the music film, compared to these others that have been produced.- The film is a comedy, but a low key one. How did you manage the general mood of the production?I didn’t want it too look cheap, though the budget was very low, so I had too shoot scenes quickly, mostly in 1 or 2 takes so that the schedule wouldn’t be delayed. It was not a fancy or spectacular film, so it naturally became low-key. There was one thing I regarded as important though. I wanted to describe the ‘civil servant’ as a job that viewers can feel sympathy for. Because people usually don’t meet civil servants in their everyday lives, I wanted to keep a barrier between ‘him’ and the ‘band’ as they communicated with one another.
- Was it your intention from the beginning to use a Korean actor (OH Gwang-Rok) to play the Bob DYLAN that appears in the movie?I didn’t think very much about it. I just thought it would be fun to have him do it. With a wig and sunglasses, he looked even better! He tends to look different from other actors because of the unusual and mysterious air that he emits. Bob DYLAN also has a very unique image compared with other typical American singers. A netizen gave him a new nickname after watching the film, which I liked very much. He called him ‘Bob Gwang-Rok’.- Did any particular director or film influence you?Only Angels Have Wings (1939) by Howard HAWKS, There Will be Blood (2007) by Paul Thomas ANDERSON, Vengeance is Mine (1979) by IMAMURA Shohei, Psycho (1960) by Alfred HITCHCOCK, and more.- What’s your next project?I know there is a huge gap between this type film and my previous work. How to minimize the gap is my number one priority for my next project. I would be really happy if I could get an opportunity to remake El Aura (2005) directed by Fabián BIELINSKY, an Argentine director who died very young. I think it’s a really great film. I will make sure to meet people concerning the film’s rights when I go to Argentina.
