“SHIN Chul is among the first generation to recognize Korean cinema as an industry,” film critic LEE Jung-ha has said about the head of ShinCine Communications. After founding the film production company ShinCine Communications in 1988, SHIN has steadily recorded many firsts in the Korean film industry. SHIN pioneered the era of systematically planned and developed films. At the beginning of the 1990s, he tested the possibilities of computer graphics in Korean cinema. Then SHIN successfully adapted an internet novel for the first time in Korea. As a result, My Sassy Girl (2001) catapulted him to fame as a producer and he was recognized all over Asia. After 13 years, SHIN is preparing My New Sassy Girl. The Korea-China co-production is now one of the most anticipated projects among Korean, Chinese and further flung Asian filmmakers.

My New Sassy Girl is a sequel coming 14 years after the release of My Sassy Girl (2001). Do you have any special feelings about that?
I worked on this project with the mindset that I was a new producer. During the intermission, I attempted to produce a film in the U.S. by creating a CGI-based Bruce LEE character, with an eye toward expanding the spectrum of Korean cinema. Moreover, I tried producing a live-action film version of the animated film Robot Taekwon V which is very popular among Koreans. While facing trials and errors during these projects, the ten years really flew by. Then after looking back on my life, I remembered that it took ten years for me to make a film as a producer after entering the film industry. That reminded me of my early days in the film business. I began to work on the film, thinking that I have started anew.

 

It seems that you may have faced difficulties as My Sassy Girl was a big hit not only in Korea but also in Asia.
I labored over a screenplay for the sequel as I wanted to tell their stories after the original. But for a long time I could not obtain satisfactory results. Finally, I successfully completed a screenplay that satisfied me, but the project failed to interest JUN Ji-hyun, the female lead of the original. I think that she felt a big burden since the image of her character in My Sassy Girl was too strong. In the middle of the project, things were going smoothly and JUN almost joined, but ultimately did not. That is a bit regrettable. With JUN’s participation, I wanted to serialize My Sassy Girl by making two more sequels like Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013) , all directed by Richard Linklater. I thought about making the first sequel about their marriage like My New Sassy Girl and the second sequel about them ten years after the first sequel.

 

 

Could you tell us about the status of BEIJING SKY WHEEL MEDIA, your Chinese partner for this project?
BEIJING SKY WHEEL MEDIA was founded by a former president and a former vice president of Wanda Cinema Line Corporation after they left Wanda. In fact, we first signed an MOU on the joint production with Wanda. BEIJING SKY WHEEL MEDIA was founded last year and had a good year to the extent that their first film My Old Classmate ranked among the top ten box office hits in China. The film earned CNY 600 million (USD 73 million) at the box office.

 

What was the proportion of the Korean staff to the Chinese staff?
Shooting in China accounted for 30-40% of the full film. We shot the film in China for a month. The Korean director and key members of the Korean cinematography and lighting units flew into China to shoot the film there. Other staff , members were Chinese on site. Needless to say, when we shot in Korea, all our staff was Korean.

 

It took seven years to finish the script for My New Sassy Girl. What mattered most in writing it?
Many people think that My Sassy Girl is only about the female lead character. But the original is about the male lead Kyun-woo and the girl he meets. I wanted to develop the story of the sequel from the same viewpoint.

 

The shooting has finally begun. As a producer, what do you think about the current edited version?
Director JOH Keun-shik put his utmost efforts into the film. The big success of the original puts the production of its sequel under a lot of pressure. But I think at the very least we won’t be ashamed of this work.

 

How will you split the profits?
We will go fifty-fifty. It was not easy to induce investment as we did not receive capital from big companies. I myself collected the investments one by one.

 

Did the Chinese investor want to change anything about the story and setting to make it friendlier to Chinese sentiments?
No. The Chinese side liked our final screenplay. I imagine they trusted our ideas since Chinese people loved the previous work so much. This enabled us to work better with the Chinese side. The only thing they wanted was to make the film meet the conditions for a Korean-Chinese co-production as set by the Chinese government. On the contrary, they wanted to learn the Korean film production system through our human resources.

 

Filming My New Sassy Girl was a big project that spanned the continent from Shandong Province in the east of China to Yunnan in the southwest. How was the location shooting in China? Was it difficult?
It was not easy. In Korea, it takes one or oneand-a-half days to move camera equipment from Busan to Seoul to shoot a film. But China’s vast landscape makes that impossible. Once, we were shooting in Yunnan. It was impossible to do so in a day. In China, if you have a filming schedule, you have to arrange shipment three days in advance in order to shoot on schedule. We did not know about that. So, we stopped filming and waited for the equipment to arrive from Shanghai.

 

What troubled you most as the producer of an international co-production?
To be honest with you, the hardest part was to receive the certification of the work as a co-production. We applied for it after checking the conditions for co-productions even including its Chinese cast. At that time, our actress Victoria made her schedule in accordance with a time when the results of the application were expected to come out. She signed the contract in April and mapped out a plan to shoot the film from July to September. But our plan only barely received approval in September. Fortunately SM Entertainment, her management agency, was so considerate that we were able to quickly shoot scenes involving her from September to the middle of November. The delay in the approval process changed the season, so we couldn’t shoot on grassland as originally planned. Ultimately, we made a small change in the script. What is worse is that we were forced to change the location to a mountain. During this project I learned many things about China’s production system and about collaboration with Chinese staff members. Only experience can teach such things.

 

How were the Chinese crew members at shooting sites?
China has a well segmented production system. In Korea, at shooting locations, production staff members handle most miscellaneous trifles. But in China, production teams have separate staff members who only do such things. They are called ‘Changgong’. Other staff members do not handle such tasks. For example, if there is a plastic bag in front of the camera at a shooting site, any Korean crew member can take it out of the way. But in China, nobody does that except for the Changgong. This is maybe because China is a socialist state. Nobody interferes in others’ work in China. Sometimes, this system is inefficient. But to put it on the other way around, the segmented system can be highly efficient if the system is put in place. In terms of work segmentation, China’s system can outclass the Hollywood
system.

 

What took the approval so long?
I think that the department in charge of the approval was busy at that time. Later I heard that the process usually takes about two months. To make matters worse, something happened to the department, making us wait for the approval for over three months. It took a lot of time and effort for us to obtain a certification document that allowed us to shoot as a co-production.

 

You took the lead in proposing ambitious CGI projects such as Dragon Warrior and Robot Taekwon V after My Sassy Girl. But the two projects did not work out. What is their current status?
I cannot push forward with production of Dragon Warrior starring a CGI-rendered Bruce LEE since my copyright contract with the family of Bruce LEE expired. But in the case of Robot Taekwon V, ShinCine Communications is still developing the project. We need more time as the project is quite big. But I have to finish the project whatever it takes. I think that Robot Taekwon V is a very attractive project that has the potential to be as great as the Harry Potter series and the Transformers franchise. The film can appeal to many generations including those in their 40s who loved the robot character when they were little, as well as kids. Equally important, this project can expand the domain of Korean cinema. Most likely, this project will be a lifelong challenge for me.

 

Could you tell us about ShinCine’s next film after My New Sassy Girl?
We are preparing a film based on a real story of a child living in Changchun, China. We can’t wait to shoot the film in China. We will plan the film as a Korea-China coproduction. 

 

Photo by JUNG Sang-hwa