Park Chan-wook, director of the 2003 hit film 'Oldboy,' discusses everything about the intense hallway fight scene from the movie on its 20th anniversary. From determining the art direction with color tone to getting inspiration from medieval paintings for their props, Park Chan-wook gives you a detailed look inside how the iconic scene came to life.
Director: June Kim
On Set Producer: Kamin Kim
Producer: Adam Lance Garcia
AP: Rafael Vasquez
DP: Youngwoo Choi
Cam Op: ChulHoon Park
AC: Hanra Kim
Gaffer: Yongjae Lee
Sound Recordist: Jongchae Sohn
PA: Seunghee Choi
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Editor: Cory Stevens
Guest: Park Chan-Wook
Director: June Kim
On Set Producer: Kamin Kim
Producer: Adam Lance Garcia
AP: Rafael Vasquez
DP: Youngwoo Choi
Cam Op: ChulHoon Park
AC: Hanra Kim
Gaffer: Yongjae Lee
Sound Recordist: Jongchae Sohn
PA: Seunghee Choi
Assistant Editor: Justin Symonds
Editor: Cory Stevens
Guest: Park Chan-Wook
Category
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 I shot less than 15 takes,
00:05 and it took two days.
00:07 There's no perfect take for every moment.
00:10 In this long action scene,
00:12 where I'm constantly moving,
00:15 I chose the best one.
00:19 Hello, I'm Park Chan-wook,
00:25 a Korean director who made a movie called "Old Boy" 20 years ago.
00:27 Nice to meet you.
00:28 [Music]
00:46 This scene is about how Dae-su Oh went back to the prison cell to find out who had imprisoned him.
00:57 [Music]
01:03 I had a lot of conversations with the art director,
01:06 and the color tone of this movie was used a lot.
01:13 In some situations, the green is very cool,
01:17 clear, and reminds me of nature.
01:22 In this scene, it's different from that.
01:25 I used old, rotten mold,
01:31 and contrasted it with the red of the door.
01:36 That's how I set it up artfully.
01:40 What I thought was especially important was the white pipe on the ceiling.
01:47 It's a pipe that stretches out all over the place.
01:51 I used wide-angle lenses to emphasize the sense of distance.
01:55 [Music]
02:01 This was shot by B-cam.
02:05 It was more of a coincidence than a plan.
02:09 It was very dynamic, and I used it well in editing.
02:12 The action that will take place in the future will be very calm and attention-grabbing.
02:17 The camera will move with the distance.
02:20 It's a dynamic start, which is different from that.
02:24 If you start like this, you'll be a little bit of a foreigner.
02:29 What I like is the audience's foreigner.
02:34 There's a lot of close-ups, fast-moving, dynamic action.
02:38 You'll automatically expect it, but you'll be a betrayer.
02:44 [Music]
02:50 Please pay attention to this person.
02:53 He's the best Korean martial arts director, Heo Myung-haeng.
03:00 He was the leader of the stunt team.
03:05 He's a great actor.
03:08 His physique, hair, and hairstyle are impressive.
03:12 The audience can distinguish him from many people.
03:17 [Music]
03:28 Vertical line on a long screen.
03:31 Wide screen that utilizes the 2.35 to 1 cinema scope as much as possible.
03:39 Now, there are more people than this screen.
03:45 I wanted to place a lot of vertical lines on a horizontal screen.
03:50 We use a lot of wooden sticks in Korea.
03:55 Because it's a country where guns are not used.
03:59 Or, if you want to be more cruel, you can use a knife.
04:03 I asked the props team to prepare something longer.
04:10 What I imagined was a medieval Western painting.
04:17 The scene where knights cross and fight.
04:26 The soldiers are holding a spear and a sword.
04:32 I prepared a long scene.
04:35 [Music]
04:50 The action using a spear is not because I like the spear itself.
05:01 Oh Dae-soo is confident in any situation.
05:06 He's a strange optimist who can only have people who have nothing to lose.
05:14 If you're a revenge-preparing person in a movie like this,
05:18 You have to collect weapons and carry them around.
05:24 It's a lot of stuff like that in the movie.
05:26 If you open your bag, it's full of stuff.
05:31 I'm just looking around and picking up anything that stands out.
05:36 But I wanted to use it as much as I could.
05:40 I felt the audience was sick by shooting the back of my foot.
05:44 [Music]
05:52 I shot less than 15 takes.
05:57 I shot for two days.
05:59 There's no perfect take at all.
06:03 In this long action, in a situation where you're moving endlessly,
06:09 Not every situation can be perfect.
06:11 I chose the best combination.
06:15 I made sure that the VFX didn't hit the enemy.
06:23 I drew all the swords on my back.
06:27 I made a mistake by making Oh Dae-soo's arms a little longer.
06:35 I made it look natural by making it look like a complement.
06:38 [Music]
06:50 When I shot this in long take or wide angle,
06:56 The thing that was worrying was the distance.
06:59 From here to here.
07:01 Actually, this is this much.
07:02 It's the distance between the walls.
07:05 It's not a wide corridor.
07:08 It's expressed here.
07:09 I can't hold it like this.
07:12 If there's a wall.
07:13 If this is a real corridor,
07:15 I can't get this angle.
07:17 No matter how many wide-angle lenses you use.
07:19 I'm lying about the size.
07:24 When you look at it from the front or from the back,
07:29 It's a little scary.
07:32 It feels narrow.
07:33 I'm going to make sure there's enough size here.
07:36 I'm just going to take one wall off.
07:37 I'm just going to reveal that it's a lie.
07:39 I was the one who shot it.
07:40 [Music]
07:58 There's a funny moment when you realize that you're the only one.
08:02 I remember laughing while watching the monitor.
08:06 In any situation,
08:10 Especially when you're the farthest from humor.
08:16 In a situation that shouldn't be funny.
08:18 I think the humor that comes out at that time is the most valuable.
08:23 I think it's an important secret that describes life in general.
08:27 In this situation, humor must appear.
08:32 [Music]
08:41 Choi Min-sik's acting at a moment like this.
08:47 It's not acting.
08:49 It's so hard.
08:53 I'm so tired that I'm going to die.
08:54 I'm shaking.
08:57 It's a way to recharge your energy.
09:01 I loved the fatigue of Oh Dae-soo.
09:06 When I see him, it's something that no one can do for him.
09:10 Actors are destined to be lonely.
09:15 At this time, he looked so lonely.
09:20 He looked so pitiful.
09:21 [Music]
09:30 Actually, where should I cut this long take?
09:34 It was also an important decision to decide where to go.
09:38 So my conclusion is that the cut is made here.
09:42 It's a big close-up, a little bit of a crooked angle.
09:50 The bodies of enemies that pile up like a pile of mountains in the back.
09:56 He's not dead, he's not a superhero.
10:01 It's a similar hero.
10:03 This hero is not a morally noble person.
10:08 It's a hero in the sense of getting out of the ordinary human power.
10:17 I saw it.
10:18 [Music]
10:31 So the fight inside this elevator.
10:35 I was thinking about showing you at first.
10:37 I've seen enough of it.
10:40 I'm just going to leave it to your imagination.
10:43 It was more fun to do it that way.
10:47 The elevator is later in Lee Woo-jin's penthouse.
10:53 It's a very important place.
10:56 And the reason why it's important in the confinement room is because it's a floor that doesn't seem to exist in this world.
11:04 It's not seven floors, it's not eight floors, it's 7.5 floors.
11:08 It's an elevator that connects you to a place that you can't know outside and you can't go to if you don't know.
11:17 Like the numerous stairs that appear in this movie,
11:22 Elevators are used to express the image of going up and down vertically and moral fall.
11:32 [Sound of elevator door opening]
11:39 Looking at the whole thing, I felt like I was fighting against fate, not just against some villains.
11:49 These villains are so unnamed, so they're a little abstract.
11:56 From a certain point of view, it's an endless struggle until a person is born and dies.
12:05 It's a scene that visualizes the struggle of life.
12:12 Then this is a continuous screen, and it's not a close-up.
12:20 It's a way to fully express the whole group at once.
12:26 Oldboy is a 20-year-old film, so if it can be verified that this movie is still running,
12:37 If you can go through that trial, as a filmmaker, the moment is important, but the most important thing is how long this work will survive.
12:53 I'm nervous and nervous because I think the test is coming true this time.
12:59 Another thing is that there are young audiences who haven't seen this movie yet.
13:06 I wonder how they will feel about this movie.
13:13 I hope it's new for an old movie.
13:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]