How Cho Jin-woong Produced ‘Ryuk-sa: A Teaser’ — A Korean Superhero Short Movie With Big Ambition

Image it: a rather lady hunting to some degree anxiously by means of a window with the sun shining carefully on her as she sits in a cafe with tender audio taking part in on a document player in the background. Who could she be waiting for? Her lover perhaps? This is just a smaller flavor of the opening sequence in Ryuk-sa: A Teaser, a superhero limited movie by South Korean actor Cho Jin-woong (The Devil’s Offer, The Handmaiden), and composed by Cho and collaborator Park Hoon-youthful.

The film which is Cho Jin-woong’s directorial debut, experienced its worldwide premiere at the 2021 New York Asian Film Festival is a wise and entertaining preview of a characteristic film Cho hope to have created some day. As a teaser — pun absolutely intended — it beautifully sets up a planet in which heroes can be everyone all around us, like Han Bok-pan (Kim Sung-hoon) a member of Substantial and Mighty, the nearby beginner baseball group who will come to the rescue of Oh Gyu-ra (Kim You-lee). Trapped below tons of crumbled concrete and twisted metal after a developing collapses, Oh Gyu-ra screams for help in the hopes rescuers can locate her in time, and the moment she does, it takes place in the most sudden and truly snicker out loud humorous method doable.

In an job interview conducted by way of e-mail, Cho Jin-woong  spoke about the notion of day to day heroes between us, and writing a story wherever the hero not only receives the woman of his goals, and structuring a brief film to provide as a finish story but create desire and curiosity about the characters and the opportunities this planet has to give to want much more.

Observer:  I feel it is a good thought to use a short film to act as a preview for an intended element movie, and framing it around a particular party provides a total story although leaving just ample for audiences to want a lot more, was amazing. When was Ryuk-sa: A Teaser first pitched to you, and what was your reaction to author Park Hoon-young’s thought?

Cho Jin-woong: The thought for this film arrived extra than 10 a long time ago. I unintentionally arrived across the word “Ryuk-Sa” on the Net. I clicked on it pondering it’s almost certainly a “record of potent people” of some form. I uncovered a limited posting — I cannot even cite its exact supply — that contained “stories of persons who utilised actual physical strength.” I have not believed about this acquiring for a very long time. Then one working day, a considered went as a result of my thoughts that their descendants may well be the superheroes of currently.

It’s not easy to overlook the man or woman who saves your daily life.

I labored on the script with Park Hoon-youthful. I instructed him the tale, and he wrote it down. In other words and phrases, the script became the storyboard. This authorized me to preserve each individual image in my head from the very first scene to the final 1. Although it’s only a 15-minutes-long brief movie, the toughness is in that it is a preview of a attribute movie, which drives the curiosity of the viewers.

Dependent on the story and props employed, like the action figures in the café, it is rather evident superheroes and the style are a major component of the film, was building your 1st film about a superhero something you often dreamed of, and did that really like of individuals sorts of characters make it simpler to create the story for filming?

Really, no 1 all around me was intrigued in this tale, so I went forward and produced a brief movie out of it. You can feel of it as a reference piece to get investors in producing a characteristic film. I guess this movie also shouts, “l wanna make a lot more.”

I laughed all through this film mainly because it is truly funny to me, and a person of the matters I actually appreciate about it is how cleverly meta it is from the pretty beginning. The opening shot built me giggle simply because the literal title of the history shown interprets to “preview” in English, which is a further word for teaser, which is section of the film’s true title. Whose notion was it to existing the title that way, and who’s the singer doing the tune getting played?

I chosen the track and its placement. Park came up with the strategy for the document title, which I thought wasn’t a negative entrance to make, so I mirrored the plan.

The tune is by this Korean married few who fashioned a duet referred to as, Person and Wife Duet. It was recommended by a near acquaintance, and I just knew that it was a great track for this movie.

Would I be appropriate in guessing the music is referencing the plot, and telling the potential, as the term preview implies to give a hint at what is to come?

Indeed. The two people are fans, in the beginning phase of their adore. That’s why I chosen the song by Man and Wife Duet. It implies that their adore will appear to fruition by the close of the film. In the characteristic movie, they will look as a married pair.

I considered the starting was pretty intriguing and unique because it form of sets up the story practically as a period of time movie, perhaps in the late 30s owing to the a bit hazy, dreamlike high-quality to the lights all-around Kim You-lee’s character Oh Gyu-ra, but then the physical appearance of a different pair, superhero figurines, and a gentleman in a T-shirt creates this unexpected sudden funny second, for the reason that you recognize “Oh, wait…it’s established in the current!” How quite a few of all those little touches were being in the script, or were being thought of throughout filming?

The scene was essentially meant to give a alternatively passionate experience. I composed the shot with a ongoing circulation with the shades a little bit blurry. It was also supposed to contrast with the collapse scene. As for the collectible figurines, they are symbolically placed to foreshadow the superhero style.

Simply because Ryuk-sa: A Teaser is actually a teaser, we’re not supplied much data about the figures. For Oh Gyu-ra, what I acquired was that she’s careful about her surroundings in the way she sets the Superman figurine upright on the windowsill, tenacious and established in how she survived underneath the rubble for as extensive as she did, and in discovering Han Bok-pan (Kim Sung-hoon) with only a towel to use as a clue. Could these matters be a small bit of foreshadowing about how she impacts his existence?

It’s not easy to overlook the human being who saved your lifestyle. I started out the movie with the reuniting scene for two good reasons. One, Gyu-ra have to have a strong motivation to repay Bok-pan for saving her life. Two, I built the story all over a happy ending of a marriage. To add a small, a hero’s tale often ends with two scenarios. Either the hero leaves with his back facing these who he/she saved, or the hero magically reappears in entrance of the story’s heroine. Bok-pan has finished much more than sufficient by saving Gyu-ra’s daily life, so I thought in my movie the heroine goes out to meet up with the hero once more. Also, from the beginning, I had in mind that the particular person he marries should really be an standard female.

I didn’t want my hero to suit into a stereotype. I needed to tactic the audience with everyday scenes and language. The humor can be a bit silly but helps make everything extra approachable.

I seen that not a great deal of Han Bok-pan himself is proven to the audience. Most pictures attribute him either marginally out of focus, obscured by props — like the gentle fixture in the café, or in closeups with only his palms, torso, and feet centered on. Due to the fact he’s filmed this way, what have been you wanting for with the actor who would play him, and how did you choose on Kim Solar-hoon?

I did want the hero to have a massive develop, but not much too large. If there was no a person ideal, I was ready to perform him myself. 1st, I questioned my faculty junior Kim Sung-hoon. I regularly instructed him, “Your face will not seem in the display screen, not a single bit.” He gladly approved the role, but I however felt bad about it, so I also casted him to play the information anchor. It arrived out properly.

I resolved not to expose Han Bok-pan’s experience to have a perception of secret and give the audience freedom to visualize his deal with. Extra importantly, the reality that Han Bok-pan is incredibly a lot actual and current but has his facial area hid indicates the probability that it can be any person. That any individual in the viewers can be the hero.

Can you tell me a bit about the humor in the movie? I appreciate that it is this type of off-conquer humor that doesn’t occur from genuine jokes, but moments that don’t really match up with the circumstance playing out on screen. For occasion, the shirt slipping immediately on Oh Gyu-ra’s confront, and the absurdity of Han Bok-pan’s mother fretting about him being somewhere with a peculiar lady.

I didn’t want my hero to suit into a stereotype. I wanted to solution the audience with day to day scenes and language. The humor can be a little bit foolish but would make all the things a lot more approachable. I try to exclude any humor that would seem also intentional or excessive. Due to the fact I individually love the each day humor in my everyday living.

Concerning the modifying, my favorite scene is when the tone shifts out of the blue and becomes powerful as the camera zooms in on Oh Gyu-ra’s eyes, and her expression improvements from unhappiness to terror and the scene modifications to her currently being trapped in the rubble. Kim You-lee gave a excellent general performance and the VFX was flawless, so these two moments truly stood out to me. Talk a little bit about filming those people scenes with her, and the modifying method.

I imagined this shot to be “one scene a single cut” and not be segmented. I did not need various photographs of Oh Gyu-ra, and the scene was accomplished by way of a variety of collaborations with my crew. The publish-output of this scene was certainly entertaining to operate on. In conditions of Kim You-lee’s acting, she experienced to act two opposing scenarios in the scene. Soon after many discussions with her about the scene, I only made the surroundings for her to do her detail. Kim You-lee ought to get all the credits for this. I’m happy to listen to that it was memorable, and I thank the actors.

 How lengthy did it choose to get this job developed, from conception of the story, as a result of obtaining buyers and eventually article-creation?

The first system was a thirty day period of pre-creation, 5 times filming, and one particular week of article-production. Nevertheless, when COVID-19 hit, it was an all-halt problem for the movie marketplace. Soon after ready in excess of a year, we used about two months of submit-creation this yr, and the film was last but not least released. I would like to convey my gratitude to the assistant director who showed terrific perception of obligation by means of the unspeakable hardships.

As you have been an actor for lots of many years, you have knowledge remaining in front of the digicam, and producing your figures with writers and directors, what was it like to be part of the collaboration method as a director and obtaining extra command of a undertaking?

It was a great experience. I had fairly a little bit of experience directing plays, but it was my initially time directing a movie. Every thing apart, I assumed I knew how hard the personnel worked on every scene, but I realized that I really did not know it was that substantially perform. After staying in entrance of the camera for so long, I was psyched to see, really feel, and be in the action driving the camera. Viewing it all, I am more decided to regard their positions and roles in the long term. I would not trade this remarkable knowledge for anything at all else. I would like to convey my gratitude and respect to all the employees.

Dependent on the credit history sequence and Ryuk-sa translating to “history of history” in English, are there plans for the function film or films, discover significant functions in South Korea’s record, like the collapse of the Seongsu Bridge in 1994?

Even although a superhero is only a fictional character, it should not distort serious situations in record. So, I in all probability won’t be discovering heritage or political problems.

When, not if, when you’re able to make this as a attribute movie (I’m truly on the lookout forward to it occurring), will you continue on the story from wherever Ryuk-sa: A Teaser finishes, or flesh out its plot much more to exhibit what happens in the time durations demonstrated in the credit rating sequence?

This movie is like a sequence from an meant feature movie, so I assume the story will by natural means keep on from there. The past sequence should come again, so I program to use it in the commencing of the characteristic movie.

This job interview has been edited for size and clarity.

Ryuk-sa: A Teaser premiered at New York Asian Movie Festival and Fantasia Festival earlier in August.