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'Jung_E' Yeon Sang-ho "The late Kang Soo-yeon, it seems like she supported me in my challenge and left."
On the 18th, I met director Yeon Sang-ho of the Netflix movie ‘Jeong-i’ at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Seoul. Director Yeon Sang-ho directed and wrote the screenplay for this film.
Director Yeon Sang-ho said, "Senior Kang Soo-yeon really hates inconveniencing others. We couldn't have a party due to the coronavirus, but when she came to post-record, she said, 'Since the coronavirus has eased, let's set up a place where we can meet,' and I said, 'I'll quickly prepare it.' 'That was the last time I did it. I don't usually do making-of interviews during filming, but for 'Jeong-i', the set was so cool that it would have been a waste to destroy it, so I did an interview in advance. The senior did everything to complete 'Jeong-i'. I was amazed by the feeling that my personality of not wanting to cause trouble was reflected. I thought, ‘You really lived like a movie,’” Kang Soo-yeon remembered.
The behind-the-scenes casting of Kang Soo-yeon was also reported. Director Yeon Sang-ho said, "At first, I sent a lame text message to my senior. I sent it emphasizing the connection I met at the Busan Film Festival before, but there was no reply. Later, I asked my senior, 'Why didn't you reply?' and he said it was spam or a scam. “You thought about it,” he said, laughing. He then recalled that time, saying, "I was worried that he would look different from what I knew, but when I met him in person, he was so cool. He looked like a rocker." In addition, "I think my senior briefly said, 'Let's give it a try.' From then on, he acted solidly as a senior who could be relied upon by other actors and as an actor in charge of this movie. The filming site was different from the sites he had experienced. “There may have been some unfamiliar moments, but he supported the scene well as an adult without showing any signs of it,” he said, expressing his gratitude.
How did Kang Soo-yeon, who had not been acting for a while, decide to play ‘Jeong-i’? Director Yeon Sang-ho said, "I never talked about it in depth with my senior. It was the height of the coronavirus pandemic, so we couldn't get together much, and occasionally only the main actors would get together and have drinks, but our senior told us stories about the old film industry, and we mainly listened. “But what I felt was that he was an actor who really enjoyed being on set. He enjoyed being on set to the point where I wondered why an actor who loved being on set so much had not worked on set so much.” He then confessed, "'Jeong-i' was a sci-fi genre film that had not been attempted well in Korea and was a work that required many challenges, but I think that my senior was the last person to support a junior who wanted to make such a film."
It was thanks to Kang Su-yeon that director Yeon Sang-ho gained strength in the production of ‘Jeong-i’. Director Yeon Sang-ho said, "When I first planned the movie, there were several elements. One of them was that I wanted it to be in the form of a 'classic melodrama'. What we often call a 'new wave movie'." He continued, "From the very beginning, the idea was, 'What would it be like to combine science fiction with a classic Korean melodrama that can make you cry?' “The person I was passing by was senior Kang Su-yeon,” he said. He continued, "I think the senior's classical and elegant tone of acting had a synergy with what I wanted to be a classic melodrama. The fact that I wanted senior Kang Soo-yeon's acting to be the center became the motivation and driving force behind making the movie. It's a fun and conceptual movie. “It seemed like it,” he said.
Director Yeon Sang-ho explained, "'Jeong-i' is a movie about a character named Jeong who has been consumed as an icon. I thought it was a story about Jeong-i breaking away from the life she was given as an icon through her daughter, the main character, Yoon Seo-hyun." He said, "While doing post-production work, I thought that this story might be thought of as Kang Soo-yeon's own story. She debuted at a young age of 4 and started her life as an actress. She said it was unfortunate that she did not have a normal childhood. "I did it often. When I heard it at the time, I didn't pay much attention to it, but after completing the movie, it felt like it was senior Kang Su-yeon's story, and it felt like a senior's story to herself. It also felt like a senior's story to the remaining women," she said. He also added, "I think I can say that after Kang Soo-yeon passed away, it was not a film that filled in my filmography, but a film that had a special destiny for me."
'Jeong-i' is a science fiction film that tells the story of people who try to develop the best combat AI by cloning the brain of the legendary mercenary 'Jeong-i' in order to end the war that broke out in the shelter where they migrated away from the Earth devastated by climate change. It will be released on the 20th.
Kim Ji-won, Ten Asia reporter bella@tenasia.co.kr
