Projector: Scenes of gore and violence are often
found in Park Chan-Wook’s films, does this make him an auteur?
Speaker: Park Chan-Wook is a South Korean film
director, screenwriter, producer, and former film critic. Park Chan-Wook is on
the most commended and prevalent filmmakers within his native country.
Throughout his work the dominant use of violence is evident, taking this into
consideration, can we consider Park Chan-Wook as an auteur by referring to his reoccurring
use of violence evident throughout his work? “Auteur Theory suggests that
a director can use the commercial apparatus of film-making in the same way that
a writer uses a pen or a painter uses pain and a paintbrush. It is a medium for
the personal artistic expression of the director” (item 14).
Projector: Fight Scene (Item 1)
Speaker: In 2003, Park Chan-Wook released ‘Oldboy’ one of
his most notorious films, appreciated across the globe. Oldboy follows Dae-Su,
an obnoxious drunk who, after being bailed out of prison, is abducted. When
Dae-Su eventually regains consciousness, he finds himself imprisoned in a cell
where he is kept captive for the next 15 years and then suddenly released
having been invited to track down his captors. This four-minute scene epitomises
Chan-wook’s reoccurring convention of violence, showing a LS of Dae-Sun fight a
group of men with weapons, immediately introducing his reoccurring use of
violence which supports my statement that Park Chan-Wook is an auteur. Chan-Wook
was inspired by Franz Kafka “I’m influenced by Kanz Kafka” (item 11). Upon research, I discovered that Franz Kafka was often worried about people
finding him mentally repulsive, throughout Chan-Wook's films there are many scenes where one could possibly become mentally repulsed due to some of the shocking imagery Chan-Wook creates
the caution regarding his worry that people may find him mentally repulsive
because multiple scenes throughout his work causes discomfort and reaction as he doesn't hold back on uncomfortable scenes. Therefore Chan-Wook's identification and
the caution regarding his worry that people may find him mentally repulsive
because multiple scenes throughout his work causes discomfort and reaction as he doesn't hold back on uncomfortable scenes. Therefore Chan-Wook's identification and
Projector: ‘An
conversation with the audience about Oldboy’ (Item 11)
Speaker: During this
interview someone asks the question “Your films are violent, are you like that?”.
Park Chan-Wook states “I haven’t had any experiences like that, I’m just
the opposite. Except in my childhood, I’ve only fought physically once. I suppressed
my anger and hatred all my life. Maybe that’s why I want to show these things
in films” (Item 11). When referring back
to Item 14 “It is a medium for the personal artistic expression of the director” this interview
strongly supports my questions because Chan-Wook is in cooperating parts of his
childhood within his films, which is an evident example of artistic expression
of the director. It’s without a doubt that Chan-Wook’s “Oldboy
certainly nudged into the horror bracket: not merely in its Jacobean-tragedy
bloodletting, but also in the distressing feeling you get that you are in the
hands of a quite possibly deranged authorial presence” (Item 5).
Projector: Tooth Torture Scene (Item 1)
Speaker: In an interview with ‘Spinoff ‘ (Item 8) the
interviewer asks Chan-Wook “People talk a
lot about the violence in your films. Your technique is very effective because
most of the brutality is left to the imagination (…) Would you say that’s
essentially the thesis for your approach to violence?” In which Chan-Wook replies “I like to pull
away from the most terrifying moments that would make people shudder and leave
it to the imagination, and let it do its job” (item 8). Whilst Violence is extremely evident in each film of
his, it’s often just suggested showing Chan-Wook plays on the psychological
aspect which can often create more of a lasting effect because as he says, he
likes to leave it to the imagination. But nonetheless, “Chan-Wook’s
films are praised for their stylised, gorgeously shot, surreal images and often
brutal subject matter” (item 8).
Projector: Massacre Scene (Item 2)
Speaker: Three years later, Chan-Wook provided another
example of the way in which he constantly rejects the conventional expectations
of genres and again exhibits reoccurring violence. In this scene, Cha
Young-goon turns into some bionic type machine gun and continues to kill every
care worker in a violently reckless way. ‘I’m a cyborg but that’s OK’ is
actually considered a romantic comedy, yet Chan-Wook was determined to “make a
romantic comedy without the phrase, ‘I love you’” (Item 9). As he states, he steers away from phrases that often
fabricate reality. Chan-Wook’s use of violence within this scene does just
that, its doesn’t fabricate reality. The massacre scene takes place in hr
imagination yet Chan-Wook uses the violence within this scene to portray
reality and the truth “Obviously that’s her own imagination, but when he
enters her imagination and he witnesses what she’s thinking, it’s the most
important part of the film because he’s showing sympathy, he’s feeling terror
of her situation” (Item 9).
Projector: Massacre Scene (Item 2)
As stated previously, this film
was an unusual example of Chan-Wook’s work as it was much more light hearted in
comparison to his previous work, despite dealing with issues of mental health. However,
even though he states that this film is “a hopeful and bright movie”
(item 13). He still makes it clear that when he talks about a
hopeful movie he is “not referring to the floating bubbles of hope with unrealistic
wishes and dreams that pop as soon as you blow them” (Item 13). An interviewer even makes a joke at the start of an
interview “So when did you decide to become a romantic comedy director?” (Item 12) Because Chan-Wook’s films are infamous for his
violent conventions and gory scenes, so even though this film doesn’t conform
to his usual choice of genre, it still doesn’t fit with it’s own expected genre
and instead rejects the expectations expected from a “romantic comedy”.
Projector: Transition scene (Item 3)
Speaker: Chan-Wook’s 2009, ‘Thirst’ has been noted to be his
“Darkest film
to date” (Item 9). ‘Thirst’ follows a
respected priest, Sang-hyun, on his experimental procedure that may lead to a
cure for a deadly infection. However, Sang-hyun caught the infection and dies,
but a blood transfusion brings him back as a vampire. We see Sang-hyun torn
between faith and bloodlust. The violence evident within this scene is touched
upon within an interview with Chan-Wook where he states where he gets his
influences for the use of violence from. “her character is very close
to the conventional film noir ‘femme fatale” (Item 10. This provides an explanation and gives support to
his reoccurring use of violence due to the fact that he is inspired by film
noir which is notorious for it’s violent conventions.
Projector: A priest who become a vampire scene (Item 3)
Speaker: Now that we have seen
how Chan-Wook’s films exhibit use violence, we can now begin to question the
influences for this particular technique, for example, whether Chan-Wook was
surrounded by such sights as a child? In an interview, Chan-Wook stated that
the idea of a vampire priest came from his early childhood memories “it goes back
to my childhood memories. In the Catholic church, a priest drinks red wine as a
symbol for the blood of Christ, and in a way this always reminded me of
vampirism” (item 7). In each of his
films, Chan-Wook depicts the reality, whether it means it’s a harsh portrayal,
he still doesn’t deceive audiences with false hope. Although there is romance
within ‘Thirst’ it’s more focused on violence however, the romance that is
included is harsh and cold fitting nicely alongside the harsh violence “I decided to
remove all the romance and clichés that classic love stories are based on because
in Thirst I wanted to explore the real side of love. I mean the fact that love
can give not only the strength to survive, but that one can also achieve
something through love, and that, to some extent, love is always selfish” (Item
7).
Projector:
Side by Side shot of two scenes from Chan-Wook’s films (Item 4)
Speaker: To conclude, with the evidence I have gathered and
research I have completed, one could say Park Chan-Wook is indeed an auteur.
Chan-Wook’s idiosyncratic style, “blood and gore-spattered films
are often discussed as much for their philosophical content as their
ultraviolent aesthetic” (Item 6) immediately connects the audience
to his work as his filming style is a dominant reoccurrence within each film he
has ever done. Even in (Item 4) showing the side by side shot of India out of
‘Stoker’ and Young-goon out of ‘I’m a cyborg but that’s OK’ clearly shows his
signature style… but overall, his signature use of violence is the obvious
convention of his that audiences are able to recognise within his films.