PRESENTATION SCRIPT

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 ultimately meaning, upon reflection, makes him an auteur. “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). Park Chan-Wook (say the part about his childhood)

Projector: Fight Scene (Item 1)

Speaker: In 2003, Park Chan-Wook released ‘Oldboy’ one of his most notorious films, appreciated across the globe. Olboy 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 epitomizes Chan-wook’s reoccurring convention of violence, showing Dae-Sun fight a group of men with weapons. Chan-Wook was inspired by Franz Kafka “I’m influenced by Kanz Kafka”(item 11). Upon research, Franz Kafka was worried about people find him mentally repulsive, which suggests why Chan-Wook admired this quality and adopted within his work.

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 “Olboy certainly nudged ino the horror bracket: not merely in its Jacobean-tradgedy bloodletting, but also in the distressing feeling you get that you are in the hands of a quite possibly deranged authorital 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 it’s 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 stylized, 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. ‘Im 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 her 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 catched 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: 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.