Competition Section “Juvenile Offender” Press Conference: Notes & Quotes
Date & Time：
October 26th (Friday), from 14:30 @TIFF movie café
Appearance：
Kang Yi-kwan (Director/Screenplay/Executive Producer), Lee Jung-hyun (Actress), Seo Young-ju (Actor)
Here are some note and quotes:
Q:This is a very beautiful and sad story. What made you want to write this story?
Kang Yi-kwan: Last year, I made a short film commissioned by the National Committee of Human Rights. It was a film about a boy running away from the North. The same committee asked me to make a longer feature film so that more people could watch it.
Q:Why did you change the ending of the story?
KY: The first ending I had in mind was that Ji-gu, his mother Hyo Seung, and girlfriend Sae-rom all being juvenile offenders, would help each other in the end and form a family. I actually shot that ending with Ji-gu coming out of the reformatory and the three of them being united. Yet, I thought that was too manipulative. I then thought that what was important was that Ji-gu is lonely having been separated from his mother. Therefore, I decided to show the hope that mothers can give to their child in the end.
Q:Did you discuss the ending with the cast?
KY: I didn’t complete the entire script before shooting the film. I changed the lines over and over again while shooting with Lee Jung-hyun and Seo Young-ju. We talked about what kinds of lines we could implement or change such as for the ending sequence. For instance, Lee Jung-hyun and Seo Young-ju said mother and son will finally live together by overcoming the difficulties they’ve had.
Seo Young-ju: My ending would be this: when Ji-gu was in the juvenile reformatory his mother would come to visit frequently. And after he comes out, his mother would come pick him up with a car—a car of her own driving back to their own house.
Lee Jung-hyun: I like Seo Young-ju’s version but I also like how the Director’s ending shows hope. I think the mother and son live together with hope and Ji-gu would not commit crimes any more.
Q:What was it like acting the role of the mother?
LJ: Hyo Seung was also a juvenile offender as a young person. She has a temper and is emotionally explosive. But when she meets her son, she changes into a strong mother wanting to protect her son. That is, rather than whining about her life she overcomes them for her son. Yet, if a bad situation were to come, such as being abandoned by society, being a single-parent, not having gone to school, or once being a theft, she would still be prone to losing her temper. That was the character I was trying to develop. The most difficult part to act was when she was rolling on the floor screaming because she was denied support from friends. This is when Hyo Seung realizes the difficult situation she’d been in and everything explodes. I got this scene right in one take, but it was difficult to create that emotion. There was no time to rehearse this part so I had to imagine and create that emotion beforehand which felt like months.
Q:When you are pleading for a lighter sentence at the courthouse, your facial expression is very unique. Did you think of it on your own?
SY: My original acting was a bit heavy so Mr. Kang Yi-kwan asked me to do it lighter. We ended up taking it over and over again but thanks to that it became a very good scene.
KY: Actually his acting was good from the beginning! I usually don’t point out the small nuances of acting; instead, a lot of discussion is done beforehand with the actors. I leave a lot of room for them to create their own roles but I do many takes. We took the courtroom scene at an actual courtroom so I’m sure did what he thought was appropriate.
