Woo Min-ho: "LEE Byung-hun's meticulous yet abundant acting had a sense of stillness that developed tension, just like a bomb that can explode anytime"
the man standing nextCLAPPER: The assassination of South Korean President Park Chung-hee October 26, 1979 is a defining day in Korean history. How big of a task was it to make a film about this monumental moment?
WOO MIN-HO: It’s true that the subject itself was delicate, and needed to be carefully addressed. There was a possibility of political arguments as the most dramatic incident in modern Korean history; the President's assassination was brought to the screen. Also, President Park still has both advocates and opponents, which is probably a similar case for countries with a dictatorship history. This is also why, when capturing this incident into a film, I focused my energy on following the psychological mindsets and emotions of the related people, rather than the chronological set of events.
Instead of defining the broader meaning of the incident and who is right or wrong, I took a microscopic approach at the few lines we read in our history textbooks about the incident and tried to read between them, delicately restoring the hidden motives and mentality of those involved. By bringing the audience into the middle of the vividly recreated history, face-to-face with the people inside it, they were able to view the incident from their perspective and avoid unnecessary controversies.
You were only young at the time of the event itself; do you remember living through that period, or remember your family ever discussing it?
It’s hard to recall exactly as I was young at the time, but I remember hearing people saying that the country might fall and that North Korea might start a war. Overall, there was an atmosphere of fear, and especially, the name ‘KIM Jae-gyu’ was not to be said directly.
Even though your film is set in the 1970s, it is quite eerie to still find comparisons on the political spectrum found around the world today. Why do you think abuse of power is still prevalent in politics?
Maybe it’s because there seem to be more countries that only superficially imitate democracy than achieve full and mature democracy. People’s desire for power needs to be controlled and checked within the civil society, but it’ll take more time for every country to own an effective system. However, I believe that the problems of abuse of power will gradually be resolved because even incomplete, the process towards the completion itself is progress of history.
A significant underbelly throughout your filmography is politics – what draws you to this theme?
For most Koreans, politics is an everyday passion like sports, such as football for English and baseball for Americans. A more suitable answer to the question would be that, for me, ‘desire’ has always been a subject of interest and a source of inspiration. Desire powerfully motivates people into certain actions, to strive for success, and drives them to the point of catastrophe. Politics is where all these monstrous desires meet in the easiest, most in-depth, and awful shape.
Your feature is adapted from the novel Namsanui Bujangdeul by Kim Choong-Seek. How difficult was this to adapt and, in such a monumental story, how do you figure out what is necessary to include?
The original book is a massive record of the Korean Intelligence Agency’s history of more than 20 years, with thousands of characters, so it was impossible to shorten it into a two-hour film. The available choices were to increase the film’s running time extremely or to select and focus on one or two episodes, and I chose the latter. I decided to portray the most dramatic moment as delicately and richly as possible, and a story set one month before the President’s assassination was adequate for this. KCIA’s ex-director that accused his boss of corruption at a hearing in the USA goes missing in Paris, and 20 days from that, the current director that was involved in the ex-director’s disappearance assassinates the boss (the President); this story is cinematic to anyone.
How much research did you conduct to chronicle and replicate the events as closely and authentically as possible?
Before anything else, I got much support and help from the writer of the non-fiction that the film adapted. The writer, KIM Choong-seek, who has worked as a political journalist for a major Korean newspaper at the time, has published articles regarding the assassination for long. He has risked dangers, including physical threat, to investigate the case in-depth. Through several meetings with KIM, I learned various backgrounds and key figures involved, although not all have been described on the screen. Along with that, I utilized every database, including memoirs of figures involved, a record of trials, articles, not to mention the testimony from the one who had worked for KCIA back then.
The Man Standing Next is a massive box office success in your native South Korea, why do you think South Korean audiences flocked in hordes to see your latest feature?
The assassination of President Park is indeed well-known to the Korean public. However, the exact reason ‘why’ the second-in-command, the director of KCIA chose to assassinate the president is still much unknown. <The Man Standing Next> digs deep into that ‘why.’ By doing so, the film focuses on psyche lying beneath the relationship among characters and their desire. I believe this is where the ‘acceptable generality’ rises. I think audiences easily understood the characters and their decision during the time within the film, because they didn’t find much difference between how the dictator from 1970s controlled over his man and how the boss of a company in 2010s manages the team members.
You once again direct the superb acting talents of Lee Byung-hun in The Man Standing Next after Inside Men, what does an actor of his calibre bring to a feature like this and how did you both discuss what direction the character of Kim Gyu-Pyeong would take?
LEE Byung-hun is the start and the end of this film. His character, KIM Gyu-pyeong, is similar to Hamlet, in that he most suffers to make a difficult decision in extreme situations. LEE portrays the suppressed second-in-command who is – from his perspective – treated unjustly by his boss in a still, delicate, and sharp-tempered tone, then bursts at the end like fired gunpowder. LEE is one of the few actors who can control such subtle and diverse tones. In my previous work with him, Inside Men, LEE showed a highly expressive performance and did the exact opposite in The Man Standing Next. Lee’s meticulous yet abundant acting had a sense of stillness that developed tension, just like a bomb that can explode anytime. His performance aroused admiration not only from me but also from audiences.
Working with Lee Byung-hun on your latest feature – and the likes of Song Kang-ho and Bae Doona on your last feature Drug King (마약왕) – what is it like working with a golden generation of South Korean talent?
As a director, working with outstanding actors is great luck and pleasure, and I was delighted to enjoy that. I especially feel more attached to Lee Byung-hun, who still brings inspiration for various characters.
Speaking of talent, Lee Byung-hun and Lee Hee-Jun have an incredibly rich and combative rivalry on screen. How much fun did you and the cast have while filming their constant fighting and arguments?
We tried to vary the depth of emotion from each take, based on the scenario. As Lee Byung-hun and Lee Hee-jun are such great actors, we shared various opinions while filming, which led to the scene that is richer than the scenario.
The Man Standing Next was released in the United States earlier this year, what do you hope western audiences take from your feature?
It’s not much different from what I wanted to convey to the Korean audience. The greed that is not checked nor controlled leads to one and only conclusion – a catastrophe. <The Man Standing Next> describes some political situation that is distinctive and only applied to Korea, but the very nature of authority and desire is terrifyingly the same all over the globe.
Surely after the box-office success of The Man Standing Next Hollywood is calling, what is next for Woo Min-ho?
I haven’t heard anything, but for now, I hope the COVID-19 situation settles down soon so that the audience can visit theaters again in the near future.
THE MAN STANDING NEXT is currently awaiting physical and VOD release. Read CLAPPER’s review here
