hankyoreh

director

By Song Ho-jin, staff reporter in Jecheon

“Some people may end up walking out of this movie,” said director Chung Ji-young, 66. “It may be too much for them.”

Indeed, ninety percent of the action in “Namyeong-dong” unfolds in Room 515 of the anti-communism division at the National Police Headquarters (now known of the National Police Agency) in the Seoul neighborhood of the same name, the site of numerous instances of torture with water and electric shock.

“When I was filming the torture scenes, it felt like I was undergoing torture myself,” Chung said. “I can’t imagine how it was for the actual victims.”

The director said he wanted to “really make the viewer feel how torture destroys the human soul.”

President of the juries at the 8th Jecheon International Music and Film festival (which is taking place through August 16), Chung sat down on August 11 with the Hankyoreh at a coffee shop in the event’s host city in North Chungcheong province. Over a month of filming beginning in April, the director was “very quiet” about the making of “Namyeong-dong,” telling no one on the outside. He plans to finish up postproduction by the end of the month to ensure a premiere in November, before the presidential election.

The film is the follow-up to “Unbowed,” a major hit that sold 3.42 million tickets early this year with a storyline that takes aim at the irrationality of the judiciary and establishment. “Namyeong-dong” is a dramatization of a book by the same title penned by the late Democratic United Party (DUP) adviser Kim Geun-tae on his experiences being tortured in the anti-communist unit for 22 days in Sept. 1985. Park Won-sang, who played a lawyer in “Unbowed,” returns in the role of Kim’s surrogate, Kim Jong-tae, while Kim Gyeong-yeong appears as Lee Du-han, based on Kim’s torturer, police inspector Lee Geun-an.

Chung also said the later portion of the movie includes interview testimony from 24 people, including politicians like former DUP chairwoman Han Myeong-sook and New Frontier Party lawmaker Lee Jae-oh who suffered torture under the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan administrations, as well as ordinary citizens who were tortured after being unjustly arrested for espionage. The director had long been planning a movie on Lee Geun-an, and after reading Kim Geun-tae’s book he determined that he couldn’t put it off any longer.

Chung explained his reasons for summoning the ghosts of torture and Kim Geun-tae before 2012 passes.

“We went through a period where people like Kim Geun-tae suffered and fought for the democracy we enjoy today,” he said. “But a lot of the younger people have no idea about that pain from the past. We even see people who feel nostalgic about the Park and Chun dictatorships. What I’m doing is looking back on how many people sacrificed themselves to get us here.”

The film was made for 400 million won (US$353,000). The actors signed on for a running guarantee where they are paid only if the film makes a profit.

“I hope it runs in theaters as a commercial film,” Chung said, adding that he might consider distributing it as an independent if the distributors are averse, or forming a distribution committee like the one used with the documentary “Two Doors.”

He added that the film would never have gotten made without Park Won-sang. “The suffering he went through filming the water torture scenes was something harsh and horrific,” he recalled. “I thought, ‘This is why they don’t make movies about torture.’” Park agreed to play the role even though he has a phobia about water, Chung added.

The filmmaker once again faces questions about why he keeps poking at sensitive areas of politics and society.

“I wouldn’t do it if younger directors tackled this kind of topic,” he responded. “I’m only doing it because they aren’t saying what needs to be said. I decided that if making a film like this requires courage, I was going to show that courage.”

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]