One of the highlights of this time of year, for anyone that is in the UK and has even a passing interest in movies and typing the words “INT.” or “EXT.” is the BAFTA Screenwriters’ Lecture Series. Now in its seventh year, and founded by “Last King Of Scotland” writer Jeremy Brock, it’s seen acclaimed and award-wining wordsmiths including Simon Beaufoy, Charlie Kaufman, Abi Morgan, Scott Frank, Tony Gilroy, Emma Thompson and Nick Hornby unspool some of their secrets.
This year’s season has been underway for a couple of weeks now, with a great lecture by “Manchester By The Sea” helmer Kenneth Lonergan kicking things off a few weeks back (you can read about and listen to that lecture here). And this past weekend brought a special treat, with Park Chan-Wook, the Korean writer/director of “Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance,” “Oldboy,” “Stoker” and “The Handmaiden,” talking about his writing process at the BFI Southbank.
We’re huge fans of director Park (here’s our ranking of his work), and it was a privilege to see him talk with such wit and deftness about writing, albeit a slightly stilted one in places (the talk was live-translated, by his producer Wonjo Jeong). You can read some of the particular highlights below, or listen to the whole thing in the embedded audio. Just to warn you, we’d recommend also watching the below short film, his 2011 shot-on-an-iPhone movie “Night Fishing” first — the film was screened ahead of the lecture, and he discusses it in some detail in the full talk.
Enjoy, and check back later in the week for our coverage of the final lecture of the series, by “The Lego Movie” masterminds Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
On His Collaboration Process With Long-Time Co-Writer Chung Seo-kyung
But now I’m going to explain to you the way I collaborate with this female writer who I am very fortunate to have found. So what we do is we sit in the same room facing each other, across from each other, and we use one computer. Into this one computer we hook up two monitors, one for each of us, and two keyboards, one for each of us. Someone will write first. Say one line, and ask the other, “How is it?” “Well,” the other will reply and press on the backspace. And I will say, “Well, then why don’t you try and write it?” And then she writes something, “Well I like it, keep writing.” Let’s say she wrote ten lines now, and I drag and select all and delete it. So there are times like that, but if it works well, when I write one line she writes one, and vice versa. I write one word and she would write the next word. And there are more times when things go well like this. Sometimes we fight over where to put the comma and how, for ten minutes and longer. Working like this, after I’ve finished with the script and after I’ve made the film and it’s released, people come up to me and ask, “I really liked that line of dialogue, so which of the two writers wrote it?”
On Finding A New Ending For “Oldboy” (And The Importance Of Peeing)
The reason why the villain has come to hold a grudge against the protagonist, the reason is completely different from the manga in film. And the way that he exacts the revenge on the protagonist is also different. In the original manga these different reasons worked well for a manga, but to retain them for a film I didn’t feel it worked very well, they were too bland cinematically.
READ MORE: Watch: 15 Minute Video Essay Explores The Greek Tragedy Of Park Chan-wook’s ‘Oldboy’
So it was a situation where I had to come up with completely new reasons in the method of vengeance. So I was thinking that it needed to be different, and it needed to go beyond, it needed to jump over what I found in the original manga in order for it to have meaning in this different medium. So remember, I am someone who always works through heavy conversation with different people, so in this instance too I sat down and talked to my producer about it. The question was just why this villain would incarcerate this protagonist for such a long time, and the whole conversation was about what was the grudge, why did he want to go out and kidnap this person and incarcerate him for such a long time? But we just couldn’t come up with an answer for this. I took a moment to go to the toilet, to pee, and while I was doing my business, as I was facing this white wall a thought came to me. Why did he incarcerate, but why did he let him go? Wouldn’t it be better if the villain kept him locked up until the day he died, isn’t that more of a punishment and more of a revenge, more of an agony?
But then it occurred to me, maybe the releasing part is the more important part for this villain. So the protagonist in the story and the audience, they’re all obsessed with the question, “Why is he locked up?” “Why am I locked up?” But maybe the more important question is, “Why am I let go?” “Why is he released?” And I thought if I change the question around a new path might present itself. Now the follow up question to that would be, okay, so if he’s released him, why after 15 years? Why not 10 years? Why not 25 years? Why specifically 15? What is that time required for? So there was this train of thought, and the train of thought led to me thinking, well 15 years might be time long enough for someone to grow older into an adult. But then who would it be? Could it be the daughter? But then why the daughter? And as you may know from seeing the film “Oldboy,” it led to that reveal that you see in the film, and what it answers is that very question, the very reason why the villain holds this grudge against the protagonist, his motivation. And the answer being all these incestuous elements in it.
On Adaptation
People like to divide up my work between those that are original and those that are adapted from source material, but for me there are no difference between the two because this act of reading, be it manga or be it novel or be it a play, is in itself an experience for me. And it’s not, a book is not, doesn’t exist by the book alone, but when I go through the act of reading, it conjures up images in my head, and I have this experience. For example, as you live through your life you go through these different things, and you might have someone close to you pass away, or you might go through a divorce, there are important events in your life like this. For me it’s just like creating a story out of those experiences. Or you have other sources too, let’s say you watch the news on the telly, or you’ve read an article on the internet, that might provide a starting point for you. But all of these are exactly the same for me, they are just all sources. So am I saying that I have no respect for the source material? I think it really depends on your definition of the word respect, because I believe that I have shown my respect towards the source material in the case of “Fingersmith” (the basis for “The Handmaiden”) and I have retained the core ideas and themes of that book in the best way I can. And that Sarah Waters, the original author, having seen the film twice and having liked the film, I think I have done a good job of respecting her work.
Listen to the full lecture, and watch “Night Fishing,” below. Thanks to BAFTA for having us.
