Power of visual language

Nonika Singh

Neither we understand their language nor do they know ours. The winning team, superstar Song Kang-ho and director Kim Jee-woon of the South Korean film The Age of Shadows, which brought the curtains down at the 47th edition of IFFI, may have been restricted by the language barrier, but did someone say cinema is a universal language.

No wonder Kim Jee-woon, the director of the acclaimed film, hailed as the best western film of the year, rattles off names of more than one Indian film. Indeed, like the rest of the world, he too has been hugely impacted by Satyajit Ray and mentions his films like Aparajito, Pather Panchali etc. But his knowledge of Indian cinema doesn’t begin or end with Ray. He knows Deepa Mehta, whom he met at a film festival in Morocco and of films like The Monsoon Wedding. If given a chance to helm an Indo-Korean production, he would like to combine the energy of Rajnikanth’s Robot with Korean sensibilities.

Korean cinema, he informs, began to acquire its identity more importantly since 2010 and unlike Hollywood here the director is the captain of the ship. To some extent it is star-driven. Indeed, Song Kang-ho is a hugely important star whose fandom runs far and wide. He agrees that stars do bring a lot to the film but then also jokes, “Since people think all Koreans look alike, face value is not that important and it’s acting that matters.” The talent of Song Kang-ho is corroborated not just by hordes of his admirers, who swear by him, but also by the director with whom he has worked for 20 long years in four films. Says Kim Jee-woon, “In Korea the categorisation — he is an action hero, he is a romantic one — no longer exists. But if need be, a hero does train for the part of action. For instance Song Kang-ho trained in wrestling for over three months”. Would he like to train himself to the tunes of Indian song and dance? And guess what Kim Jee-woon picks up the right word — masala films — to describe the same. Though he hasn’t watched too many of these, just seen the trailers. Back home, however, Indian movies are lapped up by Koreans for sure. And Kim Jee-woon wonders why it took such a long time for Indian movies to make an entry into the Korean market. “For even in early 1970s films like Haathi Ke Saathi were enormously liked and its tunes were copied.”

Since films from Korea, which have been the country focus in this edition of the IFFI, have generated a very positive response does he envisage a possibility of a theatrical release of their movies in India? “Yes it’s possible especially for actioners.” But even more possible are perhaps remakes. He reveals how some Indian producers were interested in the rights of his films like I Saw The Devil. Since the agreement failed at the negotiation table, he laughs, “They made it anyway.” But that’s India where copying is called inspiration.

However, that doesn’t stop him from believing that greater co-operation and exchange between the two countries is not possible. Besides, like most of our mainstream directors, he too believes he owes it to the audiences to make a film that meets their expectations. South Korea’s Oscar entry in the foreign language film category or not… the espionage thriller set in the 1920s sure topped the South Korean BO for three consecutive weeks. So the winning combo is a happy one too, only too excited to share the film with Indian audiences at Goa.

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On the Throne

If Song Kang-ho delighted viewers with his part of an autocratic monarch and an unsympathetic father in the drama The Throne, yet another film of his at the Goa festival, the film impressed jury members of the IFFI too. Part of the competitive section known as Sado in its original language it picked up the special jury award. The film that was Republic of Korea’s official entry at Oscars this year was commended by the jury for its artistic excellence and exceptional performance. In the absence of the director Lee Joon-ik of the riveting drama, Song Kang-ho received the award. The award carries a Silver Peacock, a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 15 lakh.