Park Chan-wook shoots new film on iPhone

Award-winning South Korean film-maker says phone ‘creates strange effects’ in 30-minute movie Paranmanjang.

South Korean film-maker Park Chan-wook is wielding a new cinematic tool: the iPhone.

Park, director of Oldboy, Lady Vengeance and Thirst, said his new fantasy-horror film Paranmanjang was shot entirely on Apple’s ubiquitous smartphone.

“The new technology creates strange effects because it is new and because it is a medium the audience is used to,” Park has said.

Compared with other movie cameras, the phone was good, he said, “because it is light and small and because anyone can use it”.

Paranmanjang, which means “a life full of ups and downs” in Korean, is about a man transcending his current and former lives. He catches a woman while fishing in a river in the middle of the night. They both end up entangled in the line and he thinks she is dead.

Suddenly, though, she wakes up, strangles him and he passes out. When the woman awakens him, she is wearing his clothing and he hers. She cries and calls him “Father”.

The movie, made on a budget of 150m won (£85,500), was shot using the iPhone 4 and is scheduled to open in South Korean cinemas on 27 January. Park made the 30-minute movie with his younger brother Park Chan-kyong, who said a wide variety of angles and edits were possible because numerous cameras could be used.

Oldboy, a blood-soaked thriller about a man out for revenge after years of inexplicable imprisonment, took second place at the 2004 Cannes film festival. Vampire romance Thirst shared the third-place award at Cannes in 2009./bq.

guardian.co.uk

Awesome. And I love that Park Chan-Wook himself isn’t all snobby about the whole thing but like – look – here is this exciting new piece of relatively cheap technology! Let’s see what we can do with it.

I’d be curious to know what is exciting about the technology and why bother using it when you have a 150m won budget.

“150m won = £85,500”

And why not? He’s clearly just experimenting with new technology readily available to the masses – one could say commenting on the global immediacy and the passing fad.

rolls eyes

Sorry I had to.

And why not?

Such a large budget—that of a feature length independent production—seems to contradict the “experimentation” with lofi technology.

ugh. after I’m A Cyborg and that’s OK and Thirst I’m not optimistic.

Umm, 150 million won is not that large a budget. It’s actually about $1,500.

133,954.82USD

fuck, never mind, I’m a retard. Yes, it’s more like around $150,000, and fluctuates quite a bit on the strength of the dollar.

Blue K was WRONG!?!? OH MY GOSH!!! :O!

Haha. Still, though, with Park shooting a film for 150000, that’s not such a big budget, as opposed to what he’s usually using (I imagine, although I don’t for sure know, that Oldboy and Thirst cost a hell of a lot more than that).

EDIT: Then again, the film IS only thirty minutes…

Savvy

This is fantastic news. The less resolution in a Park film, the better. We can only hope that one day he experiments by leaving the lens cap on.

Ouchies! :P

Savvy

Park isn’t THAT bad. But no, he’s not that good either.

It’ll be the best thing anyone’s ever made with an iPhone that’s for sure

He’s better than anything Godard and Allen have made in the past 2 decades, that’s for sure.

Lars Von Trier did some stuff with a cell phone before. It’s just a short advertisement for you guys to visit Denmark though, not a feature.

Personally I have enjoyed some of Park’s films but I doubt that anyone could make a proper film with an iPhone.

Godard shot part of Film Socialisme with a camera phone. Worked for him.

Yeah, I’m baffled by the $150,000 price tag … at least some people are excited about this.

iPhones are expensive in S. Korea, huh?!

Should have used a Samsung or wait for the Verizon iPhone plan.

it will go over big in some parts, I’m sure.

“it will go over big in some parts, I’m sure.”

..the hipster market, for example. Maybe teenage girls.

David Lynch made Inland Empire on a cell phone, right? At least that’s what it looked like.

Park’s iPhone film wins Golden Bear at Berlin Festival

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/art/2011/02/135_81696.html