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The apartment building looks cleaner now.

This is...

Oh...

That's the exit.

I'm not sure.

It's the hallway where Choi Min-sik puts on sunglasses and walks out.

I think this is where I fell on the car.

Those apartments weren't there when we filmed 10 years ago.

There was a lot of bristle grass back then.

Once we came out in late August and it was cloudy.

I was supposed to commit suicide,

but the sky needed to be blue.

So you'd think, "It's a good day to die."

But it was too cloudy, so we left.

Things didn't work out the next time either.

We waited all morning and then filmed when the fog lifted.

We couldn't keep delaying.

It was really tough. There was a safety harness of course.

I'm afraid of heights, so I was really scared.

I wanted to get out of it, so I asked the director why he'd cast me.

We used to look at the sky over there while waiting.

The Han River is there. We're at the edge of the city.

The sky above us is blue,

but there's smog over the city.

It was very foggy then.

Look at that.

Impressive.

I probably wouldn't agree

if someone asked me now.

I'd have to rewrite the whole thing.

I said yes when nothing had been decided about how to do it.

I guess I had confidence in everything back then.

I think I was about 31 years old.

I was bored so I went to a comics store.

Our screenwriter Hwang once told me

that Oldboy, the graphic novel, was really good.

There was this one frame in the manga.

A closeup of a guy's face, and it looked like Choi Min-sik.

I saw that and thought he'd be great for the role.

Once Choi was cast in the leading role,

it was clear

how Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Oldboy would differ.

Kind of like the difference between Song Kang-ho and Choi Min-sik.

Things proceeded so smoothly

that I couldn't imagine the later troubles.

Choi had played some very diverse roles,

but I really wanted to portray him

as a classic hero.

- Wow. - Welcome back!

It's been ages. That picture's still here.

- Hello. - Welcome.

Hello.

They filmed lots of stuff here. Closer to Heaven was shot here.

I guess we filmed on May 21.

We put up bead curtains here.

We thought it'd look nice.

We shot here, right? Here it is.

The name of the room is "Oldboy". Wow!

I remember it now as a very happy experience.

From the very start,

Park, Lim and I wanted to wholly reconstruct the manga.

We drank a lot and talked our tongues off!

We had script meetings twice a week

for almost three months at a cafe.

I was debating with Lim

when I had to go to the restroom.

It occurred to me then that the key to surpassing the original story

was not why he was imprisoned, but why he was let go.

I went and told Lim as soon as I got out of the restroom.

The incest and everything else came out then.

He said he must do it that way or he wouldn't do it at all.

I remember the director saying, "He didn't know what he'd done."

It's not Oh Dae-su's sexual taste. It's a form of revenge. It's true.

Then what about Shakespeare? Or Oedipus?

When Choi agreed, I couldn't believe it. We'd get to work with Choi Min-sik.

He came into the office every day, and we all got along so well.

I'm Yoo Ji-tae and I play Lee Woo-jin.

I heard they wanted someone to play Woo-jin.

I saw someone turn down the part, but I never dreamed I'd be asked.

I remember Choi calling me.

I read the script and told him and the director that I really wanted the part.

I was 28 back then.

I think life experience is more important than age.

Mr Choi was a really respected actor with a lot of experience,

so I was intimidated.

I cast Yu as a man two years younger than Choi, so I thought anything goes.

The unconventional casting of Yu paradoxically made the movie more violent.

Do you like your clothes?

I observed auteur directors and tried to mimic them in my acting.

That was the way to reduce the number of takes.

Back then.

Catch your breath.

You wanna talk about something else first? And tell him to stay lying down?

I haven't worn a skirt in ages.

- It's uncomfortable? - I'm nervous.

Before Oldboy, I'd auditioned for a Ryoo Seung-wan movie.

I don't think I prepared that much then, so I decided to make a fresh start.

I decided to give everything I had for the Oldboy audition,

so I dived into it with no shame.

I thought she was a bit weird at the audition.

She'd brought a real sashimi knife from a Japanese restaurant.

I asked where she got it and she said she borrowed it from a nearby restaurant.

I thought she was lying.

I told the assistant director to go and check, and it was true.

I didn't know that chefs don't ordinarily lend their knives.

I thought, "He has plenty of them. So what's the big deal?"

I'd heard rumours she was emotional, overly sensitive and unpredictable.

So I was worried, but it turned out not to be true.

The director said he saw me trip over my heels while leaving,

and that's why he cast me.

But I believe I got the part because I tried really hard!

I still cringe at that.

I was so young.

I don't think I could act like that now.

It was possible because it was back then.

Yes, I'm up!

We need to cut some here.

The Oh Dae-su I remember was hot-tempered.

I thought there was something in his environment that he couldn't overcome.

So that made me think of extended and very curly hair.

I told Choi that I wanted to give him this hair.

He said, "You think I'm a young rapper?"

At first... I said it looked like a rotten thatched roof.

Even for someone locked up for 15 years, it was too much.

But she insisted on it.

Director Park who was mediating in the middle

said they should let me do it since I really wanted it.

Companies made pre-production posters back then,

so he said, "Let's just try it, and we'll do a new one if it doesn't work."

It was called a foil perm. You have to have done it to understand.

Your hair gets wrapped up in foil for three hours.

I thought they'd put my hair in the microwave.

I didn't need to convince them. I showed them the image.

The director and the cast saw the photo, and that was enough.

It was all decided from then.

I really wanted Choi to respect my role as make-up and hair director.

In order to give my character a hard edge,

they slicked my hair back like this.

At first, the director disagreed.

But I didn't suggest any other hairstyle. I followed him around, insisting on it.

I wore him down until he gave in.

My roots stand up like this.

So they gave me a strong straightener to flatten my hair.

The stuff was so strong that my hair fell out, like this...

He almost became bald. He had a hard time, so I felt really bad.

I had to fight for everything back then.

I was new back then, so I didn't know Korean films or industry trends.

I think I was the youngest member of the main crew.

The director wrote notes on the script, intentionally or unconsciously.

Things that had to be visualised.

Mi-do and Oh Dae-su are always together so I wanted her clothes to have patterns.

I tried to think of something that could give the film consistency.

The patterns and the film's situations matched each other well.

I see that now. At the time, I just thought the clothes were cool.

- Have we met before? - Search for the Best Chef

The fabric I got for Oh Dae-su

had a kind of pin-striped pattern.

The style of his outfit had to match that of Lee Woo-jin.

Our budget was too small.

I don't know how I did all that on that budget.

So I decided on this.

I had him wear similar clothes all the time.

He seems to wear only one suit, but there are dozens of them in his closet.

Not many people will remember,

but three buttons were trendy for men's suits.

I told the director we should have two.

That's what the coolest guys in French Noir or ‘60s-70s films wore.

I remember Director Park said, "I don't like three buttons either."

So we did that, and these days two buttons are in.

Movies have to lead the trends. But it's always hard.

I'm shooting an Oldboy interview.

Yes.

You always call at weird times.

I'm at Jangchung-dong where we did the first day of filming.

Yes. The first location.

I'm on camera now.

It's just me.

No, it's okay...

"How are you going to shoot this?"

Solsaid afewthings,

and I was hired soon after.

"I want continuous movement.

"And I want to use a lot of green.

"I want to use a telephoto lens often.

"And the camera should always be moving,

"forwards and backwards, but also up and down."

Camera movement was really important for that scene.

I was a complete newbie and it was the first time I'd seen a 35mm camera.

The camera moved along a dolly and I had to step in at the right time.

It was the first time for me, so I was 120% nervous during filming.

That was the first camera movement while filming Oldboy.

It wasn't originally a moving shot.

And that was the first of many times that we used a wide angle lens.

I think the film's camera movements were well coordinated.

People still talk about it. I wonder how we did it like that.

We'll start slow.

- Roll. - 1A-2!

Cut. Again.

Why are you starting when I haven't even said ‘Ready' or ‘Action'?

Yes. The camera moved in like this.

We set up over there. The store name's been changed.

- Okay. - Okay!

We've already shot half the movie!

I thought, "This is it!" because it was the first shoot.

Yeah.

I think we set up a second time over there.

We put the monitor here and shot Choi following Mi-do.

Was it always this narrow? I thought it was wider then.

The director's instructions for Choi when he turned around were complicated.

"You're crying but you're laughing." I couldn't understand it.

Director Park said later that day that when Choi turned around,

he could see in his face where the film would go.

I was just tired.

It was the first day, so we didn't have many takes.

I wonder today, if I can make films as fearlessly as I did then.

I think we were all brave then. Even the director.

We can be again someday.

Shall we visit the grave tomorrow?

No.

First i have to kiil that bastard.

When the music begins, gas is released.

Look around right away. Then, no muttering.

So when I hear that sound, I should stop talking?

I was so inexperienced then.

I was doing things that could badly affect the movie.

Every time we set up for a scene and the cast and crew arrived,

my heart beat so fast.

What if we place the actors here and they feel distracted? It'll be my fault.

I thought this film could end up being my last project.

I keptthinking that.

It said in the script that there were repetitive patterns.

Geometric prints weren't common, but I thought we should go retro.

The first room was green.

Not clear green, a grotesque mixture of olive green and dull greens.

Green is the colour of nature,

but it's also used in portraits of the sick or the crazy.

Woo-jin's colour.

He has energy and passion mostly for revenge.

A cold purple would be the best colour to show that.

I mixed purple patterns in places where Woo-jin was prominent.

In the end, Mi-do gets locked up in the room.

Director Park wanted a completely different colour scheme then.

There's a lot of confined, claustrophobic space.

So we naturally thought of certain lighting tones.

The green light we use in movies isn't a natural green.

All i could think at that moment...

All the lighting in Oldboy had some green in it.

In the script, Oh Dae-su spent years locked up in a room.

After time passed, it looked like mould.

We shot on film then, and green is a colour everyone rejects.

Everyone thought that green shouldn't show up on film.

I thought that green should be expressed.

I don't usually make decisions quickly.

I took my time. I thought I should use the colour the film industry hates the most.

He's not a technician. He's a true artist.

He really worked endlessly to find what was right for the story.

And he knew best how to use green, which I had always tried and failed at.

Jung was such a newbie then, though he's a master now.

He was just a babe in the woods then.

This one...

That's okay, too.

A bit sleepy but I smile again.

My back!

His back got chafed too much.

Oh, no.

Watch out for this thing!

I'm more worried about my manhood than my back.

We appeared in a lot of scenes.

Jang-hyuk always plays policemen on the scanner in Park's films.

He served as a riot cop, so he knows all the jargon.

Even on Sympathy for Mr Vengeance.

He came and shot police scenes in my film, too!

I punched the wall often in the cell scenes.

Your foot stepped on his head, right?

Just my legs appeared at the door while I was giving him dumplings.

Push hard. Step down with your foot.

Just push my head.

Not just the face. Tap with your foot.

Tap my head like you would a soccer ball.

I don't think it'll work.

I can't guarantee your safety once I'm out of here!

I'm sorry! I won't swear at you again!

Just tell me how much longer. One month? Two?

Or three?

Don't go. I'm sorry!

Choi boxes... with a picture of a guy.

He was supposed to hit the set,

but the whole set echoed as the wall shook.

Who had imprisoned me?

I remember that...

When looking at the storyboard, you could see that it would shake.

Isaid that to the art team and the set builders several times.

I told them to put bricks or rock behind the part he hits.

I said it many times, but it didn't work out.

So we put wallpaper on a wall and I punched it.

We couldn't afford to have Choi hurt his fists, but me getting hurt was okay.

The close-ups were done against a wall,

and we put something behind it for the full shots.

But the director shot that scene for a long time.

Cut!

Only short takes were going to be used, but the director filmed for a long time.

I was worried about Jang-hyuk's hands.

I thought maybe he was mad at me or something.

Picture yourself...

...lying in a field.

You'll see an endless field of green grass.

The sun is shining brightly.

Korea has a director's team, which is unlike other countries' systems.

This team works as one with the director.

A lot of ideas from the director's team were put into Oldboy.

I think we shot here before we went to shoot Woo-jin's house.

Would Choi really fit in the suitcase or not?

- I tried going in the box. - Me, too.

Several people went in and tested if it could be opened by pushing it.

Then I think Choi went in and got it in one take.

The problem was opening it, so I asked for something to open it from the inside.

I asked a couple times, but it didn't happen.

So it closed quite loosely.

When we came to shoot the scene in a place we'd scouted, construction was going on.

So I remember we just moved over to another place.

Even now, I think the director was very open-minded.

He asked opinions of all the crew, down to the youngest member.

As the lead actor, I found the ideal type of film director in him.

He's very clever.

- It's an honour. - I'm a huge fan.

Can you take a picture of us?

One by one.

One, two.

Next.

We were playing football.

- Oldboy? -Yes.

- Oldboy was shot here? -Yes.

I never knew that.

- The "Dickshit" scene was shot here, right? - That was here?

"Dickshit. A new word."

That's it.

I'm looking forward to your next film.

- The Handmaiden. - The Handmaiden.

On the news it said it's X-rated.

I think you're awesome.

That was exaggerated.

We said that just to be clear with the cast, but it got blown out of proportion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Can I shake your hand again?

Please go and see The Handmaiden.

I will. I'm a big fan.

Then all hell started.

The first budget I raised was 3.3 billion won.

Everyone had to make sacrifices to stay within that budget.

If anything went wrong, it would cost money.

The weather didn't help.

Shooting what was on the schedule each day was really hard.

The schedule was made to fit the budget, but 48 days increased to 72.

I thought a producer's main job was scheduling and staying within the budget.

In that sense, I failed.

Oldboy was behind schedule and over budget.

I played the bad guy a lot.

I would yell and swear and demand why everyone wasn't moving faster.

Yoo Ji-tae later asked why I swore so much.

I was kidding but he's a serious guy. I was a bit scared of him.

He's a big guy, so I apologised.

CONCLUSION: REDUCE LIGHTING SET-UP TIME.

COORDINATE EACH SCENE EFFICIENTLY FOR OPTIMAL RESULTS.

I don't know if I should say this. Director Park was known for many things.

At one time, he was known for falling behind schedule and such.

Naturally, I expected huge problems.

When we were drafting the schedule, I knew he wouldn't shoot that much.

He would shoot one or two shots at most per day.

A good day would be three or four.

Looking back now, it wasn't that hard.

It wasn't the work that was hard, it was the all-nighters.

Fighting against sleep and fatigue.

But the director wasn't rough on the set. He was gentle and very quiet.

He never raised his voice.

What made us most nervous was when he would let out a sigh...

That meant we were in big trouble. But he never yelled at us.

He doesn't yell at you directly.

- Did he ever raise his voice? - He never yelled.

But when he looked at the monitor and then looked at me...

...you don't know what that's like.

I've had that look several times.

I got that look a lot.

Cut!

Who the hell are you?

Do it fast.

You're salting it?

-Go. - Quiet!

Look, Director...

Oh!

That fucker...

Please stay to one side so cars can go by!

Or maybe it's better to kick my shoulder.

Dickshit.

A new word.

Television doesn't teach you swear words.

Can ten years' worth of imaginary training be put to use?

I thought the crane would go here.

Oh Dae-su crosses the road there.

The camera comes down to the thugs here.

At normal walking speed, the scene takes too long, so I told him to run down.

We rehearsed it 16 times, so it was tiring.

I guess he was pissed off with me.

It was total chaos. Complete chaos.

Our crew hadn't eaten at all,

the lighting crew were about to pass out after rigging all the lights.

This was the hardest part of the whole process.

So many spectators filled up that space.

This side, too.

The production staff apologised to them all and would shout at them, too,

so they wouldn't appear in the frame.

Citizens of Busan. Thank you very much.

If you stay there, we can't shoot any more.

Busan people don't use titles. They called Choi Min-sik by name.

He had such a hard time, sweating a lot.

And then kids were calling him by his first name, so I took action.

I jumped up and said, "You think Choi Min-sik is your buddy?" and hit him with my cap.

This kid was saying, "What's it to you?" I said, "You stay until the shoot is over."

On his way to the restroom,

Director Park asked if I got into a fight, and then kept shooting.

He's invincible.

That's how he was able to shoot that scene.

I was overly ambitious, so I asked for too much.

The buses passed by Pukyong University,

so I asked the crew to change them all so you couldn't tell we were in Busan.

If it were now, I would check whether it'd be noticeable in the movie.

If it's a problem, then we fix it with computer graphics or something easier.

They were shocked because I told them to stop all the buses going by.

All the stores have changed.

Nothing's the same.

Everything changes so fast here.

I realise that again.

Cut.

- Okay? - Sure.

Did it hurt?

Untie him quick.

Oldboy was the first time that I had lines.

I didn't know when I read the script.

I went straight from theatre-acting to the movies, so I didn't know anything.

The first time I went to see Director Park,

he had his legs up on the table like this.

His feet were up and hetookouta laptop.

I thought that was the way he talked.

Then he said, "That's probably how you should look."

When I saw the movie, I was amazed that I looked like that in it.

Wow. The mechanism is completely different.

He told me to act... ambiguous.

That was easy for me.

That means it's neither here or there.

I think that's what made me think about this and that.

How can I make it ambiguous?

It was a sponge made to look like steel.

It wasn't harmful to the actor at all.

So how do I make it look realistic?

I found myself thinking about details like that.

Do you want to talk?

Cut.

My teeth are pulled out, and I get gold teeth.

I went to a dentist to get it done with a director's team member.

He was so eager, he suggested grinding up six teeth and sticking gold on.

So he called the director to confirm it.

The director was so mad at him.

I leave without killing Oh Dae-su and say, "That'll take care of your cold."

He told me to say something that had nothing to do with the scene.

So I just said it.

That'II take care of your cold.

It was strange. Everyone was gung-ho.

They were at the top of their game.

There was energy flowing everywhere.

The corridor fight scene made me realise what a film set was.

You throw away the knife, not wanting blood, but what'll people think if it appears again?

Guys with hands raised go outside, then split like Moses and the Red Sea.

When he was doing Oldboy, I was working on Arahan.

He said, "Action scenes are such a bother.

"Do you know anyone good?"

Yang Kil-yong was with the Seoul Action School then, but now he's independent.

I recommended him.

It was the first film I did as a martial arts director.

So I didn't give it much thought.

I saw the storyboard for Oh Dae-su's revenge scene in the prison.

I was blown away. The shots were intense.

Someone could get seriously hurt.

I was taught that actions carry emotions.

So I tried to keep that going.

I think there were 60 to 70 moves.

My arms will hurt the most.

I didn't mean to make it this complicated. But Yang... Where is he?

Where'd he go? What's going on?

Director Park called me and said,

"Why don't we do this in one take?"

"What? How?"

The guy has to fight a lonely, wearisome battle against a formidable foe.

The director said he was mistaken.

He should've said so much earlier!

After the knife goes in... to the end?

But I can't remember for sure.

If you can do that, then we won't use any other details.

- Make it unique. - So take it to the end in one shot.

Director Yang, can we cut the part at the end?

- Yes, cut it. - Then it's easier to remember.

Then I have to change every punch and kick that doesn't appear to make contact.

I thought if we went with a long take,

it'd be hard to put emotion into it.

So we changed the choreography on site.

I could sense the sheer duration of it.

Are you okay?

But Director Park wouldn't okay it.

Why? He said something was missing.

Yeah?

After doing over ten takes, I started getting nauseous.

How many more times could we film this?

You probably don't know this, but action scenes are way harder than working out.

And he had to act, too. He was so tired, he could barely stand.

He was about to drop dead.

After saying "Cut", he was like...

That crafty director waited until I actually got tired.

Sowe did 16 or 17 takes.

The sequences in Korean action films have very fast editing.

I was worried how the general audience would receive it.

We talked about it over beers.

Good.

Great job!

Good work, everybody!

Good job.

Great job, sir.

Get some rest.

There are magical moments like that when you're shooting a film.

Something that clicked, although you didn't intend it.

I think that scene happened like that.

My older brother was a real bookworm so he read a lot.

I didn't read novels much, but he read a lot.

I think that's what laid the groundwork for his filmmaking.

While they set up the lights here for the night-time scene,

I popped into this bookstore by myself.

Kang Hye-jung and Yoon Jin-seo came to watch,

although they weren't shooting that day.

I remember I bought two books and gave them one each.

One was Miss Smiila's Feellng for Snow or something like that.

I think it was Miss Smila's Feellng for Snow,

but I can't remember who I gave it to.

I held onto Miss Smilla... while I was single.

Then it got stored in a box because I moved around a lot.

I don't know if the director still remembers this.

He lent me a book once, but I ended up keeping it.

I think it was called Enduring Love.

The cover was blue. I nicked it.

Sorry, Director.

Thank you.

- Are you going to shoot here? - I did before.

This is the kind of scene

that I said I was overly ambitious about.

When we're on a street with crowds, it's common sense to wrap up quick.

At the time...

I thought sorting out the environment was the production crew's job.

All I thought of was getting my job done.

So I would say, "Once more!" if I didn't like even the slightest thing.

I don't think I would do it that way now.

I was ignorant

about analysing the character, distributing my energy,

or what role the character plays in the drama.

I knew nothing about any of that.

I still remember the director saying, "Feel the space."

So I suppose very lonely people keep thinking of ants.

Although I have never done that.

Filming was done on a subway train, so it was a bit tense.

I had to get the "okay" no matter what.

During the filming, I kept feeling anxious, nervous and overwhelmed.

Whenever I have to depict extreme emotions or express a lot,

there are moments when I feel someone's helping me just by watching.

When acting, there are things that only the actors themselves can solve.

So being an actor is a lonely job.

It's a job that bothers me all the time. It's a lonely battle.

But there are moments when you hear something like the voice of God.

Nothing is said, but even a look helps.

Choi helped me this way, like a punch in my chest.

He's an actor who makes you think, "Wow, I just heard the voice of God."

Let me speak. Jung, give us some time. She's losing focus.

- Sorry, sir. - Three minutes.

When Oh Dae-su leaves Mi-do and goes to fight Woo-jin,

he hugs me and says, "Dear Lord."

I just fell apart at that. I thought God was really coming.

What would you like me to pray for?

"Dear Lord...

"Please let me meet a younger man next time."

When I'm shooting with younger actors, they're something I'm responsible for.

My impression was that she was very honest.

Her approach to the work wasn't sophisticated, but she was direct.

If she didn't know, she said so. And she had a lot of questions.

"Evergreen.

"Who are you?"

Is that what you wanted to ask?

No. You must find that out for yourself.

Come on, it's a game.

It was that scene.

Woo-jin's speech had to have

the exact intonation and pronunciation that I requested.

But Ji-tae wasn't used to that.

So every word was hard.

I tried hard to put emotion into it, but I've never been that wealthy

or lost an older sister due to incest, I had no vicarious experience.

So it was a tough character to play.

Yoo Ji-tae is a serious guy.

He had a lot of lines and they had to be delivered dynamically.

So it was really tough. He had to really think it over.

There's no other away. You just have to make him comfortable.

If he made a mistake and the other actors said...

"Let's break for a smoke," then that's more discouraging.

I realised at some point

that my idea of Woo-jin's speech and actions

was way too detailed.

It would've been hard for anyone.

The director likes well-structured acting

and he has a strong sense of what he wants,

so we talked a lot about how and when to stress which lines,

and how it would look in the frame.

Then I acted it out.

At some point,

I focused on things like facial expressions and we were able to finish it.

Then we added all the sound later.

That's the most rewarding scene in the movie.

Great job!

Acting's not done alone.

It's a partnership between the director and the actor.

A magic moment when sparks fly produces a complete performance.

Do you really think...

...that Mi-do has fallen in love with Oh Dae-su?

If I dwelled on everything, howcouldlfilm it?

In order to create inexplicable emotions,

I had to be in love with him.

It was comfortable acting with Mr Choi.

We would chew on squid between takes.

The school was huge.

It was like a maze.

Woo-jin's mentality would be similar to the school.

It's huge but seems empty, with grey dust flying around.

It was just really big.

Some young guys were filming the school on an 8mm video camera.

I wondered what they were doing. Then more of them came.

There were a lot of crew members, all young.

They smoked a lot and drank canned coffee.

They drank it endlessly.

Shooting a movie required so much equipment. A lot more than we expected.

Can I just look at the records?

It's dark. Put the lights on.

Oh Dae-su asks, "Who are you?" over the phone.

Every name was from the director's crew and she wanted her name in it, too.

So you can hear her name. Kuk Su-ran.

I asked Director Park to put in my name without telling him.

She's an opportunist!

We used the names of the crew in the yearbook.

So my name went in, too

I never asked for it.

We were called the track outfit duo. He would take me along for workouts.

People said if we started a company,

it should be called "Rough Guys Entertainment".

That's how much fun it was for us two.

We didn't know anything about directors, but he was like a king to them.

He would sit and stare into a small hole.

One actress rode a bicycle around the playground all day.

I didn't know what was so difficult. I remember lots of things now.

I was only twenty, so I was worried whether I could do it.

I had to undress.

I was in only a few scenes, so I doubted people would remember me.

At first, I turned it down.

I was walking out from my part-time job when someone honked at me.

I opened the door and it was Director Park.

He asked why I was there and not filming.

I remember him saying that.

That encounter felt like fate.

I'm Oh Tae-kyung and I play the young Dae-su.

Cut!

Why are you going out here?

When I read the script, I was curious.

The way Oh Dae-su speaks is strange.

It's not the normal way we talk.

The director emphasised the parallel bars. He wanted me to look cool.

I practised my accent for a month, and the parallel bars for a month, too.

But it was harder than I'd expected.

I fell off them once. I was hanging upside down.

I was hanging for a long time, so it was tiring.

There was a mattress so I didn't get hurt.

But all the blood rushed to my head.

I'm remembering it all now.

I play the young Woo-jin,

but I'll do my best to be remembered as Ahn Yeon-seok, the actor.

It was a strong film to be debuting in.

I don't think I knew anything back then.

Everything was just awesome and I was passionate about everything.

Everything was new to me.

- Set! - Action!

The first scene I did was on the bridge, so I was running all day.

While I was shooting it, the students didn't know who I was,

but they said I was handsome and looked cool.

That was awesome.

The students wouldn't listen and Su-ran threw her loudspeaker once.

But the scenes we shot looked really cool.

We had no money, so Jung rented a Steadicam himself

and carried it himself.

Oldboy was physically tiring for me.

You usually mount a light camera for Stead icam, but we used a heavy one.

So I just had to persevere. I got haemorrhoids the next day.

Come on.

Okay, okay.

Satisfied?

- Liftthisup. - No way.

I think we shot the science lab scene right after we met.

So I was more nervous

about how we could do those scenes so soon.

I don't remember it,

but he said I asked him if he'd ever kissed a girl.

I really don't remember, but I said I was a year older than him.

And then I asked him right away if he'd ever kissed a girl properly.

I asked about his girlfriend,

and we prepared for the scene together.

I was quite young...

...so it was almost the first time I'd been with a girl.

I was really nervous about that and about being filmed.

So the nervousness that the young Woo-jin felt came out naturally.

It was a bit awkward. I think we were both too young to handle it.

I couldn't be totally cool after that.

How should I put it?

I don't know.... It was just awkward.

I wasn't so cool.

I was twenty, so he looked a lot more experienced in my eyes.

But he wasn't that much older.

Put your bottom up close.

Hold her hand.

Woo-jin.

I know you've always been afraid.

After shooting Oldboy, I thought all film sets would be like that.

I've said I've never experienced a film set like that ever again.

Everyone loved this film so much, they kept talking about it.

"So this is what cinema is," I thought.

Everyone looked out for each other, they really loved the script,

and discussed how to improve it.

Filmmaking was an all-night discussion. It was amazing.

I could feel their passion.

Thinking back now...

I was on a set that was so great, and I assumed it was always like that.

The passion and the tone were unforgettable.

I think I was fearless then. The director wanted a space that looked surreal.

So I suggested going somewhere that's in winter, since it was summer for us.

He asked if we really could, and I said yes.

If our bags that left Singapore aren't here,

and they're not in Singapore either, then they disappeared on the way?

Lots of things went wrong. Our lens box and costumes bag got lost.

We went there and the daylight was so short.

Oh Dae-su's fur coat was shipped separately, but it got delayed.

So we couldn't use it for the shoot.

So he wore a raincoat that we bought last minute in New Zealand.

It arrived later, so Mr Choi took it because he didn't want to waste it.

We'll be in deep shit when we get back to Seoul.

What are we going to do about being behind schedule and the extra expenses?

I love you...

Dae-su.

The scene with Oh Dae-su's footprints...

The jimmy jib moved like this.

The director said he couldn't see the footprints,

so the director's team threw on dirt.

They did what they could, but it didn't show.

Because of that one jimmy jib shot,

we only finished two shots and it was over.

What do you want to do? If we start doing it now...

If the light's good, can we shoot until 10 or 20 minutes past?

Yes.

- 4:10 to 4:20? - 4:00pm.

So we have only 30 to 40 minutes left.

It's not enough, so it's better to stop. We'll lose the light after one shot.

It won't take long. Let's do it quickly.

Let's just shoot Scene 11-5 today. Set it up quickly.

I shouldn't have, but I got mad when I was out in the field.

It felt like everyone was against me.

The assistant director came and said the director wanted to talk to me.

So we sat by the fireplace...

and we said nothing for about three minutes.

Director Park said we'll shoot everything the next day and that was it.

Directors are the most vulnerable at sunrise and sunset.

The day scene's not finished, but the sun goes down.

He didn't finish it the next day. We were a day and a half late.

OK!

- We're done! - Goodbye, New Zealand!

I was wondering if I would have to do this

until I was too exhausted to breathe.

That's what I thought.

I forget about things like that.

It was serious then.

The design for the penthouse started from having no money.

The script said he was in the top 1% of the richest.

At that time, building a set that cost 230 million won

meant either the producer has balls, or he's clueless!

I was the latter.

Minimal!

Minimal and strange.

There was a huge picture of a wave that didn't come out so much in the movie.

We also didn't have enough money to fill the wall.

So it was conceptual.

We put together three of the largest backdrops available in Korea at the time.

We had to bring in former commandos to put them up because no one else could.

The production company thought we were overspending.

We fought a lot.

There's nothing to fight about now, but back then,

I was thinking, how can I create a rich person's house with so little money?

There were lots of issues.

I wasn't the type to accommodate everyone's situation,

so they resented me a lot.

I remember one thing that made me sad.

I showed the director images of what I was planning.

What he wanted required a lot of money.

Don't hold it that way. Do it like this.

These are the scissors we used.

The scissors that Oh Dae-su cut his tongue with.

They were made of silver and they were the most expensive prop.

The producers asked why I showed such good images,

that it was unnecessary.

I didn't think that way. None of the props there looked expensive.

They said Soo-ah died alone at the dam.

So who took this photo?

We made the picture frames with wood.

So the scissors made it believable that we were in a rich man's home.

I thought the smallest thing shouldn't be common.

But you know...

I understand now.

There was no guarantee how the movie would turn out,

so they felt pressured.

There were many times I wondered if we really had to go that far.

The late Mr Ji Joong-hyun got hurt badly.

He broke his teeth.

When he doubled for Choi getting thrown, his back was cut like this much.

...three!

Are you okay? You look like you're getting tired.

Let's do it just one more time.

Don't overwork yourself.

It feels a bit slow. Probably because you bounce too little coming down.

I wanted the penthouse scene to be realistic so we did many takes.

He had to hang upside down.

He had wires, but he fell and broke his teeth.

Two, three!

Are you okay?

Hold on.

I heard him talking to a friend one day.

He said, "Fuck, I'm screwed. I lost all my teeth." I felt bad.

I sat for a while and then went to ask Su-ran how much she had.

There was 500,000 won in the money pouch, so I asked for it.

I gave it to the martial arts director and said I was really sorry.

We couldn't even afford to give him that.

I went to the hospital after his accident

while filming The Good, the Bad, the Weird.

I was so stunned.

Cut!

- Are you okay? -Yes.

THE LIGHTING TOOK TOO LONG TO SET UP.

COULDN'T FINISH SCENE 63-1, 2, 5. MANY WORRIES.

HAD TO WAIT 2 HOURS AS GLASS CLOSET DIDN'T WORK.

THINGS ARE TENSE.

OPERATING THE GLASS CLOSET TOOK TOO LONG. NO SLEEP. TROUBLE.

I'd worked with directors Kang Woo-suk and Kim Sang-un, so I was shocked.

They shot a minimum of 40 shots per day, but here we shot only four.

The lighting director is a lot older than me.

But I nagged him to work faster and said even I could do lighting at that rate.

The director wanted a sunset scene for when Yoo Ji-tae works out.

The crew said we should paint a blue matte for the backdrop.

It takes a day to paint it and adaytodryit.

That would mean two days.

I said we could start filming in three hours.

I used lights to create a sunset.

The lighting director contributed a lot to Oldboy.

In order to reveal details in the dark parts that are barely visible,

he spent hours setting up the lights.

I used to sit in the penthouse set alone.

The make-up director told everyone to get out, saying I was doing art.

Isat for 30 minutes contemplating how to do the lights.

I've done a lot of films that took time.

Now I ask myself whether that work was really necessary.

Now, things are done so quickly.

The crew are told to keep shooting fast.

So movies now don't move you as much.

I feel that doing things fast enabled low-quality films to keep getting made.

Once, in a very timid gesture, I put a clock on the director's desk.

I was hinting: "check the time."

What I thought was...

such an artist is pouring his heart and soul into achieving something.

I couldn't tell him to stop just because time was up.

I resented him.

The director refuses to compromise on art unless he completely understands.

I got worried, so I asked him a few times if we could just go ahead.

But I never won once.

I don't think I ever really wanted to.

I liked it. It couldn't be helped.

So the producer and his wife used all their credit cards to keep filming.

They never told me, soldid alot of takes.

When I heard that later, I felt so sorry, and grateful.

One last time.

Really.

Jung, I mean it.

- Cut! - Cops.

Wow. You're so fast.

- Rolling! - 109-8-1.

We had nothing to look forward to. We were all so tired.

There was a pool of water in the penthouse.

Every reporter that came fell in it.

We would count how many fell in. That was the only fun we had.

Once on set, filming takes a long time. We shot for 48 hours sometimes.

We voted whether to sleep then film or just keep filming.

We wrap up scene 109, no matter what.

Wrap up scene 109 today, be it 2:00pm or 3:00pm.

Sleep, then assemble at 4:00am of the 9th. That's choice #1.

We're filming 24 hours so we should rest for at least 12 hours.

Then it's 4:00am.

The lighting director is of the opposite opinion.

It's a question of whether to start from morning and work all night,

or start from evening and work 24 hours.

Everyone decides for themselves.

10, 11, 12, 13,

14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

We assemble tonight.

Only a few.

9, 10, 11, 12,

13, 14, 15, 16. That's it.

Let's shoot.

Then we finish it now?

Let's go.

I remember one time, everyone fell asleep.

Only the director and a few people were awake. That was hell.

Choi was supposed to look down and then raise his head slowly.

When we said, "Action..."

The director said, "That poor guy!" It was that exhausting.

Even then,

Choi was able to make everyone relax, as if we were working on a comedy.

Wait. Oh Dae-su does superhuman feats.

He bends this.

Then we can't film it touching you.

- You can. - It bends right away.

Bend it like this.

Looking back, I think I did it intentionally.

But it was...

It was for me...

I don't think anyone else knew this.

I wasn't losing my mind,

I was trying to relax my mouth muscles and release the tension.

I was nervous too, you know.

Mi-do. Mi-do!

Let's go.

You know that scene where Choi has an outburst?

Where he says, "I'll be your dog." He got the okay after two takes.

It was incredible being there.

There are splendid moments like that, though filmmaking is so painful.

None of us even dared to gulp.

If by any chance...

Mi-do finds out the truth,

you son of a bitch...

In the script and the storyboard,

I was supposed to shed tears because I'd finally got my revenge.

But then the director asked me to dine with him,

and he said he wanted to change it.

I asked him how, and he told me to look and just laugh.

I said, "Laugh?" and he said it'd be much more unusual and interesting.

His tongue was cut and bleeding a lot, and we were shooting it for days.

Once you put blood on, it dries up, but it had to look wet every time.

He lost his frame of mind, and filming all night made him lose sleep.

He lost his temper all of a sudden, so I went to the director.

And I asked him to let the AD formally approve my spraying water on the blood.

- Set. - Action!

Cut.

Take a break. Keeping your mouth open is exhausting.

Take five.

We waited around a lot and we were running low on energy.

I think everyone was really depressed for various reasons.

But Ithink that helped the film a lot.

Just leave it closed.

Now...

what willilive for?

Huh?

Everyone was acting like Woo-jin.

They're laughing but not really.

They had a grudge.

Filming was wrapping up but nothing felt finished.

That's how it felt.

LAUGH, AND THE WORLD LAUGHS WITH YOU.

WEEP, AND YOU WEEP ALONE.

When I ring my bell, you'll split into two people.

One person doesn't know your secret: Oh Dae-su.

The one who knows your secret is the monster.

When I ring the bell again, the monster will turn around and start walking.

With each step, he will age by one year.

I can't talk about it without mentioning the spirit of that era.

A lot of great films came out that year.

That energy may have existed in those days.

There were too many good films coming out

to credit it just to youth.

Ithink we thought what we were making was important.

Even the fights with the producers were due to that energy.

It was a monster born out of all the circumstances of the times.

The film was a blessing to all involved.

Maybe I'll never see another project like that

because we can't go back to that time.

Mr Choi gained weight again.

We stopped for a few months and then he gained weight again for filming.

Hye-jung, do that again.

Yeah, with your shoulders.

He told me to check out the wings, so I just put them on.

I acted cute like I would before elders.

Cut.

It couldn't be completed unless everyone involved was crazy.

We were all crazy.

The make-up and costume designers,

the directors of art, lighting and cinematography.

They were all crazy, including the actors.

I think Director Park put a spell on everyone.

He might say he doesn't know how he did it.

I don't know.

I just...

I was doing what I'd always done. I didn't know any other way.

I thought all directors did it that way.

Now, what will I live for?

I wasn't even flirting!

Let me go!

Who are you?

Who I am isn't important. What's important is why.

Still haven't worked it out?

I can't trust you.

Don't open it, okay?

Can't you come now?

Two men's secrets are revealed.

Oldboy.

The big twist has to be kept a secret no matter what.

We can't tell a soul.

When we began marketing, we didn't have any screenings.

They said it'd be banned from theatres because of the incest

and it'd receive tremendous criticism, but I wasn't worried about that.

I did worry about sales, though.

On the day of the press screening,

it was the only screening, but there was no applause.

No one even talked, and everyone just left quietly.

This is a very vulgar story. A father and daughter fall in love.

Can it get any worse than that? How could he pull it off?

It explores the fundamental sense of guilt and the issue of good and evil.

It asks these questions non-stop for 100 minutes.

It sounds vague, but I thought people would watch it if it was interesting.

That was the simple idea I had while making it.

I just tried to make an interesting film.

More people came to see it than I expected.

I don't know why, but I was so busy when the film opened in theatres.

My own brother made it but I didn't even go to the premiere. I saw it much later.

Because everyone went to see it.

I told him over the phone that I enjoyed it.

He sounded a bit annoyed and said, "It's about time."

THE MATRIX TRILOGY MEGA-TALK

QLDBQY WHO ARE YOU?

SECRETS OF OLDBOY REVEALED

BEST MOVIES OF 2003

THE WINNER OF THE MOST 24TH BLUE DRAGON AWARDS!

Before Cannes, we screened it at a film market.

There was one in Milan then.

The programmer for Cannes was there, and he sent us an invitation a week later.

It wasn't in competition at first. It was in Un Certain Regard.

One week before the official selection was announced,

they suddenly put it in competition.

I thought submitting to Cannes was too much.

I didn't think they would like it.

It wasn't the customary applause. You could tell they really loved it.

I remember it was a very long standing ovation.

It was the first time a Korean film won the Grand Prize at Cannes,

and it brought the level of Korean cinema up a notch.

It was the first example of a Korean film being globally recognised

as one of the very best.

This is from the UK.

And this is from Japan.

These are box sets.

International buyers loved this scene the most.

It's been ten years.

Ithinkthere should be an Oldboy Memorial Hall or something!

How should I put it?

No more coffee.

Oldboy is...

significant in several ways.

The biggest is that it's the most well known internationally,

and the most popular internationally.

I think Oldboy gave me something and took away something.

As a 32-year-old producer,

there were times I trusted myself too much.

You forget the pain over time...

but the feeling of happiness remains like images.

The actors...

When directors think of a film, they remember first and foremost

which actors they worked with.

I met Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, and Kang Hye-jung for the first time,

and this was my happiest and most rewarding work.

That's it.

Look, when did this royal maid wake up?

Your majesty, we must leave a record of this.

Ah!

We shall hand it to the History Compilation Committee.

Your highness.

The evaluation of Oldboy by critics, the public, and the film festivals...

Because our work is to show the public,

they are all happy, good and memorable things.

But when I feel myself, as an actor,

I always have a strong desire to work like this again.

I really miss those days. I miss them.

The experienced elders were revered.

It convinced me to make movies till I die,

the challenges, passion, sacrifice and respect all came together.

It's like a far-off homeland.

Oldboy is like that.

I've spent the past 10 years asking if I'll ever see anything like that again.

I wish I could work again with such a director, crew and cast.

I've longed for it for 10 years.

It's like a far-off homeland.