- Title: SOUTH KOREA: FILM "NOWHERE TO HIDE" WINS ACCLAIM FROM AROUND THE WORLD
- Date: 31st October 1999
- Summary: SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA OCTOBER 19, 1999 (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) FILM CRITIC AND VICE PRESIDENT OF THE KOREAN FILM COMMISSION CHO HEE-MOON SAYING "In this movie, Lee sometimes paints the mutual consensus between human beings in an exaggerated and humourous way. So, it seems very detailed and there is a sense of warmth in the movie."
- Embargoed: 15th November 1999 12:00
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- Location: SEOUL AND UNKNOWN LOCATIONS, SOUTH KOREA
- Country: South Korea
- Reuters ID: LVAAGAGKHPL12RPCIWETX3DY8IMS
- Story Text: South Korean action film "Nowhere to Hide" has won acclaim from both critics and moviegoers around the world for the unique way director Lee Myung-se illustrates a story which might have been brushed off as being just another detective movie.
After drawing nearly two million local viewers, the film has caught the international media's attention after it was first screened abroad in the Vancouver International Film Festival in early October.
The storyline is simple, an unrelenting detective chasing after a devilishly-cunning murderer, who always manages to slip away at the last minute.
But the driving force behind "Nowhere to Hide" is Lee's use of powerful imagery, which leaves it to the pictures tell the story.
"Nowhere to Hide" is a "noir" film in terms of style and genre, but the movie stands out among a plethora of detective movies as Lee focuses on the synthesis of elements such as sound, motion and colours.
"I think the image itself is the narrative.That is what movies should be aimed at and that is what I, from what I have learned so far, think movies are about," said Lee Myung-se.
"The way that director Lee Myung-se looks at objects or the way he visualises images is unique, not only in Korea but all over the world," said Cho Hee-moon, film critic and vice chairman of the Korean Film Commission.
To get a clearer picture of how detectives work on the move, the 42-year old director camped out for days with an investigative team to follow an assault case by local gangsters.
During the investigation, Lee says he met the perfect model for the detective role and inserted his characteristics into the movie.
Although many ideas for the action moves came from the detectives, Lee says the majority of the motions were derived from watching footages of animals to help bring out the primitive nature of the human beings.
"I don't think that violence should be beautified.Violence cannot, in itself, be an art.I think violence is the clash of wild and primitive powers," said Lee.
In some of the action scenes, Lee also uses special effects which make the audience envision paintings in an art gallery.
The characters freeze momentarily in a colourful snapshot and the whole frame looks as if it has been painted with careful brushstrokes.
Others have a twist of humour.In one scene, two detectives hiding out in shivering in the cold, talk about a bowl of Korean soup they're craving for and it appears in the corner of the screen.
"In this movie, Lee sometimes paints the mutual consensus between human beings in an exaggerated and humourous way.So, it seems very detailed and there is a sense of warmth in the movie,"
said film critic Cho Hee-moon.
The scene that best portrays Lee's imagery is the ending, where the murderer and the detective wrestle in the pouring rain.
"The last scene took about 15 days to film.It is only a few minutes in the movie, but the actors almost collapsed shooting it," said Lee.
Park Joong-hoon, the South Korean actor who played the detective, jokingly asked his counterpart Ahn Sung-ki if he was willing to shoot that last scene again if something went wrong with the film.
"Ahn flat out refused.That's how hard that scene was," he added.
Lee Myung-se was born in the rural county of Baekmajang in Kyonggi Province.Like any other teenager, Lee was intrigued by the world of cinema and, in his freshman year in highschool, decided to become a film director.And ever since then, Lee has been living up to his dream.
Lee debuted with his first film "Gagman" in 1988."My Love, My Bride," a romantic comedy, was the movie that catapulted Lee to fame.So far, Lee Myung-se has directed a total of six movies.
"Nowhere to Hide" was written and directed by Lee and took seven months and about 1.8 billion won (about 15 million U.S.
dollars) to produce. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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