Friday, October 22, 2004

Sun-Woo Jang on his Gojitmal (Lies,1999):

1. I seek to get rid of the distinction between good and evil, between beauty and ugliness. This story centers around life and love. But love is not so terrific. It's usually beautified in films. However, it only takes a small change of angle to see love as absurb or hopeless.

2. This film is also about a dream of living, eating and f without having to work. Social orthodoxy prescribes that everyone should work hard and live a decent life - especially now that the Korean economy is under the IMF. It strikes me as amusing to insolently express a contrary point of view.

3. I wanted the film to show the lives of the characters in graffiti-like terms to make the distinction between pornography and enlightenment disappear. The same goes for the spectator's senses of empathy and isolation. I wanted the notions of good and evil to lose all meaning, but still have a film rich in a kind of pathos.

4. I hope one can get past the desire to make such distinctions. What are we judging anyway ? Let's throw away the impulse to pass judgement. Let's just play. After all, it's all a game.