[Dispatch | Busan=Reporter Jung Tae-yun] "Most people don't know how much is fact and speak in distorted ways. Why do people say these things. I was very curious about that."

People lie. It is the conclusion Director Na Hong-jin reached after meeting countless people. It cannot be said that everything is false. Some is fact and some is falsehood.

He pondered how to distinguish between the two. That question became the core of the scenario.

"Let's say we had a conversation for 5 minutes in a closed room. After 5 minutes, when we recall it, we would realize we're telling different stories. There's no such thing as truth to begin with."

From then on, finding truth became an important question in his films. Making it impossible to easily judge who is telling the truth, what is fact, and what the characters are hiding.

Director Na Hong-jin made that confusion itself the driving force of the story. So in his films, doubt remains instead of clear answers. As the number of characters increases one by one, the story becomes complex like a spider's web.

Rather than organizing that complexity, he decided to accept it. He even decided to draw the audience into that spider's web.

He said, "It seems I decided not to try to organize it and not to make it easy, but to create this story together with the audience."

Director Na Hong-jin attended a Master Class on the 8th at Shinsegae Department Store Centum City in Haeundae-gu, Busan, which is one of the programs of the 31st Busan International Film Festival.

The 'Master Class' is a lecture program where you can take a deep look at the film philosophy and creative experience of world-renowned filmmakers. From the morning, the lecture hall was filled with audiences.

On this day, Na Hong-jin revealed his creative process from childhood onward without a moderator. When making a story, Director Na Hong-jin does not first decide 'what to say.'

Rather, he starts from a sensation that makes him uncomfortable. There is something he must check to begin a work. It is foreboding.

He said, "If I don't feel foreboding, I generally don't begin a work. It's not simple fear. It's vague anxiety felt in anticipation of something that hasn't happened yet."

Once that sensation arises, he begins to examine the story. 'Hope' started that way too. From around 2017, he felt that war would break out on the Korean peninsula.

Around the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, that anxiety grew stronger. Director Na Hong-jin grasped the foreboding he felt at that time and translated it into a story.

Director Na Hong-jin said, "It seems that when there is anxiety and foreboding, and there is human complexity, mystery naturally arises."

So he searches for people to make stories. He enters worlds he doesn't know. He mingles with unfamiliar people and listens to their stories. Sometimes he stays in one space for months observing people.

'The Chaser' began from a police officer's story he happened to meet at a drinking gathering. When making 'The Yellow Sea,' he visited Garibong-dong directly and crossed over to Yanbian to meet people. In 'The Wailing,' he grew close with a shaman family and spent months in a hermitage in the mountains observing their world.

For him, research is not about gathering materials. It is a process of understanding people. He said, "People are so complex and multifaceted, aren't they. You cannot define one person simply."

In that process, the names, speech patterns, and actions of people he actually met enter into characters. He then places the pieces he gathered into the story one by one.

Na Hong-jin said, "It's like entering a dark cave. At first, you see nothing. When you create one person, the cave narrows a bit, and when you create another, it narrows more. That's how pressure gradually builds."

There are many crossroads too. At some point, you arrive at a place so narrow and dark that you cannot turn back. That is the point he wants.

"There's no way to turn back and no way to know how to turn back, and in a situation of not knowing what to do, the film has never shown light, but gives the belief that there could be light. However, that light is not seen, but felt only in that belief."

Once the scenario is complete, then he converts the mode itself. Na Hong-jin said, "During the period of writing the scenario, the period of making the film, and the period of being released to the public. I perform the role in completely different modes in these 3 periods."

He revealed, "It's only during the period of making the film that I actually do the work of a film director, and I have long contemplated what the title 'director' means."

His conclusion was to become someone who directs all elements. "At that moment, I become not a creator but a different person who depicts scenes in the direction the scenario points. I became someone for whom the technical aspect is important," he said.

"When a bad result comes out, I think my job is how to move these elements to induce what kind of change and properly create this one frame."

Then how does he translate that complex story onto the screen. Surprisingly, he cited space as most important. "You must completely understand the space. You must be able to play in that space, and you must be able to control it," he explained.

He searches for space starting from when writing the scenario. The same goes for casting actors. He thinks about what the actor will look like when entering that space, whether to shoot close or from far away.

He said, "Before shooting, before staff and equipment come in, I first show the actors the space. And I have them feel that space."

He prepares a lot, but on the actual set, he sometimes lets go of the plan. This was especially true for 'The Wailing.' He did not share the storyboard before filming, and he didn't even look at it himself.

He recalled, "Every morning I decided what to shoot that day. I would enter the space and see the actors and the light, and if I discovered something good during shooting, I would turn the camera."

Post-production is still difficult. He has no know-how. He said, "There's something I always tell the staff. 'The reason we write the scenario and do preproduction is for postproduction,'" he said.

In fact, he spent over 3 years on post-production for 'Hope.' He said, "Everything I contemplated over the years is also directed toward that end" and added, "I make an effort to secure time. If rushed by time, you hunt without the opportunity to hunt."

Finally, he said, "I spoke generally with the thought that there would be many students who love film. This too could have its likes and dislikes" and ended with, "I hope you have a pleasant time at the film festival."

<Photo=Reporter Song Hyo-jin>