Park Chan Wook

Park Chan Wook is the author of this work.
For any cinephile, South Korean filmmaker Park Chan Wook's work is challenging to overlook due to its outstanding characteristics that bring out the creator's personality. Park's films have a distinct look and approach to the key themes. Old Boy (2003) and Joint Security Area (2005) are two of his best films (2000). The creative composition of these two films results in a unique presentation, from the excellent use of soundtracks to the exemplary visual and narrative styles. With his modernist aesthetics approach and emphasis on personal artistic vision, Park Chan Wook has become a cult genre in a way that satisfies his audience. Park’s auteur abilities are evident through his elementary flair, personal style and the fact that he uses vision and sound to portray some extensions of his personality.

Park’s Old Boy (2003) and Joint Security Area (2000) are two successful mystery thriller films that explore theme like vengeance and violence from a modernist aesthetic perspective. These two films contain aspects that make it possible to gain an in-depth look into the personality of Park (Jinhee 176). They contain a personal touch that is only unique to Park thus the director is worth being an auteur. Old Boy (2003) is the middle part of a trilogy based on vengeance (ryuakamrvengeance web). The protagonist Oh Dae-su seeks vengeance for being captured for over 15 years. Joint Security Area (2000) is a story that seeks to find answers to the killing of two North Korean soldiers at the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). In as much as Park takes a positive approach to both films as the wrongs are somehow explicated, he adds a personal touch which makes them quite unique.

Even as he takes a detached perspective, Park also uses minimal music which is a complete violation on the rules of genre. Everything in both Oldboy and JSA is emphasized by slow motion and almost sorrowful music (Oldboy). In part, Park is calling on his audience to calm down and reminisce on what they would do if faced with the same situation as the characters in the film. This is a personal trademark on Park’s films and this makes him a versatile stylist who straddles the lines of idiosyncrasy as well as mainstream. In both films, he makes the protagonist almost paranoiac to sensitize people that normal people can be forced to do abnormal things if mistreated.

In a world permeated by technology, there are very few directors that bring out visual conventions like crossing the line, the convention of thirds and counter shots which Park successfully employs to impress his audience. In Oldboy, Park adds visually arousing and fearless elements like the live eating of an octopus and incest. Additionally, he uses complex characters who appear to be constantly spying on each other. A combination of counter shots, bird’s eye view shots and the convention of thirds make the camera take a voyeuristic point of view. At the same time, he utilizes a closed frame to help the audience focus on this gruesome image and thus creating empathy. Through this approach, the audience can easily see that the protagonist is a sort of a misfit. The ‘misfits’ in Oldboy and JSA are a source of satisfaction to Park who does not rely on the rules of genre.

Still on his elementary flair, Park chooses fixed shots from either medium or long distances in a way that keeps the audience far from the happenings in the film yet close enough to elicit emotions. This is a violation of genre films yet it makes the audience yearn for that which they cannot reach. In this way, the audience’s emotions are much deeper and it is also easy for them to have some form of empathy for the characters. In JSA, Park’s visual style is unique and distinct with high angle shots. For instance, a woman’s hat flies away in the scene showing a small crowd of tourists from America visiting the border (Joint Security Area). The high shot angle shows a Korean man picking the hat and handing it over to the woman. In Oldboy, the scene portraying the release of Oh Dae-su takes a high angle shot.

Park also uses his artistic composition to deal with symmetry as he uses modernist aesthetics where the foreground is a flat space with minimal depth of field. He achieves this through the use of symmetric shots and unmotivated movements of the camera. A good example is the fight that takes place in the corridor in Oldboy. This is not common in films in Korea but in Hong Kong and this makes his work quite unique (Jinhee 176). This part also allows Park to employ the closed frame aspect that enables the audience to focus on a particular memorable event in the film.

Joint Security Area takes a complicated narrative approach with numerous flashbacks, memories, realities and imaginations but Park still manages to retain the interest of his audience by using static moments. In this case, Park uses genre to follow the expectations of his audience. Park also uses mise en scene to impose his view of the world to his audience. He gives the protagonist and other actors some freedom yet maintains some artistic control and uses their emptions to portray his ideas. For instance, JSA was shot in Korea, the only place where that had enough cultural aspects. However, Park took placed his audience in the right environment and then used his non-political and non-historic approach to tell his story. Any film director that manages to use the environment with a proper arrangement of actors and props to tell a particular story just like Park does is worth being an auteur.

The use of the shock element also makes Park stand out as a worthy auteur. Using the theme of vengeance, Park does not focus on the common themes relating to the history and political aspects of the country. Instead, he adds a personal touch to the films thus making them unique in their own way. It is easy to see why Park had to turn from the usual political scene in JSA. The protagonist was locked in a cell for 15 years and thus numerous political changes had taken place by then. Similarly, Oldboy would have taken a different turn if he had focused on political and historical aspects. Instead of telling his audience what they already know, Park sort of takes a single character point of view to tell his story.

The lack of historical specificity is a personal approach that also enables Park to use fade in and fade out aspects of film making thus making the film more interesting. A good example of this is seen in JSA where there are numerous flashbacks. Park uses a fade in and sometimes the fade out technology to create scenes which explain to the audience the happenings in the film as well as the various undertakings of the main character (Joint Security Area). Without this approach, it would be extremely difficult for the audience to comprehend the happenings in the flashbacks and the current movie. Park does not overuse this technology and thus makes it possible for the audience to get an inkling of why the protagonist is so angry.

Park has the elementary flair, personal style and the ability to portray his personality in his work and this makes him a worthy auteur. First, Park cleverly uses strong skills on aspects relating to cinematography, editing and actor direction to tell a story. In JSA and Oldboy, Park uses high angle shots, bird’s eye view shots and convention of the thirds to give the audience a complete perception of the happenings in the film. Additionally, Park uses fixed shots from medium and long term aspects that detaches the audience from the happenings on the film but maintain their interest. The music is too slow and this is against the genre rules (Iljun n.d). Static shots are common in the flashbacks in JSA and this helps the audience to comprehend the happenings in the film. JSA also takes a narrative approach for the same purpose. By using the single character point of view, Park adds a personal touch to his work by avoiding the use of political or historical aspects.



Works Cited

Iljun. "Best Korean movie ever." Rev. of Joint Security Area. n.d. web.

Jinhee Choi (2010). The South Korean Film Renaissance. USA: Wesleyan University Press.

Joint Security Area. [DVD]. Park Chan-wook, South Korea: Gongdong Video. 2003., May 16, 2017. Web.

Oldboy. [DVD] Park Chan-wook, South Korea: Tartan Video. 2003., May 16, 2017. Web.

ryuakamrvengeance, “One step ahead of America.” Rev. of Oldboy. N.d. web.