Posted September. 09, 2002 23:08,
I have found my oasis here tonight. Drinking spring water in Venice, I will regain strength to continue my journey. Lee Chang-dong, 48-year-old Korean director who won Special Directors Award at the 59th Venice Film Festival, was given applause from the audience as he made the short but metaphorical acceptance speech.
He remained calm and poised as always even after winning the best director award at the world-renowned film festival. In a telephone interview on Sept. 9, he said he felt not bad when asked what his feelings were like.
- Did you expect to win the best director award?
When we won International Critics Award, Catholic Critics Award, and Young Critics Award on the sidelines of the mainstream competition, I couldnt tell if it was a good or a bad sign.
_What do you think made this movie so special?
Well responses here are not much different from those in Korea. At first viewers think this movie is somewhat heavy and gloomy, but they come to break down the wall inside and understand the message of the movie as they watch it.
Juries commented that Oasis is a film ever close to the essence of movie making all the while avoiding using superficial skills, and that it is a love story exploring the depth of human relations.
Lee is known as a latecomer director. For those who used to read novels a lot throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, Lee is still remembered as a prolific writer. After graduating from Gyeongbuk University where he majored Korean literature, he taught students at a high school. Then, he won a prize for promising writer in 1985 at Donga Ilbo Contest with a short story war interests.
He continued to write such socially-critical works as Soji, a story about the division of Korea, Hope which depicts lives of the marginalized and Filth in Blue Green Water, receiving positive reviews. It was 1993 that he first entered the filmmaking world as a screenwriter for Want to Go to the Island, a movie directed by Park Gwang-soo. He soon began to work with Park as an assistant director.
Lee started to make a movie himself in 1997 when he was 43 years old, and so far has directed three films including Oasis. Critics used to say of his novels that his works tried to catch true moments of lives by reaching beyond the established frames of human understanding. And he seems to take the same approach with filmmaking.
His first work Green Fish won special prize at Vancouver Film Festival, and the second one Peppermint Candy jurys special prize at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. When asked, What is the secret about making critically-claimed movies, he said smilingly, I bluffed sometimes.
The answer to the question is, in fact, found in his self-introduction written some time ago. To make a movie, we need to have a certain perspective into life. Movies cannot be isolated from our lives. They are authentic, and things authentic are about finding the truth hidden in our lives.