Park Chan-wook creates short film with smartphone camera

Director Park Chan-wook unveiled Friday ‘Life is but a dream,’ a short film he has produced in collaboration with Apple. The movie running 21 minutes and 24 seconds is a historical drama featuring actor Yoo Hae-jin, actress Kim Ok-bin and actor Park Jung-min.

The film has been produced with ‘iPhone 13 Pro,’ Apple’s latest smartphone model. The release is part of Apple’s ‘Shot on iPhone’ campaign, which showcases photos and films taken with an iPhone, and can be viewed on Apple’s official YouTube channel.

The movie shows a late-night fuss over a coffin between two ghosts who died young. It is the first historical drama directed by Park, who solidified his unique style of movies through sensational hits such as ‘Old Boy,’ ‘Bat,’ and ‘The Handmaiden.’ The director tried on new features in the short film by incorporating pansori (traditional Korean opera) and madanggeuk (traditional Korean folk musical).

“The first thing that came to my mind while filming with a small camera was freedom,” Park said. “As I attempted to tell a story independent from a specific genre, I ended up creating a story just like madanggeuk.”

Shooting of the new movie was led by Kim Woo-hyung, director of photography who participated in the production of movies ‘1987,’ and ‘Assassination.’ “It was fun and joyful work to do,” Kim said.

“I was worried because I was not used to performing in front of a small camera,” actress Kim Ok-bin said. “But watching the movie after completion, I realized I had no reason to worry.”


beborn@donga.com