[HanCinema at JIFF] Q&A with the cast of Lebanon Emotion

On April 29th I had the chance to attend the Guest Visit with the cast of "Lebanon Emotion". Following is a paraphrased transcript of that event.

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Q: Why the traditionally dressed mother?

Director Jung Young-heun: She's emblematic of my own mother, and that's how I remember her.

Q: Why the construction sites?

Director: When we were trying to film the movie we saw construction sites everywhere. It was an interesting metaphor.

Q: Why don't the charactaers have names?

Director: They're supposed to me images more than people.

Q: Tell us about the title.

Director: It comes from a line of Korean poetry and also a novel, although there is no connection between the poem, novel, and my film. It's just inspired by the same complicated feelings. I met and discussed this with the poet, and she agreed with my general sentiments and interpretation about this.

Q: Why is there a reference to President Lee?

Director: It's just vaguely related to the construction. It is a political matter, after all.

Q: Why so much Christian symbolism?

Director: I'm a Christian myself and it's an important matter of expression for me, as someone who's been between faiths so often. This film, as well, is also about that state of transition.

Q: What's the significance of always going higher?

Director: I'm cynical about the usefulness of height. The fact that the characters never actually see anything from up high is important.

Q: Please tell us about your character's motivation.

Lead Actor: My character was freezing in this weather in his bleak emotions and just desperately trying to see the future.

Lead Actress: She's a special, strange person. The director helped me build her up through lots of reading and naturalistic references.

Antagonist: He is a very different person and I don't really understand him. I'm a funny guy and he's this shut-off weird person. During filming I wanted to go home alot, because getting into the character was so strenuous. The director was a bit of a bully who made us hike and eat choco pies and I hated all this deliberately timed naturalism.

Supporting Actor: It was an opportunity to grow and learn which I liked but sometimes the audience laughed at my pain and I was sad. It really was very difficult to film.

Q: The whole film seems like this psychedelic, bloody carnival but then this ending was very strange. Was it supposed to be a vivid, blatant, simplistic exit?

D: I thought it was a beginning more of an end to the story. Broadly, people need to leave one relationship in order to enter the rest of the world. It's a very personal experience. And it's also a callback to the bow at the beginning of the movie.

Q: Why did the actors complain so much just now?

D: They're just used to coziness. I didn't mean to torture them here.

Supporting Actor: It was still fun and we're still friends. He's just really hardcore when shooting films.

Antagonist: If you are too close, sometimes the boundaries go too far. It's bad, but also lets us go into our more in-depth feelings.

With that, the Q&A was finished. We were thanked for coming and went on our way.

Report by William Schwartz