Howl's Moving Castle Howl's Moving Castle
May
29
2005

The Duelist: A press conference report

Posted by Mack at 5:17am.

Posted in Interviews , Martial Arts, Action, Asia.

Duelist1.jpg

We picked up on this film only a couple weeks ago. The Duelist [Hyeongsa] director, Lee Myung-se, and the stars of his film, Ha Ji-won, Kang Dong-won and Ahn Sung-ki held a press conference this past friday. KoreaTimes picked up the coverage.

The story of the period piece revolves around a female detective named Nam-sun [Ha Ji-won] who investigates the forgery of coins and chases an assassin [Kang Dong-won] involved in the crime.

As the director emphasizes the importance of motion in his film rather than the story and characters, the main actors usually had to perform their own stunts, including in the more dangerous scenes, requiring intensive pre-filming preparation. They had to learn various skills before the film was shot. I haven’t seen Lee’s first film, Nowhere to Hide, but I had read that it was mostly style over substance. Not that this is a bad thing but it does appear to be the same route that Lee will take with this film as well.

Sidenote: According to a post on LeeYoungAe.net Screen International in a special Cannes edition reported that Lee is a Korean director to keep an eye on in coming years. “As far as visually concerned, Lee Myung-Se may be regarded the Korean equivalent of Wong Kar-Wai. One of the most renowned Korean directors in 1990’s, his return with the 19th century-set thriller ‘Duelist’ will be a bang,” wrote the magazine. The Korean equivalent of WKW? Uh… okay then. Pretty big shoes to fill there.

Duelist2.jpg

Ha commented on the training for the action sequences, “We had to go through tough physical training. We learned the tango and martial arts at the same time to present rhythmical movements in action scenes, and the director asked us to become like professional tango dancers or martial arts practitioners”. This is cool. So can we hope for fluid motions and tightly coreographed action sequences? With the emphasis on motion on behalf of the director the action sequences may be very sweet.

  • Digg This
  • Stumble It!
  • Reddit
 

Reader Comments

  1. collin a 05/29/2005 @ 9:44am

    I can’t wait for this. NOWHERE TO HIDE was the film that re-hooked me on Asian cinema (after HK cinema dried up for a period), and I thought that film did a fantastic job of meshing style and emotion. It still stands as one of, probably… top three South Korean films I’ve had the pleasure of catching. I hope the six-some-odd years off between that and THE DUELISTS haven’t dulled Myung-se’s vision.

    Between this, A BITTERSWEET LIFE, and SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE, South Korea seems set for another amazing run of cineam this year.

  2. Lourdes 05/29/2005 @ 8:32pm

    Err, plot makes it sound like a film version fo “Damo” the the cast (Ha Ji-won) make me expect something even worse....

  3. Lourdes 05/29/2005 @ 8:32pm

    Err, plot makes it sound like a film version of “Damo” the the cast (Ha Ji-won) makes me expect something even worse....

  4. Mack 05/29/2005 @ 8:46pm

    That’s exactly what it is actually. Both are based on the same novel. So I guess you’ll give it a miss then.

  5. tkbowman 05/30/2005 @ 8:37pm

    Lee Myung-se has made quite a few films previous to Nowhere to Hide and the one’s I’ve seen are excellent and worth tracking down. The same level of visual inventiveness is there but in the romantic drama/comedy genre. His earlier work reminds me of Shunji Iwai at bit.

  6. genshah 04/11/2006 @ 5:25am

    duelist is a very interesting and beloved movie i’ve ever seen!!

    the characters play the roles very realistic and accurate.

    dong won kang and ha ji won amazed me,ang touched my interest in korean movies… more power to you both..and to your career!!!

    im your die hard fun!!! super!!

  7. fan 08/17/2006 @ 11:16pm

    i like ha ji won and kang dong won play together ...

    i love them so much

    and the film of duelist was very cool..

    damn i like it!!!

    so much…

    could you make duelist 2?

    i hope you can…
    -----

Post Your Comments

You must be a registered member to post comments.

If you have a Twitch account, click here to sign in.

If you don't have a Twitch account, click here to register. Don't worry, it's free!

Launch The Twitch Video Player

Stuff We Like

Shop at our affiliated sites and support Twitch while feeding your pop-culture addiction.

Our Latest Film & DVD Reviews

More Film & DVD Reviews...

Our Latest Interviews

More Interviews...

Recent Contests & Featured Content

Recent Comments