POSSIBLE LOVE PRODUCTION
WORKING WITH LEE, I DON’T THINK I DID MEET a movie god , BUT I DID MEET the crew gods ”
created by human manpower. That’s how we made the scene.” During the film, there are also several flashbacks. Kim explains that this was a big departure from the rest of Lee’s work as he hasn’t really used flashbacks before. “It was important for us not to use different filters for those scenes. All I did was adjust the texture and make the image slightly grainier, but it’s very subtle.” In Korea, Kim tells me, films often have very detailed storyboards. “In our case, we didn’t have any of that,” he says. “The only sequence we storyboarded was the flashback sequence on the rooftop when the protesters are arrested. I tried to keep everything very simple, which is why I opted to shoot handheld. Filming the scene involved running backwards, which was very physically demanding. As the character runs towards the camera, I had to run backwards at the same speed.”
The shoot lasted for more than 50 days and each morning before shooting, Kim would run through the scene with the cast. “That’s when we’d decide where to put the cameras. It was pretty flexible and fun. If one way didn’t work, we’d just try it again another way. Most of our shots covered more than 180º, so it was hard to hide the lighting, which was a challenge.” Kim admits he loved getting the chance to work with Lee Chang-dong as he is such a huge fan of his work. He then smiles and puts me on the spot by asking what my favourite of Lee’s films is, and I tell him Possible Love is now very much a contender, although previously I was torn between Burning and Peppermint Candy . “I rewatched all of his films before working on this project,” says Kim. “My favourite is still Poetry . Working with Lee, I don’t think I did ever meet a movie god during the production, although I did meet the crew gods.”
“We really wanted to have a windy day, but the wind never came,” says Kim. “Originally, it wasn’t meant to be windy at all in the script, but on the day we went to shoot, there was a really strong storm and I told Lee that I loved the look of it. There’s a shot at the end of the sequence where two of the main characters are standing and looking at each other. They’re both towards the edges of the frame and it’s this huge wide shot. We had almost 100 crew members inside the woods, shaking the trees. So, every movement of the trees and every bit of wind in that sequence was actually
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