We fight real in real life. That’s why I made this film [The Showdown]. Maybe not for the audience, but just for myself.”
-Kim Jin-Sung, 10/2006-

Kim Jin-Sung wurde 1964 in Seoul, Südkorea geboren. Nach dem Abschluss an der Yonsei Universität war er beim Korean Film Council tätig. Später gab er seine Arbeit auf um sich ganz der Regie zu widmen. Er ist mit der Drehbuchautorin Byeon Won-Mi, die neben seinen Filmen „Surpirse“ und „The Showdown“ auch das Drehbuch zu „Paradise Villa“ schrieb, verheiratet. Kurz vor der deutschen DVD Veröffentlichung von „The Showdown“ habe ich die Chance gehabt ein Interview mit ihm zu führen.

GP: How and when did you get into filmmaking?

Kim Jin-Sung: In 2001, I saw a documentary progam about some martial artists on TV. I was moved, so the next day I called them and my film was started. In march 2003, I shot “The Showdown” in two weeks with a DVX100p camera with a budget of $ 30,000.

GP: You made your first (short) film in 1994, can you tell us a little about that?

Kim Jin-Sung: My first short film was “Reincarnation”. It is a film about two prisoners in jail. One is pickpocket, the other a murderer. The pickpocket tells the murderer that he also is a murderer. The murderer thinks that his deed is trival, while the pickpocket is awfully sorry for his killing. Shortly after the pickpocket gets released, the murderer finds out that the pickpocket was just a pickpocket and not a killer. He just induced an abortion by pushing down a mother-to-be during his daily pickpoketing. The day after he finds a bud gorwing in the jail’s window frame, which was planted there by seeds carried by the wind.

GP: It seems that your first two short films “Reincarnation” and “Where Have You Been?” have not yet been published on DVD. Are there any specific reasons for that and do you have future plans to release them any time soon?

Kim Jin-Sung: As you know short films have rare chances to be published on DVD if it there is no commercial demand. I also have no plan to release them on DVD at the moment. Sorry for that.

GP: In 2002 you shot your first big budget movie with popular Korean actors like Shin Ha-Kyun (JSA, Welcome to Dongmakgol) and Kong Hyo-Jin (Volcano High, Heaven’s Soldiers). How did you get that chance and did it affect your style of filmmaking?

Kim Jinsung : The producers called me after they saw my short film “Where have you been?” So I got the chance, but the film was a big failure and also left no effect on me. It was just a rite of passage to me.

GP: What do you think about the Korean movie scene in general and it’s growing popularity for the international audience?

Kim Jin-Sung: Korean films have no order, no fixed form, but offer great dynamic and energetic movements. That’s why foreign people like it.

GP:: In the recent years Korean films tend to become more and more Hollywood-like and begin loose their own style…

Kim Jin-Sung: The filmmakers need more power and money. Most People just want to watch commercial films. So the filmmakers make more and more commercal films and dispense with their own style.

GP: Your next Movie “The Showdown” was released in 2005. Why did it take you three years to make your follow-up movie and why did you choose it to be a low budget film again?

Kim Jin-Sung: “The Showdown” was finished in 2003, but I had no chance to proceed with postproduction because I had no money. As you know, the failure of my first film made me wait on the edge and forced me to return to make low budget films. But I seem to naturally enjoy making low-budget films.

GP: Do you personally prefer working on big or low budget films?

Kim Jin-Sung: I have great interest in making low budget films, because it gives me great freedom.

GP: How did you find the actors for “The Showdown”?

Kim Jin-Sung: By internet just like the clue ‘Geochilmaru’ in my film.

GP: Compared to other martial art films the fight scenes in “The Showdown” look very authentic. Why did you choose to film it that way?

Kim Jin-Sung: I saw many martial arts films show artificial fights and moves. I don’t like that. They didn’t move or touch me. So fake. We fight real in real life. That’s why I made this film. Maybe not for the audience, but just for myself.

GP: I once read somewhere that there is a version running about 30 minutes longer…

Kim Jin-Sung: Yes, I have it right here in my Mac.

GP: So why did you release the short version only?

Kim Jin-Sung: In Korea the distributers prefer about 90 minutes long films, because like that they can run them six times in theater per day.

GP: Please tell us a little about your future projects.

Kim Jin-Sung: Right now I am working an a film about a boy who lived with his dead mother in an abandon place for six months. It’s a true story, that happened in 2003 in Korea. Next year I want make film about a Taekwondo master who was the first Korean master that arrived in the US in 1960.

GP: Do you have any special dreams or topics that seem very hard to realise on film?

Kim Jin-Sung: I served in the army with the US military. I experienced many interesting things there, that you can’t imagine! I want make a comedy film about an joint US – Korean army camp, similar to “M.A.S.H.” or “Hogan’s Heroes”.

GP: Is it possible in Korea to live from making films, like you do, or do you have any other jobs?

Kim Jin-Sung: Impossible. But luckily I live with a famous scenario writer, my wife. She was a fellow student when I studied film.

GP: Thanks for your time and all the best for your upcoming projects!

Besonderer Dank geht an: Kim Kyung-Hwa (Kontakt & Vorbereitung).

Filmographie (Stand 4/2008):

2007: 열한번째 엄마 (11th Mother)

2005: 거칠마루 (Geochilmaru – The Showdown)*

2002: 서프라이즈 (Surprise Party)

* Dieser Film ist als deutsche DVD erhältlich.