No Mercy for the Rude
Vera Brozzoni talks to Korean director Cheol-hie Park about his genre-bending feature No Mercy for the Rude, and discusses the place of the filmmaker in his home country.

Cheol-hie Park is in Rotterdam to present his last work, the gangster-comedy No Mercy for the Rude. The film features a hilarious killer (laconically named Killer) with the knack of bull fighting, merciless when it comes to freeing the world from its human scum, yet too shy even to speak. Violence, comedy and romance blend smoothly in this feature that will hopefully be released in Europe and entertain all fans of far eastern cinema.

Mr. Park, first of all, congratulations for your film! What did you do before directing it?

I started working in cinema in the early 1990s, mostly inspired by the work of Chang-Ho Lee (Declaration of Genius, 1995). It was very hard for me at that time and I wasn’t sure I could make it as a director, because the economic conditions people had to live in were almost impossible to survive, and being a film director was the worst choice possible. So I went into a production job, but always retained the dream of directing a film. Later on, the Korean film industry grew bigger and I started writing scripts, like To You, from Me that became a hit in 1994. But actually my first film as a director came only in 2004: it was the horror Face. But in the meantime I wrote several scripts, including No Mercy for the Rude. My other scripts have never been shot, unfortunately.

Nowadays the western audience seems to identify Korean cinema with Chan-wook Park and his poetics and aesthetics. Do you find it difficult to keep your own identity?

I really admire Chan-wook Park’s work, but undeniably it has opened the floodgate for what is now the ‘trendy’ Korean cinema: young directors all work on the same genre and production design. But my cinema contains more humour and jokes, it has more comically twisted situations.

What is your relationship with film genres? Your film seems to bend every kind of genre possible! Generally speaking, genre-bending has by now become a trend. Do you find it postmodern?

I wasn’t really thinking about genres while I was shooting: I just wanted to do something unusual. And I’m not even sure I will stick to this kind of film in the future, I might do something completely different. As for genre-bending, in the case of Korea you must understand that directors have suffered politically, culturally and socially in the past. It was even hard to get videotapes at film school! Now that they are more free, it’s just natural that they burst out against all rules.

The protagonist of your film has serious communication problems. Did you choose to tell his story as a reflection on the social issues your country had to suffer?

That’s right: the lack of communication doesn’t concern only Killer, but also the other characters, and is very common in Korea. In the future I think I will pursue this kind of story, I’m very interested in people with social and communication problems.

Is this why you chose actor Ha-Kyun Shin to play Killer? He has played in many weird roles, including the lead role in Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-Hwang (2003).

I wasn’t thinking of him when I wrote my script. But when he read it, he said yes after two days! And it turned out to be a perfect choice: on set we didn’t talk too much about his character, but he knew exactly what to do, he had a perfect instinct to play this role.

At a certain point, Killer somehow adopts Kid, an abandoned kid whom he stumbles into down the street. Is it a realistic character?

Unfortunately, many children in Korea are abandoned; it’s a very cruel society in this sense, and I’m not at all optimistic. At the end of the film we don’t know what Kid will do, but I want the audience to understand that he’s going to be the next Killer.

Finally, can you tell us about your next projects?

First of all I want to shoot a sex comedy! Then I’ll make a film on a more complex subject: the mixed marriage between a Korean/American couple. Even now, mixed race relationships are not well looked on in Korea, and the people who get involved are seen as dropouts, even criminals. And as you can see, I’m interested in all marginal characters I find in my society.