Filmmaker: 'The Wailing' is comedy and typical commercial film

By Shim Sun-ah

SEOUL, May 6 (Yonhap) -- "The Wailing," the long-anticipated film from director Na Hong-jin of "The Chaser" (2008) and "The Yellow Sea" (2010), is a strange movie, in a word.

The predecessors are all breathtaking crime thrillers. But the latest film, also known as "Goksung" in Korean, feels a lot different from the two previous works for its dependence on supernatural forces, the pace of plot development and an open ending.

Na used two keywords to describe his film: "comedy" and "a typical commercial film," which is hard to agree with.

"The Wailing" features a rural village plagued with mysterious murders after the arrival of a stranger. It indicates the existence of a supernatural being without telling exactly what's behind all those tragic incidents.

"After reading the film's screenplay, the cast and crew said it is too scary. So I said, 'What are you talking about? This is a comedy.' But nobody believed me," the screenwriter-director said during an interview with Yonhap News Agency at a cafe in central Seoul.

The thriller has some comical scenes in the middle, but, of course, is far from a comedy.

Na's answer appears to have something to do with the flick's different approach to reeling out the story.

Unlike the preceding films, "The Wailing" take a considerably long time to describe the spooky atmosphere of the tragedy-hit village and the stranger's home. This surely has less dark, violent and abhorrent scenes than the previous two films and keeps the pace slow before leading to a powerful eruption in the second half.

"I thought it would be ideal to slow down the tempo before going this way," Na said.

The result is a suspenseful thriller, but it is not easy for even fans of the thriller genre to figure out the whole picture because it doesn't tell clearly the cause and result of the incidents and the identity of the characters.

"While preparing for this film I pondered a lot regarding what should it be like because it's a commercial film...," he said. His conclusion was to make a film that can be understood in different ways by different viewers.

"Then regardless of how they understand it, all thoughts would be right," he said.

Viewers actually are expected to be divided over the identity of the newcomer (Kunimura Jun), the mysterious villager Mu-myeong (Chun Woo-hee) and the shaman Il-gwang (Hwang Jung-min).

It took as long as two years and eight months for the filmmaker to write the screenplay. Of the total time spent, seven months were used to write the screenplay for film's last 30 minutes, according to him.

After finishing the filming in February last year, he had more than a year for the post-production process.

"I could only reach the conclusion that this is the best that I can do after six months of editing on the film," he said.

The film was originally set to open on Thursday, next week. The release date was expedited to Wednesday following favorable media reviews following the press screening this week, according to the film's PR agency.

It is to be shown in the Out of Competition category of the 69th Cannes Film Festival on May 11-22.

sshim@yna.co.kr
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