Translator: MarcTempest
Editor: AgRoseCrystal
Chapter 595
[An interview with Hwang Ji-yoon, the director of the independent film ‘Fire’ (Full text)]
[The independent film ‘Fire’ sets a new record for the highest number of viewers in Korean independent film history!]
[After watching ‘Fire’, “I started studying history!”]
[Unknown independence activists discovered in the old documents found last week!]
-It’s amazing that she came up with this idea when she was in middle school. She must have been born to be a director. (Admiration)
=She went through 22 revisions, but still impressive.
-So why was the unknown painter captured and tortured?=It doesn’t say. It’s up to your imagination. The only thing certain is that he was caught while doing independence activities.
=I feel like he was caught while drawing the national flag.
=I think he was caught while trying to expose the atrocities of the Japanese to the world through his paintings.
=ㅠㅠWhatever happenedㅠㅠI’m cryingㅠ
-I don’t usually read spoilers before watching a movie, but I wouldn’t have known about it if the flag-raising scene wasn’t extended;;;;
=22 I cried my eyes out after watching the movie and reading other people’s reviews (especially the ones after Independence Day). Already.
=33 The importance of picketing.
-There’s this too (a list of theaters where you can see the flag the best)
=ㅋㅋI went there after seeing thisㅋ
=Me tooㅋㅋ
-There are also first and second priority theaters.
=ㅇㅇ The number of flags varies depending on the density of street lights.
=First priority…… the bestㄷㅏ……(dying message)
-I haven’t studied history at all since the college entrance exam, but I took out my history bookㅋㅋ
=22 The part I struggle with the most is the Japanese colonial era, but studying with Fire helps. I feel like they are all my fellow unknown painters, so I can focus.
=I can’t study.
=Why???
=I get too immersed and just cry whenever an independence activist appearsㅠㅠ
=22 I want to kill all the pro-Japanese collaborators.
=33 I was so immersed from the death of Gojong, the background of Fire, that I was like, ‘Why isn’t the story of the unknown painter in here? Don’t they need to revise this book!?’.
=ㅋㅋThat’s really too immersedㅋㅋ
-There might be a question about independence movements on this year’s college entrance exam.
=ㄹㅇ I’m confident I won’t get it wrong if they ask me to arrange the events from Gojong’s death.
=Teacher Isangseol tooㅠㅠ
=Please let there be a question about the sea and the butterfly in Korean…… I memorized it so I can do the fill-in-the-blanks too.
=22 I can just hand in a blank paper. I wrote it all.
=ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-The old documents are so sadㅠㅠ They said they wrapped them carefully with cloth so they wouldn’t get wet or damaged, but I can’t imagine what they were feeling when they left themㅠㅠ
=22 There were also overseas independence activistsㅠㅠ
=Thank you all so muchㅠㅠㅠ
[Cocoa Entertainment uploads videos of the filming of ‘Fire’ on their YouTube channel ‘JUN’!]
[The making film (?) of ‘Fire’ uploaded on the YouTube channel ‘JUN’]
-It’s more like a vlog than a making filmㅋㅋㅋ They filmed a lot at the lodgingㅋㅋㅋ
=But I like itㅎㅎ It feels like watching Seo-jun’s daily life.
=22 It’s like a variety showㅎㅎㅎ
-Baekgu! There’s Baekgu tooㅋㅋ
=As expected of the Sigorza breed!! He’s so handsome;;;
=Right. His fur is shiny and his nose is moist. His owner must take good care of him.
=My dog is the same breed, but he’s chubby. My dog is a pigㅎ
-Dog + snow + Seo-jun…… I’m capturing every 0.001 second.
=22 My finger joints are already worn out.
=33 I’m using a macro.
=……That’s why people need technology…….
-But they didn’t upload the video of drawing on the snow? It looks like they have the footage from the full shotㅠㅠㅠ
=222 Please upload the full shot tooㅠㅠ
=But even if they do, I don’t think I can get that majestic feeling from my tiny monitor.
=ㄹㅇ It’s a scale that you have to see on the theater screen.
=I’m seriously considering buying a 98-inch TV.
Choi Yoo-seong looked at the new videos uploaded on the YouTube channel [JUN]. But he only glanced at the thumbnails, not daring to play them.
“What are you doing?”
Natalie handed him a coffee and asked. Choi Yoo-seong took the coffee and said with a gloomy expression.
“I’m debating whether to watch Jun’s videos or not.”
“? Why don’t you just watch them?”
Natalie tilted her head and Choi Yoo-seong made a sad face.
“I’m avoiding everything related to Fire to avoid spoilers…”
“Ah.”
Natalie laughed.
“Why is the overseas release in October…! I’m going crazy!!”
From August 15th, the release date of [Fire], to the current October, Choi Yoo-seong had been avoiding all the spoiler-filled posts. He drank the cold coffee in one gulp, feeling frustrated.
“Phew, I’ve been avoiding the Korean internet since September when everyone else saw it.”
“That must be hard.”
Natalie said and Choi Yoo-seong nodded repeatedly.
It was a day that he couldn’t go through without tears.
He realized how influential Seo-jun was, not only to ordinary people, but also to the marketing of companies. Parodies, ads, Korea was buzzing with [Fire] and patriotic marketing.
“I tried so hard, but I think I found out some things.”
He said with disappointment, not wanting to know.
“Cheer up, you’ll see the movie tomorrow.”
Natalie smiled and patted Choi Yoo-seong’s shoulder.
***
The next day.
Choi Yoo-seong, Natalie, and their friends Megan and Lawton headed to the theater.
Megan and Lawton were LA music school friends who had watched [Rebellion] together before. They graduated from LA music school and worked in different places, but they met again when they worked together this time.
“Is there no app for Fire? Like there was for Rebellion.”
Lawton asked while looking at the poster. Choi Yoo-seong carefully picked up a poster without any wrinkles and shook his head.
“Rebellion was a commercial film, but Fire is an independent film, so unfortunately there isn’t. I’ll explain it to you later. There’s an interpretation material that someone made.”
“Oh, I see… That’s why there are fewer theaters showing it.”
Megan said and Natalie looked around.
“But there are a lot of people. Koreans seem to be the most.”
As she said, the theater was crowded with people, especially Koreans.
“/Oh. Yoo-seong!/”
“/Boss?/”
As if all the Koreans in the area had gathered, the owner of the restaurant that Choi Yoo-seong sometimes visited was there too. He seemed to have come to watch [Fire] with his family.
“/Did you come to watch the movie?/”
“/Yeah. Our daughter said we had to see it./”
The couple who had twin children that looked like kindergarteners in their arms greeted Choi Yoo-seong with a nod. They had exchanged a few words with Choi Yoo-seong before, so he nodded back and waved his hand at the cute twins who were waving at him.
“/See you later./”
“/Okay./”
The restaurant owner moved his steps toward his family. Among the family members who were chatting and laughing with him, there was an old man who looked like the owner’s father.
Suddenly, he remembered what the owner had told him about inheriting the restaurant.
“Yoo-seong! The movie is starting!”
“I know! I’m coming!”
As Choi Yoo-seong was about to turn around, he saw something white like a cloth between the bags that the couple was holding.
***
The movie was over.
Choi Yoo-seong, who came out of the theater, was wiping away the tears that were flowing down his face.
The Gwangmu Declaration of Independence… The independence movement… He couldn’t imagine it. No, he had a little bit of expectation when Korea was buzzing with patriotic marketing and history studies, but he didn’t expect it to come out like this.
The quality and the content were unbelievable for a college student’s work.
“…Ah.”
Choi Yoo-seong, who was sobbing and admiring [Fire] and thinking that he had to watch it again, lifted his head and looked at his friends.
He was able to enjoy [Fire] with such emotions because he was Korean, but he was worried about how his foreign friends who knew nothing about the Japanese colonial era or the independence movement would have seen it.
It was different from [The Royal Physician] or [Rebellion].
[The Royal Physician] or [Rebellion] were understandable as long as they followed the flow of the story, but [Fire] had a lot of hidden information.
The Gwangmu Declaration of Independence, the nine years, the meaning of the flower.
It was a movie that was hard to watch perfectly without the basic historical knowledge that there was a Japanese colonial era, there were independence activists, there were agents chasing them, and they succeeded after many failures.
“Natalie. How was it?”
At Choi Yoo-seong’s cautious question, Natalie wiped away her tears and told him her impression.
“It was touching. It was a story from the Japanese colonial era, right?”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
“I was sad when I saw the photos and videos, but I understood better when I saw it as a movie. I felt like I knew how hard the people worked and what they felt.”
Natalie, who studied Korean history as a fan of Seo-jun, seemed to have understood it quite well.
“What about you?”
Megan and Lawton, who had slightly reddened eyes, also said it was touching. Choi Yoo-seong asked them curiously.
“Did you study Korean history too?”
“No, not that, but… Independence is an event that every country has had at least once. The US has Independence Day too. I didn’t understand everything, but I got the gist of it.”
‘Ah…’
Choi Yoo-seong’s eyes widened at Lawton’s words. Megan smiled and opened her mouth.
“Me too. I didn’t understand everything, but I felt like I knew what the young master wanted. There are many situations where he struggles between his duty and what he wants in other works too. And Jun’s acting was amazing, so I was convinced by my heart as I watched.”
That’s right.
It wasn’t that they had to know Korean history to understand the movie. They understood [Fire] in their own way, although it was lacking, with their own knowledge and experiences.
‘That’s good too.’
As a fan of Seo-jun, Choi Yoo-seong, who was nervous that this work would get bad reviews overseas, sighed with relief.
“But who sent the letter that said he died in the beginning?”
“What does the hill mean?”
Lawton and Megan, who enjoyed [Fire], were curious about every piece of information and asked Choi Yoo-seong. Choi Yoo-seong thought he had to look at Moviegoers' review with his friends, when
“/Grandpa! This!/”
“/Ta-da!/”
A young voice was heard. Koreans and foreigners looked that way.
As if they had been waiting outside, the twins who saw the old man and the owner couple coming out of the theater spread the flag as big as their bodies like flying squirrels. The white cloth that was in the couple’s bag was a flag.
Choi Yoo-seong was choked up at the sight of the flag being spread. The other Koreans were the same. And so was the old man who was called grandpa.
He must have cried all the time while watching the movie, his wet and wrinkled face shed tears again. The owner quickly handed a tissue to the old man, but the tears with a lot of meaning did not stop easily.
‘Come to think of it…’
He remembered what the restaurant owner had told him a while ago.
His grandfather’s father was an independence activist in the US.
‘Really?!’
‘We just found out recently. They said his name was in the document they found.’
For a very long time, the independence activist who was buried so deep that even his children didn’t know was revealed to the world.
The old man, who had only resented his father who had left his wife and young children behind without knowing what he had done, must have cried a lot.
Like an unknown painter.
An unknown independence activist.
He was here, in this faraway foreign land.
The old man moved his steps slowly, as if he had lost his strength, but without losing his goal. And he hugged his great-grandchildren who were standing with the flag in this foreign land.
His father,
The unknown painter,
The unknown independence activists,
The reason they worked hard was for these young ones.
…No.
It was for me.
The old man recalled the sturdy hand that stroked his young head. On top of that, the wound of the young master who appeared in [Fire] overlapped. The young master who was frustrated by the failure of the independence movement, the young master who was sad that he couldn’t paint for his duty.
He wanted to ask.
‘Father, weren’t you hurt, wasn’t it hard. And… what did you really want to do.’
The great-grandchildren, who followed their great-grandfather’s tears, also hugged the old man tightly, sobbing. The son and daughter-in-law and the granddaughter and son-in-law also looked at the old man with worried eyes.
Somehow, he felt like he heard a voice that he thought he had forgotten.
‘I wanted to go back to my country, my hometown, and live happily with my wife and young children, the voice that he missed so much answered.’
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