Korean auteur Park Chan-wook has co-directed a 30-minute film with his brother Park Chan-kyong which Korea Telecom (KT) says will be the first short film in the world shot entirely on Apple’s iPhone 4 to be screened in theatres.
Park Chan-wook, whose Oldboy and Thirst both won awards at Cannes, co-directed this short film with his younger brother Park Chan-kyong. The younger Park is a visual artist whose Anyang, Paradise City has been selected to the upcoming Rotterdam film festival’s Bright Future section for first- and second-time directors.
A fantasy film, the iPhone short’s English title is Night Fishing. It follows fisherman by a river when he encounters a female shaman and goes from this life to the next. (Its original title is Paranmanjang, which translates roughly to “Checkered” as in “a checkered past”.) The film stars actor Oh Kwang-rok, who played one of the avenging parents in Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, and Lee Jung Hyun, an actress and pop singer.
KT plans to release the film Jan 27 on about 10 screens in South Korea. Tickets will be made available in a KT lottery draw. The leading South Korean telecommunications company put up $133,000 (KW150m) for the film, which was shot entirely with the iPhone 4 using extra lenses and otherwise regular filmmaking equipment.
“We shot everything from location scouting to auditions, the film’s actual photography, and the making-of documentary all on the iPhone,” said Park Chan-wook, who added that they were also able to use footage shot during scouting by production crew who were not part of the cinematography team.
“A really poor student or a would-be director, if they had no money and wanted to make a film, could shoot a decent short for a tenth or a hundredth of the money we spent,” said Park Chan-wook.
The Park brothers said they enjoyed the process and plan to work together again.
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