Renowned South Korean director Park Chan-wook (Old Boy, Thirst) filmed his new short film entirely with iPhone 4s. The film Paranmanjang, which in Korean means “a life full of ups and downs.” is 30 minutes of comedy, horror and unexpected twists after a man catches a woman out of the river while fishing at night.
Park, who made the film with his younger brother and fellow director Park Chan-kyong, decided to approach the project as a fun way to explore making films with new technology, he said “new technology always offers wonders and useful features. Testing them is part of the amusement.” The process was more intiguing than what he first thought it would be. They worked with the pros and cons of the device to get the most out of the camera that they could and in the end all the staff that had smart phones ended up taking shots of the film also which at times generated varied and wonderful relsults.
The film cost about 150 million won (US$133,000) and was partially funded by KT Corporation which is the sole distributor of iPhones in South Korea of which they have reportedly sold more than 1.8 million. Although Park decided to play with this new technology, he did note that “Making a film with smartphones might generate more interest at the moment. But as time goes by, stories and actors on screen will be seen as more important.”
Personally, I’m a PC and a Droid kind of person, but I gotta admit this is pretty cool. The film will debut in South Korea on January 27th in nine theaters nationwide for only four days. I’m hoping us international fans will have a chance to see it too somehow.
