[Press Conference] SF8 Sci-Fi K-Drama on Oh!K (Episode 1 : The Prayer)

SF8 Episode #1: The Prayer (간호중)

Premiere: Saturday, 15 August 2020, 8pm, Oh!K (Astro Ch 394)

Cast: Lee Yoo-young as Yeon Jung-in, Moon Sook as Jung-in’s mother, Ye Soo-jung as Nun Sabina, Yeom Hye-ran as Choi Jung-gil

Director: Min Kyu-dong (He is the overall producer of the SF8 project, so he answered many questions, not just as the director for The Prayer)

Synopsis: A nursing robot takes care of a patient in a vegetative state for more than 10 years. She also takes care of her patient’s daughter, Jung-in. But one day, she becomes devastated when she sees a protector committing suicide. After the nursing robot detects suicide risk from Jung-in, she desperately tries to protect her. But Jung-in vanishes after making a request for the nursing robot to take care of her mom. The nursing robot needs to decide whether to protect Jung-in, or the patient.

Host: Director Min, you are not only here as the director of The Prayer but as the overall producer of the SF8 project. How did you start this project?

Director, Min Kyu-dong (MKD): In a way, I am here as a representative from the Directors Guild of Korea (DGK). I met with the former CEO of MBC, Mr. Choi Seung-ho at a DGK event. He attended as a movie director himself. He lightly suggested about a possible collaborative work with DGK. Since early last year we’ve mapped out what we could do. The SF genre is recognized to be something large and difficult. But we had this aspiration for the genre within us. With this chance presented in front of us, we thought about the possibility of bringing directors together and to create the SF genre movie. Unlike the pressure and difficulty of large capital sum that theater scale movie gives, let’s give an attempt to write a story as we wish for a completely different platform and audience in a different length with actors and actresses that we want to work with. We worked on it for about a year and a half. And here we are.

Host: Director Min, you’ve already worked with Lee Yoo-young and Ye Soo-jung in your previous movies “The Treacherous” and “Herstory.” It must have been different this time meeting them for a different genre.

MKD: For Ye Soo-jung, she has her own unique territory in terms of acting. She sticks by principle and does not waver. In this movie, I also invited her to be that character who has an unwavering faith and wanted to strongly express the impression of her. For Lee Yoo-young, she has a distinctive look in her eyes. When you watch her closely for long, you can see that mysterious side of her. In this movie, she plays a double role of an ordinary person and an AI. So, I thought that it would be good if she could express her one side as a human that we see in normal days and a mysterious side on the other hand well. I think she did well in playing a difficult double role.

Host: Lee Yoo-young, how was the filming?

Lee Yoo-young (LYY): Understanding Jung-in’s mind was more difficult than acting as a robot. I don’t personally have such similar experience, but if my family would be the one lying down for 10 years without consciousness, it would be tiring and exhausting and I would want to be a devoted daughter till the end. There could be moments of despair but I think I won’t have such extreme thoughts. But, on one side, there was enough empathy for Jung-in and how her mind could go to extreme as such.

Host: Ye Soo-jung: You act a role of a nun in this movie. In this movie, where are the points where your character wavers the most?

Ye Soo-jung (YSJ): In the Catholic belief, there’s a saying that life and death is only god’s work and humans cannot intervene in that process. The nun never had a doubt in that faith and has been following it well. But suddenly, she sees someone who seems to be in painful agony like in hell. She thinks to herself, if I just take one step, I could cut off breadth and free him/her from pain. Should I do it or not? For the first time she has conflicts against what she had believed so far religiously.

Host: Director Min, as the overall producer of this project were there any behind stories or any limitations? What new windows do you think this sort of attempt will create?

MKD: The production environment was challenging. The entire cost of production for these eight films fell short of that of a one small commercial movie. Filming for each movie ended at around 10 episodes worth for a drama series. Since all of the movies will be released simultaneously, we worked hard to meet the deadline. I think each of the directors had their respective problems in terms of the artistic expression of space and time that is different from today due to being a SF genre.  However, in facing such challenging conditions, the rule and terms of this game was to find such new visions that haven’t been seen before. So, I think there was that unique feeling of pleasure and happiness while filming while dealing with experiences of difficulties. Whether through OTT or MBC or even Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, these movies will meet audiences with unique screening conditions.

In terms of new windows, I am very curious on that as well. Many people were worried that it is a reckless attempt. Actors and actresses here and also the directors, they have their own things to work on and always have bigger projects in front of them. So, I was worried if they would be willing to walk this new path. When we gathered together to work on this, actually what I saw was that happiness from the directors here. Once this process and result are spread across friends and people in the movie industry next to us, it will plant curiosity in them and they could eventually accept these sorts of challenges with more ease. A lot of concerns, fear, and questions among the directors are that these changes in theaters and changes in the way people watch could lead to changes in a way a movie is consumed compared to how it used to before. But now they are more prepared to accept different ways of producing different formats of movies, whether it be length, platforms, cost of production or genre. If these films are released and if someone gets inspiration from them and accepts new challenges, I think it will be meaningful externally. I am looking into the possibility of continuing into a next project or next season.

Host: Lee Yoo-young, you must have had thoughts about what it means to be human while acting a robot.

LYY: I had a lot of thoughts about the differences between a robot and a human being while I act. If you look at the appearance and movement, you almost cannot notice any difference because it is a robot from a very well-developed period that is very similar to actual human. You could confuse if it’s a robot or a human. However, this robot feels no pain and no sense of guilt. It doesn’t know anything about its feelings…. So, by opposite you can think what is to be a human being, a desire and feelings… I think I am being really humane right now. Nervous and worried about the questions (laughter). So being human can be understood in a wide scope.

Host: Director Min, SF8 is compared to Black Mirror from Netflix quite a lot. Did you reference any from it? What do you think are differentiating areas? There are lots of SF genre movies but not so much in a drama series. Do you think that SF is a suitable genre for taking down that boundary?

MKD: The inspiration that Black Mirror provided was that there was a point where I realized that this project’s format – it’s not a long movie but at the same time it’s not a short movie… its’ format of narration is something that we haven’t been familiar with being a 50 minutes long film – could have a story format that we could explore newly.

I wanted to introduce SF literature. So many writers who are in 20s ~ 30s write about SF. And they raise questions within this new structure of SF genre such as what is Korean way of SF, what does it mean to be human, how should we live our life, and etc. There’s about 10 years’ worth of stockpile. So, I contemplated a lot on how and where we can combine that energy from literature with movies. Also, unlike Black Mirror where there’s one writer with one world view, we have different directors and different original stories. I tried to allow each of the original stories to talk about their own topic that they want to convey and differentiate from each other. There could be likes and dislikes but you can watch whichever you prefer. I see that we are grouped together between films that deal with AI. In these four films, the way AI function and depicted are all different. So even with one subject or a topic, you will be able to see multiple different points unlike Black Mirror.

I didn’t start with the purpose related to a drama series. I am first a movie director and thought that our movie directors could attempt in directing new form of movies and that movies could meet with audiences in different ways through various methods. We still think of SF as a western genre and there are so much that haven’t been explored or seen. If the playground changes like this, I feel that the color also changes. I think that many new attempts will come to us via drama or movie or OTT as a big wave.

Host: Are there principles that you abided to when working on the film? How was the collaboration? If there is Season 2, would you participate again?

MKD: In normal movies, you have to pass your scenario, casts, conditions for investment and etc. It requires a lot of filtering process. But this time what I suggested to the directors was that the investment is already in place and that they can work with actors/actresses that they wish on any story they also wish. That they may do as they wish without any excuses. It’s an experience that doesn’t come easily. I think it was challenging physically but mentally happy for these directors.

Host: Director Min, in terms of technology how much were they materialized/realized?

MKD: One of the prejudices from SF is that they are visually spectacular. But if you look at various sub-genre of SF, there are more than just movies with visual spectacle. There are movies that raise fundamental questions. When audiences start to form a new way of watching and enjoying, they may find it unfamiliar and awkward to see Asian faces with scientific elements combined together and the feeling stemming from it. But I think the process is necessary.

There could be questions on how much the science came into visualization. In the given circumstances and conditions, we tried our best, tailored to our own situation in Korea and scientific attempts. It can’t be compared to big western movies with a lot of production cost. Quality wise they are in different categories. I believe that all the visual realization that can be accommodated within the story has been realized. I think there are many worries. But I think it’s something that we should happily pass through. After all, each topic is the biggest power. We need to ultimately confront face to face to see how such small attempts of visualization will be accepted.

Host: What is the running time of the movies between Wavve and MBC?

MKD: Unlike MBC, Wavve doesn’t have restrictions as to movie rate and length. These are what I originally suggested to the directors. Right now, within the conditions that we face, same version of length will air on MBC and Wavve. There could be some directors who could be think of much longer director’s cut version. For now, a same version will be available on those two services. All of the movies’ length are about the same at 50 minutes. In terms of frame, each movie doesn’t match with others perfectly but in terms of length we almost closely matched with each other.