Published on : 18/09/2022 – 15:12Modified : 18/09/2022 – 15:10
Toronto (Canada) (AFP) – The worldwide success of “Squid Game” and “Parasite” is the result of the patient labor of South Korean filmmakers who have been able to tell the story of the universal themes of violence and the race for performance, believes Lee Jung-jae, recently winner of the Emmy Award for Best Actor.
“We are very happy that this work, which is not in English, was able to reach an international audience”, welcomed the star of “Squid Game” in an interview with AFP given a few days following his triumph at the Emmys.
The South Korean made history by becoming the first non-English speaking actor to win the prestigious distinction for his role in this series, which has become the most viewed program on the Netflix streaming platform.
“Everyone in South Korea is so happy, I keep getting congratulatory messages. When I get back, I’m going to have a ton of interviews and things to do!” Said Lee Jung-jae, met at the Toronto International Film Festival, the biggest seventh art event in North America.
“Squid Game” is a fierce critique of capitalism, where 456 wretches and scum of society compete at the risk of their lives to win millions in children’s games like “one, two, three, sun”. His Emmys triumph follows the unexpected success of “Parasite” which won the 2020 Oscar for best picture, an extremely rare performance for a non-English-speaking production.
“For a long time, South Korean cinema was trying to find the recipe to reach an international audience. This work of several years is starting to pay off, we now see a lot of high quality content resonating around the world and receiving critical acclaim” , observes Lee Jung-jae.
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A true social phenomenon, “Squid Game” will be the subject of a second season. Its director Hwang Dong-hyuk is finishing the writing and according to Mr. Lee, who is enigmatic, his character of Seong Gi-hun “will be completely different” in this opus.
“Too competitive”
But before the “Squid Game” craze takes hold of the planet’s screens once more, Mr. Lee makes his directorial debut with “Hunt”, his first feature film which he presented this week at the International Film Festival. Toronto film (TIFF).
This spy film, set during the Cold War, looks back on real political events that took place in South Korea in the 1980s, such as the attempted assassination of a South Korean president, or the defection of a pilot North Korean.
This feature shares some themes with “Squid Game”, according to Mr. Lee, including how “an overly competitive society can cause people to hurt each other”.
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“Hunt” is already peaking at the top of the box office in South Korea. It will launch in theaters across North America and on video-on-demand platforms on December 2.
“Growing Together”
Still, cultural differences persist and “Hunt” had to be adapted to win over Western audiences, as the first reviews, when the film was presented this summer at the Cannes Film Festival, pointed to a plot only understandable to South Koreans.
But for Mr. Lee, this should not make us forget that now South Korean culture “is well understood abroad”, thanks to technological interconnection, from streaming to video games and social networks.
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“In South Korea, we watch a lot of content from abroad, it’s very natural for us,” he observes. “The world is much closer to us now, and South Korea’s special history is no longer complicated for foreign audiences to understand.”
“With a world that grows together, ever closer, it is less difficult to understand the emotions of others, whether it is pain or pain. Because we live in a world in which emotions are shared instantly”, concludes the South Korean actor-director.
© 2022 AFP
