A film that maximized fantasy, Life is Beautiful and a film of clear historical context, Remember

The musical film Life is Beautiful depicts the rollercoaster emotions of the middle aged and maximizes the charm of fantasy through music and dance. A tense revenge drama dealing with the subject of pro-Japan, Remember sets itself in a location where clear historical context is revealed even through an ordinary background. Through these two films, we take a look into multiple sides of locations and sets within movies that are newly formed by the genre, theme, and subject awareness. To do so, we talked with the producer of Life is Beautiful, Lee Yeon Hwa, and the producer of Remember, Moon Yong Chan. 

The film that maximized fantasy, Life is Beautiful

After being diagnosed with cancer, I just kept walking... a beautiful yet lonely path of gingko trees

A middle-aged woman, Se-yeon (Yum Jung-ah), finds out that she has cancer and starts walking blankly down a beautiful yet lonesome path of yellow gingko trees. Lost in thought, she even walks right by her husband, Jin-bong (Ryu Seung-yong). Producer Lee Yeon Hwa states, “Since gingko leaves are used in the film as a meaningful medium, we thought that it’d be nice to show a pretty path lush with gingko trees (for the starting scene), so we scoured the entire country.”

This scene was shot on the Gingko Asan road near Goggyocheon in Asan City of Chungnam province. Producer Lee continues, “If it was a scene that only required 10 to 20 meters of walking, we could’ve secured a space entirely on our own, but Se-yeon had to keep walking, and dancing was included as well, so it was difficult to find a suitable path for all of that.” Furthermore, “It had to be a village path and picturesque. When Se-yeon passes through the path to the other side of the tunnel, I wanted all of her repressed emotions to come out as the fireworks went off.” 

The realistic atmosphere of Seoul Cinema and Jeongdong-gil

In their younger days, Se-yeon and Jeong-woo went to Seoul to participate in the public broadcast of a popular radio show, On a Starry Night but ended up singing Ice Cream Love with cute dance moves on Jeongdong-gil of Jung-gu, Seoul. Producer Lee recalls, “Since they came up to Seoul all the way from Mokpo, I figured they’d probably go to a landmark-type place. So we looked for a place that held the essence of old Seoul.”

This was also true for Seoul Cinema–an actual location in Seoul–used as a background in the film. Although a set was used for the sequences showing dating scenes of Se-yeon and Jin-bong in their younger years, the actual now-closed Seoul Cinema was used when the movie theater reappeared in the present setting. Produce Lee explains, “The 40 to 50s now probably visited the Seoul Cinema plenty of times in the past. We tried to reproduce the old look as accurate as possible.”

It was the best decision to make the scene feel as authentic as possible, but acquiring and managing the site was no easy task. The scene was filmed by blocking off the road in front of Seoul Cinema for 4 hours from 7am to 11am. “It was complicated to get the permit to do so, and we spent a lot of effort convincing the store owners around the area,” says producer Lee. She recalls further, “Jeongdong-gil had a ton of people coming and going, and there was a school nearby as well. Filming near a school in November right before the College Scholastic Ability Test definitely made things harder.”

Using the highway service area set to emphasize the fantasy element, maximizing the musical element

The part that showed the most effort in bringing out the film’s identity as a musical film was the service area sequence. A set was preferred over an actual location. Producer Lee says, “I instantly gave up on filming in a real service area since there was no guarantee that the quality of the choreography wouldn’t suffer. Instead, we wanted a flat 2D scene to show off the musical genre’s characteristics and made miniature props 0.8x the size of real objects to express the fantasy element.” She continues, “We acquired a large and tall set–about 1650 square meters and 12m tall–to film the choreography sequence involving about 100 actors from a high angle.” 

A film of clear historical context, Remember

The pro-Japanese are near us...revenge taking place within an average everyday location

The thrilling revenge drama, Remember tells the story of Pil-ju (Lee Sung-min), an old man in his 80’s who is to enact his lifelong plan to revenge against the pro-Japanese Koreans after 60 years. The acts of revenge took place in ordinary locations, such as in front of a house, a hospital room, and inside an elevator. Similar mundane locations, such as old downtown cafes and roads, were chosen as well for other key events.

Producer Moon Yong Chan states, “Normal thriller films distinctly depict action stages, but that’s not the case for Remember. The concept for our movie was to show that the pro-Japanese live among us.” He explained that he prioritized forming an ordinary space, “If we used a Japanese flag or some sort, forcibly applying a Japanese color to show that someone is pro-Japanese, the character would stand out and seem unusual (someone unlikely to be among us).”

The scene in which In-gyu (Nam Joo-hyuk), a part-timer in his 20’s who helps Pil-ju with his revenge, is seen speeding in a car was filmed in one of the newly formed districts in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province. Producer Moon recalls, “At the time of filming in 2020, the road wasn’t open yet. It was a 5km road with 8 empty lanes.” He also explained the practical advantages, “There was a lot at the side as well, enough to pile up sand, making it an optimal place for shooting.” 

The Kimigayo echoes out from the hotel banquet hall, revealing it as a space of Imperial Japan 

Despite the film’s concept, not all Japanese colors were erased. The Japanese image was emphasized enough when conveying important context. A critical scene of that is when the retired Japanese SDF general, Tojo Hisashi (Park Byung-ho), appears at the event venue. This scene in which the Kimigayo can be heard was filmed in the Gangnam Le Meridien Hotel. 

When creating this space, the most attention went into the shape and decor of the tables. Producer Moon explains, “Korean banquets often use round or horizontal tables. But during the enlightenment, because they have largely accepted Western culture, Japan seemed to have used long Western tables where guests sat across each other for parties.” He continues, “I really wanted to show a different tone and visual from domestic events since it was an SDF event.” 

Imbuing cinematic meaning to the statue unveiling scene taking place in the Cheonan Independence Hall

The scene showing the unveiling of General Kim Chi-duk’s (Park Geun-hyung) statue takes place in the Cheonan Independence Hall in Chungnam Province. Having hidden his pro-Japanese past, his achievements in the Korean War allowed General Kim to live a life with a good reputation. This location was also where that General Kim was going to be convicted of his sins. Producer Moon recalls, “The solemn base atmosphere was there. I could feel it through the stairs and plazas that made up Independence Hall.

Producer Moon explained the meaning of the location further, “For the filming of the statue unveiling, we could’ve done it in a university lot (that had a plaza), but we didn’t. The Cheonan Independence Hall was home to many independence fighters and soldiers from the Korean War, but it was relatively unknown to the public. We thought more people needed to know about this place, so we chose to film there.”