Topic > Film Analysis by Lee Joon-ik

The films we interact with in our daily lives require people from various fields to communicate and cooperate to produce the best quality. A director is a person responsible for all aspects of the film and its production; in other words, the central hub of film production. They work during all stages of production: pre-production, production and post-production with different people in different areas. They must have a strong vision and be respectful in their decision making, as they choose where to place the camera, what props to use, how the characters will act in the scenes, and so on. Simply put, they are in charge of overseeing the entire film production process and the final film itself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Lee Joon Ik, a South Korean filmmaker, is known for creating films that include a variety of realistic stories to communicate with a wide range of audiences. To effectively convey his vision of a story, he mainly focuses on three different components in the production processes. He makes sure to give his actors space to experience the story and their characters, and also tries to direct different types of camera movements to show rather than tell. Furthermore, he gives importance to "realism" in his creations, considering the different feelings that the audience can feel in tune with, and continues to have in mind the question of "how can we interact through a film". 2013's "Hope" is a film based on a real incident of a young girl in South Korea. The overall plot features detailed acting to show the "realism" of the real incident, in which Lee Joon-Ik mainly focused on the provide a safe space for actors to express their characters. In one of his interviews about this film, he mentioned: "I tried to avoid extreme close-ups for some scenes to allow the actors to concentrate more on their acting." Another film directed by Lee Joon-Ik, from 2006, "Radio Star", draws a story of an absent singer who feels hope and joy by starting again as a radio DJ, with the support of his friend. To bring out the true “feeling” of happiness and love in the film, Lee Joon-Ik focused on directing the actors and framing shots effectively. He believed that interacting with the audience through a piece of film was important, so that they felt the same emotions as the actors and were involved throughout the plot of the story. By taking a deeper look at his creations, we as an audience are able to notice his intentions. Here, in the film "Hope", the father of a young girl appears at the door of the clinic after talking to the doctor about her condition. In most films, directors and cinematographers use medium or extreme close-ups to further and specifically show the character's emotions towards the audience. However, most scenes in the movie “Hope” use some type of object or person on either side of the scene, in addition to the main character, to give them space and create the feeling of “audience perspective”: the Rule of Thirds . Considering the rule of thirds, Lee Joon-Ik not only gives the actors a space to focus on their emotions, but also creates the feeling of actually being part of the scene by observing the situation of the scene. For example, in this other scene, Lee Joon-Ik purposely directs the camera focus to respect the rule of thirds to give the actor space to act as if he were "real", as well as allowing the audience to see thischaracter. from the point of view of the girl watching her father suffer. Lee Joon-Ik's intention to open up more space for actors is not only shown in the film “Hope”. From his other creation "Radio Star", Lee Joon-Ik continues to use The Rule of Thirds for the purpose of better plot development. As seen, this scene also shows the characters talking to each other, however the camera focuses on the farthest character in the scene creating a blur on the closest one. Since one of the characters acts and speaks, Lee Joon-Ik purposely gave space to the actor, while the audience sees the scene as if it were simply a "Rule of Thirds". The scenes in the film not only show him as a director, trying to collaborate with the actors but also demonstrates his skill and understanding of how things are seen on screen and also creates an aesthetic balance. The camera movements that Lee Joon-Ik directs in his films are unique, as they allow the story to be shown rather than told. The following scene from “Hope” shows the actual perspective of the scene. This is very unique, as it allows the audience to be involved by watching the scene as if it were a real character from the film. Lee Joon-Ik not only portrays his idea of ​​the story from a director's point of view, but also gives the audience the chance to imagine and judge the story based on what they "see" on the screen. Another scene from “Hope” gives us a different feeling than before, but also uses unique directions of camera movements. As this scene plays, the camera here works with two different roles. First, it gives the audience the feeling of running as if he were the “father” of the film. Furthermore, he acts as if the audience is one of the cameramen trying to capture the situation. Here, Lee Joon-Ik's intention develops two different perspectives and situations of society where he allows the audience to feel free and imagine beyond a limited perspective. From his other film "Radio Star", his intentions towards unique camera movements are shown. In this creation, he mainly focuses on directing by providing the points of view of two different characters from the same scene. Here, the unique part is that he directs the details of each scene so that he can use his intentions in a single movement of the camera flow, instead of using jump cuts during editing. For example, the following scene shows two different situations of two different characters in one camera stream, where it gives the audience the feeling of actually seeing the situation. Lee Joon-Ik keeps his focus on interacting with his audience as much as possible. , to communicate the story not only from a limited perspective but from people other than society. Lee Joon-Ik is famous for his creations based on the "real" world, aiming for "realism" as much as possible to allow the audience to feel sympathetic and realize the "real society" in which he lives. the movie "Hope" is actually based on a real incident, where Lee Joon-Ik focused on collaborating more with the actors, cinematographers, screenwriters etc. to maximize the "realism" of the story. When we watch the scene, we as an audience are able to realize the true side of the story. Here, from Lee Joon-Ik's detailed directions, we can see on the screen how people only think about their own benefits and realize how serious the incident was as a South Korean citizen. The details of the actors, the camera flashes and the balance of the scene (including the rule of thirds) are all combined to create a unique but also very “realistic” visualization. Another scene, we are able to see the same situation but in a limited perspective like a real citizen. Lee's intentions.