Behind the Camera

As long as cinema has stood tall as a medium of the people, films about cinema have been consistent as a means of self-analysis. Whether that is a biography, a fictionalised account of an on-set experience or a documentary making-of, this school of satire will continue to be a rich vein of discussion.  Funnily enough, these meta-textual titles rarely come from a country outside of the 5 big film nations (England, USA, Germany, Italy and Japan), and with the rise of smaller film-making nations so too have we saw a rise of a satirical bone in their respective entertainment industries. Third Window Films have already released one such title this year, the very successful Korean advertising satire ‘How to Use Guys with Secret Tips’. Following that up in July, is their most recent release and addition to this convention – E-J Yong’s quasi-documentary Behind the Camera.

E-J Yong’s film is hard to classify through its insistent blurring of the lines. Nonetheless in the service of building a functional synopsis – the director is making a short film about a director pretending to be in Hawaii and the difficulties therein, while he is directing the film from the LA office of Korean giants CJ Entertainment. Life is imitating art, or perhaps it’s the other way round, or perhaps it’s a huge fabrication. Director E’s only presence on set is a skype call hooked up to a big screen TV. The 90 minute runtime sees the struggle to make their short film ‘how to fall in love in 10 minutes’ via digital communications and the actors and crews retaliation simmering in his audacious attempt at experimental filmmaking.

Many critics and film-makers refer to a films hook as a gag, and Behind the Camera very much has that feel to it, in that it feels like an over-egged gag. It feels forced, almost as if this who’s-who of Korean talent was prompted in a way that utterly contradicts its documentary presentation. Shooting a making of documentary from behind the scenes of a short film that doesn’t really exist, collates into too much of a try-hard effort to craft a ‘clever film’. The naturalism of the documentary format is an utter contradiction to this convoluted structure.

However, that is going under the pretence that Behind the Camera is a documentary and not a stylised and heavily self-effacing drama. If the latter was true then the tone of this review would be set for a slight 180, however the fact the film has been promoted as a documentary, both within the film and through traditional press outlets, taints E-J Yong’s ambitious project with negative results. Not only is the structure baffling, the real result of the project doesn’t really elevate itself beyond the listless.

Assuming that the promotion is committed to the conceit and one will find a much more insightful look into Korean businesses and directing. Among the huge cast of actors are Youn Yuh-Jung (The Boomerang Family), Park Hee-soon (Hansel and Gretel), Kang Hye-Jung (Oldboy), Oh Jung-Se (How to use guys with secret tips) & Kim Ok-Vin (Thirst), not only do actors count among the players, so to do directors in the shape of Kim Jee-Woon (albeit briefly), Yim Pil-Sung  (Doomsday book) and Joon Ik-Lee (Blades of Blood). The actors bring an insight into the life of the professional actor. While not unique to Behind the Camera in any way, there is an interesting behind the curtain approach adopted. An equal insight is lent by the directors too, any would-be filmmaker can appreciate E-J Yong’s bizarre documentary as a guide of how to deal with actors through bad example, interspersed with sagely wisdom subtly employed by the established Joon Ik-Lee.

When the dust has settled, third windows latest release is beleaguered by idiosyncrasies and hollow ploys to the point where misguided gags obscure the true values that a project like this should have. Of course there is value to be garnished from Behind the Camera, but the way E-J Yong has over-directed this piece ultimately makes for a tedious watch. With Pluto last month and their long-awaited release of Sake Bomb next month (this month, apologies about the delay), Behind the Camera is both sadly and thankfully just a lapse in the UK label’s impressive continued showcase of Asian cinema.

DVD Bonus Features: 

Interviews and on-stage Q&A with director EJ Yong and actress Yun Yeo-jeong at the London Korean Film Festival