Possible Love Cinematographer Kim Ji-yong on creating ‘quiet visuals’

Kim Ji-yong discusses creating ‘quiet visuals’ in Lee Chang-dong’s return to the big screen, Possible Love.

When I first heard the news that Lee Chang-dong was making a new film, I was ecstatic. After watching Burning on the big screen back in 2018, I got my hands on as many of his films as I could – from the chaotically devastating Peppermint Candy to the heartbreaking Oasis to Poetry, in which Yoon Jeong-hee gives one of the most haunting and moving performances I’ve ever seen.

Eight years on, his latest project, Possible Love, follows two married couples: a recently laid-off factory worker and his wife; and a wealthy documentary filmmaker and her husband.

I’m speaking via Zoom with cinematographer Kim Ji-yong, whose last few projects include Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave and Squid Game Season 2. “I wanted to do this film even before I read the script,” he begins. “Lee is a great director and I really wanted to work with him. The first time we met he told me about the history of trying to make this project. He wrote the script almost ten years ago and after nearly making the film, decided to put it aside.”

Kim admits that, when he did eventually read the script, it was nearly impossible for him to understand the whole idea. “I thought, if I shoot this, then I could come to understand it as we shoot it – and I like that part of the process.”

Keeping the image realistic and authentic

Lee spoke to Kim about meeting a ‘movie god’ during filming. “I’m not sure how to translate that exactly, but he told me if we try our best, try 100%, then this movie god will come down and help us. He meets this movie god once in every movie, so he said we’ll meet him depending on how hard we try.”

Lee emphasised that he wanted audiences to experience the film as if they were seeing it with the naked eye – without feeling that they were looking through a camera or filters. “That doesn’t mean we simply point and shoot either; it’s about keeping the image realistic and authentic. In Korean, he told me to always find ‘jinja’, which can be translated as something between genuine and true to life. That’s what we were after,” Kim says.

Possible Love feels very much like a film shot on location, but Kim explains that although this was intentional, it didn’t work that way. “We built the summer vacation house and redressed the main character’s house, as well as the house we see in the flashbacks. Alongside the art department, Lee spent lots of time making the environments all look real, even parts that we don’t see in the film. He wanted the actors to feel immersed in them. It was pretty inspirational.”

Using ambient lighting for a naturalistic aesthetic

Kim approached the lighting in much the same way, becoming involved in the design of the houses from an early stage. He focused on the direction of the windows, so he could find out the path of the sun. It was vital to make sure the colour of the walls and even the props were aligned with the realism. He selected ambient lighting to complement the naturalistic aesthetic.

He was also conscious of keeping the lighting equipment away from the actors, so they could focus on their performance. “I didn’t want them to see any lights,” he adds. “It wasn’t always possible, of course. While I wanted it to feel real, I still had to find something impressionistic for the drama. I wanted to make really quiet visuals, which isn’t something I’m used to. This is maybe my most non-lit, naturalistic attempt in my career.”

Filming handheld on an ARRI ALEXA 35

Kim shot the film on an ARRI ALEXA 35 paired with ZEISS Super Speed and Angénieux EZ-Series lenses. “The camera and lenses really enabled me to capture the film handheld and allowed me to easily follow the characters. We didn’t want intentional mise-en-scène when it came to framing the scenes.”

One of the most striking sequences comes towards the end, when two of the characters leave the summer house in the early hours and scatter into the woods. It involved shooting for less than an hour each day, across numerous days, as the sun set behind the mountain.

“We really wanted to have a windy day, but the wind never came,” says Kim. “Originally, it wasn’t meant to be windy at all in the script, but on the day we went to shoot, there was a really strong storm and I told Lee that I loved the look of it. There’s a shot at the end of the sequence where two of the main characters are standing and looking at each other. They’re both towards the edges of the frame and it’s this huge wide shot. We had almost 100 crew members inside the woods, shaking the trees. So, every movement of the trees and every bit of wind in that sequence was actually created by human manpower. That’s how we made the scene.”

Incorporating flashbacks and using storyboards

During the film, there are also several flashbacks. Kim explains that this was a big departure from the rest of Lee’s work as he hasn’t really used flashbacks before. “It was important for us not to use different filters for those scenes. All I did was adjust the texture and make the image slightly grainier, but it’s very subtle.”

In Korea, Kim tells me, films often have very detailed storyboards. “In our case, we didn’t have any of that,” he says. “The only sequence we storyboarded was the flashback sequence on the rooftop when the protesters are arrested. I tried to keep everything very simple, which is why I opted to shoot handheld. Filming the scene involved running backwards, which was very physically demanding. As the character runs towards the camera, I had to run backwards at the same speed.”

The shoot lasted for more than 50 days and each morning before shooting, Kim would run through the scene with the cast. “That’s when we’d decide where to put the cameras. It was pretty flexible and fun. If one way didn’t work, we’d just try it again another way. Most of our shots covered more than 180º, so it was hard to hide the lighting, which was a challenge.”

Kim admits he loved getting the chance to work with Lee Chang-dong as he is such a huge fan of his work. He then smiles and puts me on the spot by asking what my favourite of Lee’s films is, and I tell him Possible Love is now very much a contender, although previously I was torn between Burning and Peppermint Candy.

“I rewatched all of his films before working on this project,” says Kim. “My favourite is still Poetry. Working with Lee, I don’t think I did ever meet a movie god during the production, although I did meet the crew gods.”

 

This article appears in the October/November issue of Definition

WORDS: OLIVER WEBB. IMAGES: NETFLIX