S.Korean director Lim Sang-soo to create movie about assassination of Kim Jong-nam

▲This photo shows, director Lim Sang-soo communicating with the audience of the Master Class. (Yonhap)

▲This photo shows, director Lim Sang-soo communicating with the audience of the Master Class. (Yonhap)

SEOUL November 02 (Yonhap) -- South Korean director Lim Sang-soo known for his movie “Heaven: To the Land of Happiness” which was invited to the Cannes Film Festival in 2020, is working on a production related to the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

Kim Jong-nam was assassinated at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February of 2017 with Synthetic chemical compound VX. Kim Jong-nam is a half-brother of current ruler of North Korea Kim Jong-un.

Director Lim disclosed information regarding this future production of Kim Jong-nam’s assassination at a “Master class” segment of Korean film festival in Paris held in Publicis Cinemas located in Avenue des Champs Elysees, Paris Italy.

“Kim Jong-nam was assassinated while visiting Kuala Lumpur International Airport in order to greet American visitors” adding “Protagonists of the movie will be the American spies who came to visit Kim Jong-nam.” addressed Lim Sang-soo during the event.

Continuing on director addressed “70 percent of the lines will be spoken in English and about 15 percent of the lines will be mixture between Korean, Chinese, and Malaysian therefore it will be an international production” adding “we are currently contacting production companies in United States, France and more at the moment.”

“I think I have said everything I wanted to say through my stories, therefore I don’t have any more interest in addressing South Korean society,” adding “I want to surpass South Korean economy and engage in a production which focuses on the factor of truth and its surroundings.” addressed director Lim Sang-soo.

According to the committee of Korean Film Festival in Paris selected “Heaven: To the Land of Happiness” which was featured as the opening film of“2021 Busan International Film Festival” as the closing film, and screened director Lim’s other films such as “A good Lawyer’s Wife” from 2003, “The Old Garden” from 2006, and “The Housemaid” from 2010.

Since director Lim’s remake version of “The Housemaid” by director Kim Ki-young from 1960
and was invited at Cannes Festival, audiences interest towards “The Housemaid” was great.

Director Lim addressed that the original film of “The Housemaid” released in 1960 deals with the middle class family, however the one he released in 2010 deals with oligarch family.

Continuing on, director Lim stated “I wanted to create a film about a poor woman who gets continuously drawn into the miserable cycle of life as a housemaid of a rich family, because of newly introduced form of life, where money is the only thing withholding the value in society.”

“In the streets, you can witness people who are not getting respected as human, there are numerous people who live the harsh life where the world has never been nice, it happens to both female and male.” adding “’The Housemaid’ was a movie for those who have lived harsh life.” announced director Lim Sang-soo.

Moreover, director chuckled while stating “I feel like director Bong-ho who is a big fan of the legendary director Kim Ki-young might have been jealous of the remake I did of his movie ‘The Housemaid.’” adding “When I saw director Bong Joon-ho’s movie ‘Parasite’ I thought to myself that he created the movie because he was not satisfied with my remake version of ‘The Housemaid.’”

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Joonha Yoo)

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