Park Chan-wook's Mastery of Modern Technology and Thematic Systems in Film

Midnight Showing

Cinema's Fear of the Cell Phone [0:00]

• Filmmakers often exhibit a hesitancy to fully integrate modern technology into their films, primarily due to several concerns.
  • Timing and Obsolescence: Movies take years to produce, and technology ages instantly, making devices featured in films quickly appear outdated or awkward.
  • Aesthetic Fears: A person staring into a handheld screen is often perceived as uncinematic, potentially diminishing the visual power of cinema into a small rectangle.
  • Plot Inconvenience: Smartphones can simplify traditional narrative problems, giving characters too much power and easily resolving conflicts that would otherwise drive the story (e.g., Home Alone, North by Northwest).
• Common narrative workarounds to avoid technology include:
  • Phones losing service, batteries dying, or devices being left behind.
  • Directors situating films safely in the past where modern tools don't exist.
• The reality is that digital devices profoundly shape our everyday lives and society, collecting information and making decisions in the background, making it challenging for filmmakers to ignore this pervasive influence.
• Park Chan-wook, a legendary South Korean director, stands out by directly confronting and integrating technology into his films, exploring its stylistic integration and thematic warnings.

Park, Vengeance, and the Pirate-Era Cult Film [2:51]

• Park Chan-wook's reputation as the director of Oldboy grew in the mid-2000s, gaining global traction through digital piracy and early internet forums.
  • Oldboy became a cult phenomenon, spread via burn DVDs, torrent sites, and low-quality uploads, highlighting how technology inadvertently shaped Park's career before it became a direct subject in his films.
• "Invisible Systems" of Control and Punishment:
  • Oldboy reveals a modern form of technological power, where protagonist Oh Dae-su is not merely imprisoned but monitored, maintained, and experimented on.
  • His environment and access to information are meticulously controlled, creating a fabricated reality shaped by what he's allowed to see and denied.
  • This logic mirrors modern technological power, existing within a "closed loop" where inputs, feedback, and outcomes are manipulated by an unseen entity.

    

• Distant, Organized Revenge:
  • Park understands that the most terrifying revenge is slow, organized, and executed by an invisible force operating at a distance.
  • The mastermind behind Oh Dae-su's suffering remains unseen for years, with the damage completed before their identity is revealed.
  • This distance between the designer of harm and the recipient becomes a defining feature of Park's later work, naturally leading his cinema towards technologies that normalize such remote interaction.

Decision to Leave [6:10]

• In his 2022 film, Decision to Leave, Director Park treats smartphones and other small devices as integral to how human emotion and relationships travel in the modern world.
  • Working with cinematographer Kim Ji-Young, Park seamlessly blends digital life into the film's physical aesthetics, making devices central to the narrative.
• Digital Intimacy and Emotional Language:
  • A key scene shows Detective Hae-jun texting Seo-rae, the widow he's investigating. Instead of a split screen, Seo-rae's text bubbles drift across Hae-jun's face, conveying his nervousness and emotional entanglement.
  • The phone acts as a living connection, defining their relationship through words and distance, even when Seo-rae is not physically present.
• Surveillance as a Form of Love/Obsession:
  • Hae-jun’s investigation blends into an unsettling obsession as he uses technology to track Seo-rae.
  • He checks her location data, listens to recordings of her voice, and studies her digital trails.
  • He falls in love with a version of her largely assembled from her digital footprint, making her feel close even in her physical absence.
• Translation and Emotional Barriers:
  • The film highlights translation technology, which, while convenient, can also flatten emotional nuances, allowing characters to hide their true feelings behind a neutral voice.
• Park makes ordinary tools of modern life feel both dangerous (due to surveillance) and profoundly romantic (as a medium for connection), without making the technology a mere gimmick.

  

They Were Always Tech Movies [10:03]

• Park Chan-wook’s exploration of technology extends beyond modern devices to encompass any "tools and systems that let someone shape another person's life without ever touching them."
• The Handmaiden: Surveillance through Architecture [10:00]:
  • Set in 1930s Korea, the film lacks modern tech, but the house itself functions as a "quiet surveillance machine."
  • Its architecture encourages covert observation, making privacy seem fragile.
  • Power in the house stems from controlling the flow of information.
  • Subtle acts of listening, repeated stories, or overheard conversations become as dangerous as physical weapons.
  • The film depicts seeing and knowing as a form of currency, where control over information dictates which version of reality is believed.

    

• Across his earlier works, the mechanics of technology – systems of surveillance, performance, and control – are ever-present, seamlessly shaping characters and their psyches.

No Other Choice [11:47]

• No Other Choice amplifies Park’s long-standing ideas, moving the logic of control from private rooms to large-scale societal and economic structures.
• Systemic Cruelty and Dehumanization:
  • The film depicts lives being reshaped by management systems that appear neutral, focusing on Mansu, a paper factory worker laid off due to "efficiency" by new foreign owners.
  • Harm is not personal or violent but stems from abstract systems like spreadsheets and efficiency plans that render individuals irrelevant.
• The Impact of Unemployment:
  • Mansu, whose identity is tied to his craft, struggles with the passive reality of unemployment and the foreignness of digital job applications.
  • He adopts the dehumanizing logic that cost him his job, hunting other candidates. Park notes that being fired is a violent act that destroys humanity, and Mansu's subsequent actions are a result of this initial violence.
• Technology as a Tool for Remote Control and Evidence:
  • The phone becomes a portal for social mobility, which Mansu exploits by setting up fake job ads to lure victims.
  • Investigators use an iPad to display victim photos, reflecting Mansu's guilt on the screen itself, merging evidence with personal reflection.
  • A FaceTime call between Mansu and his wife cleverly merges their locations, symbolizing their connection while also highlighting the secrets they hide from each other.
• Automation and the Loss of Human Value:
  • The paper factory showcases machines producing paper without human touch, illustrating processes that run without rest or pay, replacing human labor and diminishing its emotional value.
  • When Mansu is rehired to oversee these machines, he celebrates alone, on a floor that no longer values physical labor.
• Park's Conclusion: The threat he has explored for years is clear: technology doesn't create monsters but gives existing monsters (both individuals and systems) more effective tools to destroy lives at a distance, without needing intimate understanding or direct confrontation.