Savvy fans of foreign cinema (or just those of you who read this site) might be familiar with the name Park Chan-wook, the astoundingly talented filmmaker responsible for Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy, a pair of this decade’s most brutal and accomplished films. He’s closing out his “vengeance trilogy” with Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (possibly to be retitled simply Lady Vengeance here), which arrives in the States next year (or whenever you import the Korean DVD), but what’s he got planned after that?
First up is the oddball romcom Even If You’re a Cyborg, It’s No Problem (or as I’ve heard it translated, I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK) about a female mental patient who thinks she’s part robot, and an inmate who falls in love with her regardless of possible circuitry.
After that is a vampire movie called Evil Live (or conversely Live Evil or possibly The Bat – nailing down English titles for Asian films is apparently a bigger challenge than watching the "squid scene" without wincing), which will focus more on "the question of the existence of God and Evil", according to the man himself. "I’m not so interested in the vampire genre per se," Park says, "more in the religious theme." Korean A-list actor Song Gang-ho, who previously appeared in Park’s JSA and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, is already prepared to star in the film even though only a three-page story treatment has been written thus far. Oddly, Park recently poked fun at the vampire genre in his segment of Three… Extremes, which featured a director working on a pretentious vampire flick called Live Evil.
These announcements won’t seem terribly fresh to anyone who speaks Korean (or knows someone who does), since Park has been discussing these projects for months to various Korean outlets. But it’s news to Variety, and since Park Chan-wook is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today, you oughtta know about it too.