Moebius (Jean Giraud), French SF cartoon master who recently made his first visit to Korea for the special "Meeting with Masters" event held by the Eleventh Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival, met with film director Park Chan-wook on May 25 at the Yongsan CGV for an open discussion.
Moebius was the original creator of The Time Masters, which was directed by Rene Laloux. He was also the set and costume designer of Alien, and art director of The Fifth Element. International cartoonist Moebius is also well known for his illustrations in The Trees, Bernard Werber's Korean edition of L'Arbre des Possibles et Autres Histoires.
"In making commercial films, I feel I often seek comfort in cliches due to the pressure that films that I make should be well received by the public", said Park. "Whenever that happens, I would often refer to Moebius' work, which stimulates me and gives me the edge of what a true world of art and a true artist's attitude should be".
"At first, I thought making a film out of a cartoon would be an easy task (as it would practically mean that there's already a storyboard). I thought it would greatly help me, but once I started working on it, I realized it was not that easy at all", said Park on "Old Boy", which was based on a cartoon of the same title. "There is a huge difference between the two media, and I had to change the story, characters, and then eventually, start from the beginning all over again".
However, Park also mentioned the power of cartoon, which touches its readers more concretely and directly than any other art genre. "I have also made films based on a novel, but cartoon makes me feel the facial movement of characters, the atmosphere of space, and even the scent of specific places", said Park. "At first I used to complain a lot, but after completing the film, I look back and realize how much help I got from the original cartoon".
Director Park is currently in the production of "The Snowland" Train (Director: Bong Joon-ho), another film based on a Japanese cartoon of the same title. "The Snowland Train" tells the story of a small surviving group of people left after the world was devastated by a climate-based weapon, and who get on "the Snowland Train"" to travels on an endless railway in order to survive. "With such a fantastic story as its backdrop, we are planning to adapt it creatively", said Park.
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