"Every Film is an Irrational Thought": an Interview with Chris Chan Lee

By Cynthia Lugo

The acclaimed Korean-American director Chris Chan Lee recently answered a few of Lazylimabean's questions about filmmaking. His second feature film UNDOING, opens December 5th at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater. Curious if UNDOING Is playing in a city near you? Check Undoingmovie.com for updates.

Your first film YELLOW [1998] did very well on the festival circuit and garnered much critical praise. How did YELLOW's success pave the way for your second feature?

Although it took some time to arrive at UNDOING as my next project, I think what we were able to accomplish with YELLOW afforded me some opportunity in terms of attracting interest of investors and other collaborators. Also, just as a filmmaker, it served as a sample of my work—something I could show to potential collaborators and actors.

Are you conscious as a director of working against Hollywood's often stereotyped depiction of Asian-Americans in film? Or do you just set out to make a film that more accurately reflects your own experiences?

You can't help but be conscious of it. But I try to exercise my freedom as an artist by not having those stereotypes determine what I do or impact the greater creative choices I want to make. And stereotypes are great for a filmmaker. There are few opportunities more powerful than destroying expectations.

How was the film financed and what advice would you give to other independent filmmakers financing their own scripts?

I finished the first draft of UNDOING in late 2001. It took a little over two years to get first monies committed, thanks to my executive producer Phil Lam, who was introduced to me by my associate producer, Cynthia Hong. Basically, we went on meetings around New York City, and out of several meetings with potential partners/investors, Phil was the first one to jump onboard. He also brought on other investors through his contacts in the business world.

Flash forward another year and half or so—after our project had been chosen for the Los Angeles Film Festival's Fast Track initiative and then the Tribeca All Access program in 2004, I met Karin Chien in person for the first time, a New York based film producer, who was working with Michael Kang at the time on THE MOTEL [2005]. Karin had also worked with Greg Pak on the excellent indie film ROBOT STORIES [2003]. Greg is an old buddy and a filmmaker I much admire, so I had wanted to meet Karin for a long time. Anyways, a few months later, Sung Kang had the idea that Karin would be a good ally to come onboard UNDOING, having had just worked with her on THE MOTEL. So Karin and I met a few times in L.A. to discuss script and production issues. And then she came on board at the end of 2004, which was a nice Christmas present for me at the time! Quickly, she put the other half of financing together to complement the half that Phil had already raised, and we were in business.

We shot the film in March of 2005 in 4 weeks, on schedule and on budget all around the L.A .area, including Koreatown, Echo Park, Burbank, North Hollywood…really anywhere they would let us shoot.

As for advice, a filmmaker should identify their audience, and then look for like-minded producers or production companies that can connect with that material and audience. Deal with reality. Know from the get go how your project is going to be perceived. And identify what might be perceived as potential weaknesses or challenges. Build your argument. Every film out there is an irrational thought, so the director or writer has to convey the vision, and identify what is exciting about the script/project.

One of the main ways in which UNDOING departs from YELLOW is your choice to adopt the iconic style of a neo-noir. Can you speak about your stylistic influences and the ways in which UNDOING honors and alters this category?

Two early influences—directors that basically made me want to get into film making and go to film school, were Hitchcock and David Lynch. Watching Lynch's BLUE VELVET [1986] in a seedy art house theater in San Francisco sealed the deal for me. It changed my world. And the body of Hitchcock's work and much of Lynch's early work can be generally thought of as noir films. I think noir today can be really broadly interpreted. Things like conveying the gray between black and white, and certain archetypes, really permeate all films now. So what I am taking away from the concept of noir is that it challenges the filmmaker to use the medium to visually convey the subtext and emotional undercurrent of the scenes, and ultimately the film—to really define and develop a specific dialect for the film.

UNDOING has a great look to it: there's a lot of glossy cinematography combined with dynamic transitions to create these stylized mood sequences. A lot of key sequences are also shot in Super-8, which lends the mise-en-scène a noticeably gritty feel. Can you elaborate on your use of certain film techniques to produce a certain mood?

Yes the opening title sequence was shot in Super-8, and there is a scene in the middle that we shot using a cheap miniDV camcorder. And less apparent, we shot some scenes with no movie camera at all, but instead we used a digital still camera. A lot of this starts from taking your limitations—i.e. not having the budget and time to shut down the streets of K-town and do proper lighting set ups in order to shoot your main actor walking around for the opening titles, and then finding a way to make the limitations work for the film. We thought that by shooting in Super-8, it would make the opening really gritty, which was the perfect starting point. It was important to start from a sense of warmth and feeling which the analog medium of S8 afforded. We wanted the audience to feel like they were there in the dirt and grime, in the beginning. A lot of credit for the look of the film goes to my director of photography, John DeFazio.

The core cast of actors (Kang, Hu, Bower and Wong) does a fantastic job negotiating these mysterious but familiar relationships that are never really explained throughout the film. How much direction do you give your actors concerning these characters? Do you workshop the characters beforehand or do you let your actors "work it out" on set?

We had rehearsals before shooting. Certainly on a low budget production, there is limited time for rehearsal and a big part of your job as a director is developing trust with the actors and maintaining a positive work environment. Because you are trying to encourage each other to be free and be willing to take risks. During the rehearsals, it's not so much telling people what to do—but rather asking questions, and trying different things. I find each actor has a different style of working that works best for them, so I am always trying to identify the space they need to be in. I also tend to like to restrict them in some way, when appropriate. As in, make them have to move to a certain place during the scene. Or make them unable to move at all—when the scene inherently has a lot of internal action. Just as the limitations force creativity for the crew and directors, I think certain kinds of limitations imposed upon the actors allow them to focus and channel their energies. We developed biographies and both past and recent histories for the characters. It's a delicate balance, always, as there are inevitably certain choices that to an extent, you want to allow the actor to keep private, depending on the character. During rehearsal, certain things can come to the tip of everyone's tongues but they are best left unspoken. And I encourage actors to develop secrets for their characters.

I think you did a great job--every character in UNDOING seemed like they had something to hide, which is, in a way, another key feature of noir

Yes absolutely. There should always be something boiling underneath, simmering.

The dynamic between Sam and Don is at the crux of the film, and in many ways resembles a father/son relationship. What was the intent behind creating this intriguing cross cultural bond (between a young Korean man and an older white male?)

After working abroad in Singapore in as a foreigner in a foreign culture, a lot of my thoughts were immersed in what separates us in terms of environment and background, and what brings us all together as human beings. So perhaps the first image I had of UNDOING that inspired me to write the script, was that of Sung Kang (who plays Sam), and an older man of a completely different ethnicity, and how their lives might be intertwined underneath the surface. I think LA is a very lonely city, and the perfect setting for this story. And lacking a traditional family structure, I thought relationships such as that of Sam and Don, and the need of other characters to make connections such as Vera and her boss Randall, were all just people trying to find a sense of belonging and home in a world where they had neither.

Music seems to play a pivotal role in all of your films. What is your approach to selecting music and how do you combine a soundtrack with an image-track?

We tried to get the source music (music from bands and prerecorded material) as early in the process as possible. Music can be of course very inspiring, and it is such an immediate way to bring emotion and dynamics to a scene. The original score by Ceiri Torjussen (our composer) is what really ties everything together. We edited the movie and tried to get the music in the editing process as early as possible. Ceiri probably had the longest production phase of everyone. Basically he was a one-man show until the very end when he hired musicians to perform his compositions. It was a harrowing process to get it just right, because we lacked the time and resources to approach it in any comfortable fashion. Ceiri was essentially another actor on the film. Anyway I couldn't be happier with it. He did an amazing job.

And I know you also worked on music videos. . .

Like most people, i love music, and I used to be in a band myself. And I have friends that are musicians, and I love what they do so have tried to make time here and there to craft music videos. As much flack as they get, music videos, (the inspired ones) can be some of the purest, most artistic cinema around.

You are both an Independent Feature Project (IFP) alum as well as a alum of the Tribeca Film Institute, two notable professional programs for independent filmmakers. How did both of these programs aid you both artistically and professionally?

Like many indie filmmakers, I've had many encounters with various IFP programs, including the IFP Rough Cuts lab that they invited us to at the tail end of UNDOING's production. They provide a great forum to connect with other filmmakers, and raise awareness for your project. We had been in the bubble of post production for about a year, so it was great to get their encouragement and stamp of approval during the latter stages of the process. Tribeca also provided a tremendous amount of support and encouragement. What they really force you to do is to clarify your vision and sharpen your pitch, because the biggest task a fledging indie project in the development stages has is communicating your project in 3D. It's not enough to just throw a script at somebody. The Tribeca All Access program put me and my partners in front of dozens of potential investors and production partners for a couple days, for a scant 15 minutes each. You can't help but by the end of it know exactly the movie your pitching to make. Of course, we knew what we were making at the beginning of it!

What projects are you working on now? What are your plans for UNDOING beyond its theatrical run?

We'd like to hit a few more cities with UNDOING. We're very proud of the film, yet we also feel like what we have on our hands is something very unusual…essentially a noir Asian American art film. This presents a challenge for us in connecting with the audience—which I believe to be the Asian America crowd as well as film lovers in general. The film doesn't really present anything in bite sized packages. It forces the viewer to engage. to look beneath the surface. Home video is coming out in February 2008 from Indican Pictures, and should be widely available. And I encourage people to watch this on the biggest screen they have available with the volume at eleven. Outside of this project, I am writing my next script and looking forward to coming back with my third film.

About the Writer

Cynthia Lugo is a New York based writer and a self-proclaimed cinephile. She has curated programs for the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY and served as an organizer for the Providence French Film Festival. She has an M.A. in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University and a B.A. in English and Art History from Bryn Mawr College. To reach her,