Lee Chang-Dong on Love, Violence and the Power of Cinema
Lise Pedersen Film writer and director Lee Chang-dong (“Burning,” “Oasis,” “Peppermint Candy”), one of Korea’s best-known auteur filmmakers who has contributed to putting Korean cinema firmly on the global stage, is guest of honor at the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon, where he was welcomed with a standing ovation. The Cannes veteran – four out of his six feature films have been screened at the festival and its sidebars – engaged with the audience with characteristic humility on questions of identity, human nature, violence and love, which are central themes to all of his films. “People sometimes ask me why I always tell stories centered on characters who are suffering. Trust me, I am not sadistic,” he smiled. “But it takes us back to the notion of family [which is central to all my films]: I grew up in a poor family, and I’m familiar with suffering,” he said.