Production
After being impressed with Park Kwang-hyun's 2002 short film My Nike, Film It Suda CEO Jang Jin gave him a new project: to direct an adaptation of one of his successful stage plays Welcome to Dongmakgol. The final script was the result of 18 months of brainstorming between Jang, Park, and Visual Supervisor Kim Joong.
It was only supposed to cost around 4 billion Won, as there were no big stars, mostly actors from or acquainted with Jang's Suda family through their past work. But filming and post-production CGI took much longer than expected, and the budget skyrocketed to 8 billion Won, putting Jang's company in trouble: for a small production company like Film It Suda failing with this film would have been catastrophic.
Park had been a big fan of Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki's work since he watched Future Boy Conan as a child. And one of Miyazaki's most important collaborators was composer Joe Hisaishi. Park liked Hisaishi so much he wrote the script thinking about his music, visualizing the scenes in his mind while listening to his past work. During pre-production, producer Lee Eun-ha asked Park who the best music director for the project would be, and he didn't hesitate a moment, saying "Joe Hisaishi." Lee then wrote a very heartfelt letter to Hisaishi, explaining their situation and translating the script in Japanese for him. Hisaishi accepted the proposal, later stating that he was moved by the enthusiasm and sincerity in the letter, choosing Welcome to Dongmakgol as his first ever Korean film.
Read more about this topic: Welcome To Dongmakgol
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