D-Wars screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival

In a recent interview with director Shim Hyng Rae for “D-Wars” which was screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Rae discussed a few challenges the film faced.  Here is an excerpt from an interview by Ikuko Kitagawa:

The film production system in the United States is different than that of South Korea. While every procedure has to be authorized in the United States, guerrilla filmmaking is sometimes condoned in his home country, Shim said. Of course, Shim was persuaded not to bring real tanks and armor cars into downtown Los Angeles.

“I fired the person [who dissuaded me], and wrote a letter to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, ‘It’s not fair to control filmmaking–the United States is the country of movies,’” he said.

Shim got the OK from the governor, reportedly becoming the first director after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States to be given permission to film a large-scale battle in central Los Angeles. But Shim also had to apologize to local residents for the noise and vibrations, as he had been authorized to bring arms, not shoot them.

“The residents were complaining directly to me. But since I didn’t understand what they are saying in English, I never thought they were complaining to me…So I just said ‘Thank you,’” he said.

more