A South Korean director has teamed up with Apple to create a short film shot entirely on one of the latest iPhones.
The 21-minute Life is But a Dream, directed by Oldboy’s Park Chan-wook, is part fantasy, part martial arts and part musical.
It uses pansori (a traditional Korean musical narrative) and madanggeuk (a traditional Korean outdoor play) to tell a supernatural tale that features both a ghost wedding and funeral.
The story, shot on the iPhone 13 Pro, follows an undertaker (Yoo Hai-jin) who digs up an abandoned grave to steal a coffin for a warrior (Kim Ok-vin) who died saving a village.
He accidentally awakens the ghost of an ancient swordsman (Park Jeong-min). When the ghost tries to take back its coffin, it rouses the warrior’s spirit as well. The two fight over the coffin before eventually deciding to get married and share it.
“It’s not easy to dive deeper into genre experiments in a full-length feature film because it costs a lot of money and there is a lot of pressure. When making short films, I have creative freedom,” director Park said during an online press conference.
Park is best known for his feature films such as Oldboy, Thirst and The Handmaiden, but he has continued to make short movies even after his success at the box office.
“In 2011, my brother [Park Chan-kyong] and I made a 33-minute long film, Night Fishing, on an iPhone 4. I have great memories about working on a short film, and they motivate me to keep making more short films,” he said. Night Fishing won the Golden Bear for best short film at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. (SCMP)
