The Warrior’s Way is the first film by Korean professor Sngmoo Lee. It stars Korean sensation Jang Dong-gun as an assassin in the old west. Combining swordfights and gunslinging, Lee creates a cinematic historical fantasy on green screen. Lee and Jang came to the states for interviews, assisted by translators.
Coming to America:
Jang Dong-gun: Obviously the scale is very different. It’s much larger so the crew is much larger, but on the set while we’re shooting, I think that there were more similarities than differences because we have a common goal of working on this one film, so the passion that we felt on the set is pretty much the same whether it’s an American film or a Korean film.
The teacher becomes the student:
Sngmoo Lee: What I’ve taught was all wrong. Just don’t believe what I said. It’s all bullsh*t. No, no, no. Even though I was a teacher, I was on the practical side of teaching so what I did was just make short films together, rather than just lecturing something. So I was not teaching history or anything. There was a continuous, for me, this was also an educational experience for me making this film. What I’ve been teaching at school was very helpful for me to realize, less hassle, less problems on the set because I have seen the other students make mistakes and I didn’t want to repeat it on the set. It was very helpful.
The western and samurai influences:
Sngmoo Lee: Just a bunch of films like Shane or Sergio Leone and Peckinpah. When I first showed my script to one of my producers, they said, “Wow, this is a Fellini meets Peckinpah kind of film.” I feel honored they mentioned that name. Peckinpah and Leone are of course very important influences for me. Kurasowa is also. What I wanted to do was Peckinpah’s film and Kurosawa’s film in today’s definition is just a sword fighting movie and gun fighting movie but it goes much beyond that. It’s a beautiful piece of art work. What I aimed was to give enough entertainment to the audience, yet create this good tradition of Hollywood cinema where the entertainment was an art form, not just popcorn action movie. That’s why it took a little bit longer than I thought but that’s what’s rewarding about the project.
Sword fighting in the old west:
Jang Dong-gun: I do a lot of action sequences in the film but I think the one scene I really had to work for and that was difficult to do was the scene with Kate [Bosworth]. The scene I was doing with Kate is very intricate. Yes, we are doing martial arts but it was almost like dancing the Tango. So there was a lot of choreography that we had to memorize. We both tried not to get hurt and I think Kate doesn’t have that much experience doing martial arts but she did a great job.
Home cooking in Hollywood:
Jang Dong-gun: The production staff had Korean food ready all the time so it was a great help. I didn’t have to worry about what to eat. Towards the end, I think the other staff members who were non Koreans actually started lining up on the Korean food side.
A Korean Clint Eastwood?
Jang Dong-gun: Yes, a lot of people said after they saw me in the film that I look like Clint Eastwood frowning, very similar. Because this wasn’t shot outdoors, it was shot indoors but I had to think about how would I look if there’s all this sunlight in the desert when it’s very bright. So I did think of Clint Eastwood and I used to watch a lot of his films when I was younger.
Jang’s favorite Eastwood film:
Jang Dong-gun: Fistful of Dollars.
