The Painter of the Wind

Source: Twitch

Moon Geun-Young Injured, 바람의 화원 (Painter of the Wind) Shoot Halted
Posted by X at 8:05am.
Posted in TV , Asia.



It must have been quite exciting, Korean Tv in the 1970s. Although you had landmark exceptions like 수사반장 (Inspector Chief), most TV dramas were shot on a sound stage, and broadcast live, as if we were dealing with a play. That might be one of the reasons why so many veteran TV actors are so good when it comes to reaction acting, after all those years of training on the spot. But the TV landscape of the 1970s is peculiarly resembling today’s TV circus in Korea, the “생방 (live broadcast)” shoot syndrome one of its most sinister symptoms.

Although the situation varies from country to country, you usually see a TV production secure funding and go through casting (or viceversa), complete its shoot or at least the vast majority of it, and then broadcast. But in Korea, where a drama can go belly up just because it fails to enter a broadcaster’s lineup, timing is everything. Projects might take even a couple of months to get the green light, but always wait in standby, until the timeslot has been secured, after which shooting starts. This means most miniseries only shoot between 4 and 8 episodes before broadcast starts, and that’s where problems begin. Shooting fast and editing even quicker is not really the problem (Koreans doing rather well by now): the issue is the script. With so much attention paid to ratings, the idea of starting with a completed script (or something to that extent) is only something the greats can do, think a Jung Ha-Yeon or Noh Hee-Kyung. The rest, even the talented ones, end up facing the nightmare of 쪽대본 (paper scripts) sooner or later. That is, scripts written on the fly, sent to the shooting location via fax or e-mail, trying to stick to the original synopsis yes, but often adapted to various production issues, such as the need to bloat every episode up to a ridiculous 70 to 80 minutes (the current trend, but some are even touching the 90 minutes), just to take full advantage of ad revenue. Which, in turns, hurts both the acting and the drama itself.

Sometimes you have third-party production companies interfering with last-minute casting decisions, even if they could end up killing narrative flow. That is what writer Yoo Dong-Yoon of 왕과 나 (The King & I) had to endure, after SBS and Olive9 used the sageuk as their personal rating toy, adding useless characters and making a very promising drama turn into a fat, slow and plodding dinosaur, which barely saved itself at the last minute. Sometimes it’s a problem of planning itself, like what the producers of 스포트라이트 (Spotlight) ended up doing, forcing someone like Lee Gi-Won (who writes well, but slowly) to adapt to these insane production speeds, and some say even asking him to rethink narrative directions because of low ratings, the reason why he resigned mid-flight and left the project to his assistant writers for the second half. What this craze generally does is only ruining dramas, but sometimes there’s something a little more dangerous at stake. A few years ago, 늑대 (Wolf) halted production after Eric Moon and Han Ji-Min went through an injury during a shoot, and this nightmare risked a nefarious deja-vu when Chae Si-Ra, star of the upcoming sageuk 천추태후 (Empress Cheonchu), fell off her horse during training. The situation was managed rather well, extending 대왕세종 (Sejong the Great) by five episodes, taking advantage of the various preemptions during the Olympics and whatnot, and finally getting to a point (now) where normality has been re-established and shooting is back to on course. Sadly, that doesn’t always work.

I spared no praise for SBS’ new fusion sageuk 바람의 화원 (Painter of the Wind), and there is a good reason for that. It’s full of wonderful, well researched details; it has an irresistible elegance and great music, top of the line CG and the kind of cinematography and narrative flow that at times turn this show into visual poetry. Moon Geun-Young is doing a superb job, the veterans are predictably great, and Park Shin-Yang is showing a kind of eclectic charm despite this not exactly being the right delivery for the genre; but also lesser actors like the inexperienced Moon Chae-Won and Park Jin-Woo somehow seem to make it. The praise should go to newcomer writer Lee Eun-Young, who’s adapting the novel wonderfully despite slightly deviating from it, and particularly PD Jang Tae-Yoo, who allegedly threw two months of shoot in the trash just because young Moon had completely immersed herself in the role after a while, so he decided to reshoot the earlier, a tad more “rustic” parts. There’s even a touch of history beyond details, which looks to grow even stronger in the coming months, as the mystery of Yoon-Bok’s father and his death get tied to the Prince Sado affair. Problem now is that Moon Geun-Young was injured during the shoot.

It’s nothing really serious, just a broken nose which will take about 10 days of rest, and will bring her back in front of the camera in two weeks. But of course this spells trouble for the production, which decided not to broadcast episode 7 and 8 next week, replaced by a few specials (which will apparently feature some new scenes), and it’s likely the week after might be at risk as well. Some “journalists” are speculating about paper scripts being the major culprit, but with a very solid synopsis already covering 15 episodes, and the foundation the novel gives you, I’d be very surprised if this was the problem. Biggest issue might be PD Jang himself, way too much of a perfectionist to let a rushed production interfere with his work. But of course the most important issue is macroscopic, concerning the need to establish a new structure, allowing those who want to enough time to complete their shoot before broadcast. With the current system, it’s certainly not possible. Halting the shoot is certainly inevitable, and might even help the drama in ways that nothing else would: the show is currently lagging behind the annoying misfire 베토벤 바이러스 (Beethoven Virus) and the sageuk 바람의 나라 (Kingdom of the Wind). This latest happening might bring back some attention to the show, and increase the chances it might do better ratings in the future. Also, despite this impasse, it doesn’t look like it will harm the quality of the show in any way.

What the broadcasters need to realize before it’s too late, though, is that quality takes time, that ratings are a very elusive chimera—unless you submit to lowest-common-denominator sensibilities like 조강지처클럽 (The First Wives’ Club), that is—and that the safety of the performers comes first. The TV industry in Korea actually resembles a lot what is happening in Wall Street, with the only exception that the powers that be aren’t trying to find a solution to the problem together (or at least pretending to), they’re just taking out the swords and trying to slay each other for whatever is left of the pie. And you know what happens when two enemies start blowing up things on the same boat. They both drown....

Still, we wish a speedy recover to Moon Geun-Young, who’s doing a truly marvelous job, and hope Painter of the Wind continues to impress until the end.

-Daum
-Daum