On May 8, a talk session with KAIST students and the renowned movie director Ryoo Seung-Wan was held at Terman Hall of the Creative Learning Building (E11). The talk was a two-hour long question-and-answer session with the audience, during which the director freely discussed about his life and views on being a movie director. Director Ryoo is a renowned Korean movie director, who recently produced the action blockbuster Berlin last year. His notable film productions include The City of Violence, The Unjust, and Dachimawa Lee. He also acted in featured Korean films, such as Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Oasis.

Director Ryoo first gave a talk about life as an artist and as a director in the Korean film industry. “I think art has its intrinsic value in raising good questions. Rather than just giving you the answers, it asks the question why.” He mentioned that people are always busy with their everyday lives, yet art can provide people the momentary space to pace themselves. “Enjoying art, such as watching movies in your free time, can bring hope when times are hard.” He also explained his view that everyday images can be an object of art. “I even find old ladies arduously delivering meals in the Korean alleyway markets beautiful. As hard as their life may be, they are living their lives as they go and I find something artistic in that.”

The work of making movie scripts was shortly explained at the session as well. He emphasized that movie scripts are similar to a blueprint in a building construction project. “Huge investments are made just to film one movie. To distribute and spend the budget in the right way, I have to consider all the details in all the action scenes. That’s why I usually refer to two different scripts, of which the second one has more detailed descriptions.”

The two-hour culture session was the latest of the KAIST Library’s Cultural Planning series. First held since 2011, the series is organized by the Office of Academic Information and the KAIST Library to conduct lectures on arts, culture, and literature. Past lecturers in the series included book authors, literary critics, and columnists.