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Oldboy director Park Chan-wook has shot his latest dark-tinged opus with the Apple iPhone 4. The phone’s 720p camera was employed to shoot nightmarish short Paranmanjang for cinema release.
Paranmanjang is a half-hour film that tells the story of a middle-aged man who lands a woman’s body while fishing one night, only for the pair to become entwined between life and death. The title is Korean for “ups and downs”, which may refer to the events of the film — or to the iPhone’s reception.
iPhones were used to scout locations, film auditions, and shoot the film and an accompanying documentary. The short’s £84,000 budget was part-financed by South Korean phone network KT Corp, which has the exclusive rights to the iPhone in that country.
Manga-inspired, squid-guzzling, hammer-wielding, incest fairytale Oldboy won the Cannes Grand Prize in 2004. If you’re a fan of the film, you may be pleased to hear the rumoured US remake is probably dead, after Steven Spielberg and Will Smith lost interest.
Aspiring iPhone auteurs could take advantage of the Steadicam Smoothee for iPhone to keep shots smooth like a smart-phone Scorcese. We’ve seen an episode of House shot on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and an
OK Go music video filmed on a Samsung NX100.
We’ve even seen 8-minute short The Commuter, starring Dev Patel and Pamela Anderson, filmed with a Nokia N8. Certainly cheaper than the Red Epic favoured by Peter Jackson.
Paranmanjang will open in cinemas in Korea from 27 January.
