Ku Hye Sun continues to create through art, music, movie and novel and more. Ku Hye Sun says that she wants to talk about love in her works. What is LOVE in her mind? She does not define love direcctly but defines it more symbolically and abstractly.
In commemoration of publication of Ku Hye Sun’s novel, Peach Tree, a meeting with the author event was held in Accompany Cafe of Seoul’s YiHwa-dong. 20 people met with the author on Nov. 27th. Due to limited seating, many applicants had to be turned down. 132 applied through YES24, 68 through INTERPARK, 16 through Internet KyoBo Books, 18 through Aladin. Basically, there was 1 in 10 chance in becoming a participant for the event.
Peach Tree is her second novel. Her movie under the same title also recently came out. It is a story about Siamese twins who has one body and two faces. Fearing the outside world’s prejudice, the twins’ father raised the sons in seclusion for 30 years. Sanghyun complied with the condition while Donghyun hoped for contact with the world and aspired to become a novelist. Father determines to help Donghyun and asks SeungAh’s help with illustration. In the movie, Jo Seung Woo acted as SangHyun, Ryu Deok Hwan as DongHyun and Nam Sang Mi as SeungAh.
Her movie received much attention because she wrote the scenario and directed the movie and because of the famous stars appearing in her movie. However, it did not become a box office hit. According Korean Film Council on Nov.28th, Peach Tree was watched by total of 33,884 people. It is a disappointing figure.
If we examine, Ku Hye Sun as a director, composer and writer did not succeed in a big way so far. Neverthless, Ku Hye Sun never ceased to create from multi-directcion. Where does her drive to create come from? At this event, not only the book but many different themes were discussed. This tea-time event was carried out in this style: readers wrote out their questions (on stickies) and the mc Lee EunMi read them out loud and Ku Hye Sun answered them.
I wrote Peach Tree in 2 weeks
As this event celebrated the publication of the novel, talk about the novel appeared first. It is Ku Hye Sun’s creativity that created Siamese twins with one body and two faces. Such an instance is hard to find in real life. Even if it many exist, they cannot live long. Ku Hye Sun says that she came up with the concept in her dream.
Then, Ku Hye Sun revealed her habit of creativity. It takes her a long time to conceive her project/work. However, once she starts to write, she tends not to stop until it is completed. Peach Tree was finished in 2 weeks. Sitting at her desk, the kind of concentration she can exert seems unique but can also cause problems. It affected her health. Recently she went to an emergency room. The x-ray showed that her waist is not straight (curved, bent, etc.). It is all due to working too long and hard at her desk.
Ku-onardo DaVinci, her next challenge is marriage
People call her ‘Ku-onardo DaVinci’. It is named after Leonardo DaVinci who, as an artist, machinist, sculptor, and thinker, pulled Italy into Renaissance era. It is a nickname that may fit Ku Hye Sun who works her crafts from multi-direction, but some internet users use it with underlying belittling sarcasm. It is because she has not yet clearly accomplished success in the areas other than her acting. Does she have any anxiety and stress about that?
“People think that I must have been given lots of chances because I am Ku Hye Sun. For it/works to make it to the public, it takes lots of capital. Even so, I did not accept any help. I cannot say anything really succeeded even though I worked at so many things. Only loss/damage occurred. But, it is OK. Right now, what I am doing is giving myself opportunities and forgiving. Some people do not acknowledge me as writer and director. There is no need to work to only to get acknowledged. When I look at my mom, not only is she a chef and homemaker, she is a superwoman. My father is too. When I was coming out, he was putting on paint. Why would he do that? It is very important to give oneself the opportunities.”
Granting a chance to oneself is what Ku Hye Sun said. In the future, in what else is she going to challenge herself? She says she has not made any plans. She has been drawing and composing even before she was 20-year-old. She says she has experienced many trials and errors for the past 10 years and experienced much damages and losses. She gave herself homework not to incur so much more losses in the future. Even so, people still begged her about her next challenge. She picked marriage.
My child has to give a speech in front of me at the end of each month
She says that she ponder about marriage and child-rearing once in a while. She was asked as to how she would raise her child. She answered:
“When my child is able to speak and the ego starts to develop, everyday, I will ask the child to speak about and present his/her vision for life: how will he live and how much he will strive for it. Such training is important. Among my friends, one grew up in such an environment. He/she now has amazing depth of emotion. If s/he sees stray or abandoned animals, s/he cannot just leave them there. One time, my parents asked this friend, how are you going to live like that? My friend said, “this is my driving force for life.” I believe that a person has to be very firm about one’s attitude and philosophy about life. I am going to start when the child is about 6 years old. At the end of each month, my child will submit and present what he plans to do. It is an important skill to be able to present in front of others. I once made a 3 second appearance in a Hollywood movie called August Rush. I was surprised to find that the children are so comfortable and skilled at speaking and presenting in front of others. Just before the filming started, they had to make presentations (maybe auditions??) We may feel so embarrassed and could not do it, but they felt they did not have enough time to talk. 7 and 8 year-old children were talking about why they like chocolate for 10 minutes. If we practice talking in front of others, we are going to know what we like and what we want to do.”
We met Ku Hye Sun who emphasized the importance of having one’s own philosophy. But we also met the down to earth and simple Ku Hye Sun as well. She was asked to name three most important things in her life: Family, all the dogs and fateful meetings and connections with people. She was also asked about her little make-up yet beautiful appearance. Ku Hye Sun said, “I put tons of effort into trying to look good. I just look like I don’t.” She also said that the reason that she may look like she did not put any time and effort into her appearance is that she is lazy. She added that people who look like they put time and effort into their looks are very diligent.
I don’t know what love is, but I want to be free/liberated
“When your heart flutters, is that love? It can be. It is hard for me to see my sister carrying heavy bags from food shopping. I want to go and hold them for her. My heart is not fluttering at that moment but I know that is love. On the other hand, if I am holding heavy load and meet a man, I feel kind of neglected. My sister does not feel neglected if I don’t go and help her with the load. But, if I want to hold the heavy load for someone, does that indicate that I love that person? I ponder about these things a lot. When my concept and notions about love become more firmly established, I think I will be happier. Right now, I enjoy my time with my dog and cat instead of meeting someone. Dog is one year old and the cat is about 4~5 month old but they love each other. They allow each other to take time drinking from the bowl and they sleep together hugging each other. They don’t communicate well with each other (laughter). I like observing my dog and cat and I am happy just being alive.”
Happiness in the moment is all good but as an artist, Ku Hye Sun must have some type of ideal. What is the destination that Ku Hye Sun seeks? She said, it is “freedom/ lliberation/emacipation”. In this country of capitalism, it is hard to work without any capital. Her goal is to be free from such a realistic constraint. She lives in a world where art and capitalism coexist. But she feels that people are more important. She knows that she is in an impossible territory of reality, but she is in the process of trying to reach as close as possible to that land of emancipation. To reach that goal, she vowed to the readers that she will continue to work hard.
Translation: cheerkoo @ soompi
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