Song Il Gook Reveals His Hardships Filming a Movie Surrounding the Story of a Child’s Death

On October 9, director Lee Don Gu’s film, “Entangled,” was featured at the 19^th Busan International Film Festival for the category “The Today of Korean Films – Vision.” On this day, “Entangled” was shown and a conversation with the audience also took place. At the event, actor Song Il Gook and actress Do Ji Won accompanied director Lee Don Gu.

Though Song Il Gook gained a stronger image as a father from KBS’ variety program “Superman Returns,” he still returned to the big screen as a charismatic actor. “Entangled” is a film about a mother living with her two daughters and son-in-law. The film starts off with an incident—the death of the woman’s newborn grandchild born between her first daughter and her son-in-law. The mother is played by actress Kim Young Ae, the first daughter by actress Do Ji Won, the second daughter by Kim So Eun, and the son-in-law by Song Il Gook.

Though it wasn’t a dominant role in the movie, Song Il Gook revealed that he immediately decided upon appearing in this film because he was so taken by the director’s previous work. The actor also revealed that he felt much discomfort with the situation of a child’s death. In his interview, he said, “I was at unease with the story. I have not one or two, but three infants at home. Because of this, the story [dealing with a child’s death] made me feel uncomfortable, but the atmosphere on the set of filming was so great that I was able to overcome it.”

With regards to the director and his casting decision, Song Il Gook said, “To be honest I was quite surprised by the director’s previous film, ‘Fatal.’ The rookie actors did so well. I think that also has to do with the director’s skills, seeing that he made such a movie with complete rookies. But when I first saw him I kind of changed my mind. He looked so nice, innocent, and kind of weak. He would be doing a film with me, Kim Young Ae, and Do Ji Won. Doing a movie is also a battle of mental energy between the director and the actors, and I worried that he would be so overwhelmed by our energy that he wouldn’t be able to do well.” He continued, “But on the actual set when filming I saw that he could do it, even confronting senior Kim Young Ae. I was very surprised. I learned a lot, from senior Kim Young Ae’s acting, as well as from director Lee Don Gu’s directing abilities.”

Meanwhile, “Entangled” is a 94-minute film directed by Lee Don Gu, who has gained much praise through his full length film “Fatal.”