(Korean Movies) i Can Speak, 2017

4 years from planning to production! The <I Can Speak> project started to convey the sincerity!
CJ Cultural Foundation Winner of the Japanese Military 'Comfort Women' Victim Scenario Contest (2014)
1st Film Promotion Committee Selected for Family Film Production Support (2015)
A heavy story in the human comedy genre!
<I Can Speak> is a project that was completed after about 4 years of development, starting from the planning of CEO Kang Ji-yeon (from the perspective of the film company). <I Can Speak>, the winner of the contest for the Japanese military 'comfort women' victim scenario, organized by the CJ Cultural Foundation and sponsored by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, was selected through a competition ratio of 75:1, laying the foundation for its production. In particular, <I Can Speak> received favorable reviews from the judges, saying, "The Japanese military's approach to the 'comfort women' issue, which presupposes anger and sadness, through a grandmother who is the king of civil complaints, has been brightly twisted." It was also selected for film production support.

<I Can Speak>, which depicts the story of 'Okbun', the goblin king of civil complaints, and 'Minjae', a 9th-grade civil servant who is principled, is a stalker of two characters, which causes pleasant laughter among men and women of all ages. However, the atmosphere changed as the sincerity that 'Ok Boon' had been hiding for a long time was revealed, and the story of the 2007 US House of Representatives public hearing in 2007, which became the basis for this film, begins. The story of 2007, when HR121) was passed, was melted into the popular frame of human comedy and produced into a movie that anyone can watch together. <I Can Speak> illuminates the present of the Japanese military 'comfort women' victims and conveys the power to look back and move forward through her enterprising life attitude, who courageously testified in front of the world.

Actor Na Moon-hee, who plays the role of 'Ok-bun', is known to have accepted the role by empathizing with the value and meaning of the movie even before the script was completed. Next, Lee Je-hoon's unusual move in choosing <I Can Speak> also draws attention. In response, actress Na Moon-hee said, "I've always been very interested in the victims of the Japanese military 'comfort women'. During the "I Can Speak" exam, I said, 'I will do my part for the country, for the actors, and for the grandmothers of the Japanese military 'comfort women' victims. I am proud to be able to play 'Okbun'," he said, foretelling the sincere acting and emotion in the movie.

Moon-hee Na & Je-hoon Lee, a meeting of likeable actors that transcend generations!
A preview of sanggeuk chemistry completed with a fantastic acting ensemble!
In 2014's <Miss Granny>, actress Na Mun-hee took on the role of 'Mal-soon Oh', a seventy-year-old grandmother whose only brand boasting of her son, mobilizing about 8.65 million viewers, proving her best presence by captivating the theater district. Then, in the tvN drama [Dear My Friends], which was aired in 2016, she moved viewers by portraying the image of a mother of this age with realistic acting through the role of 'Moon Jung-ah', a 72-year-old dreaming tree around the world. In <I Can Speak>, a comeback film for the first time in three years since <Miss Granny>, Na Moon-hee has been visiting the ward office for 20 years and filing complaints every day for 20 years. It maximizes the charm of the character. “I feel proud that I can meet and act as a character called ‘Na Ok-bun’ even at this age.” Through "Speak", he will captivate audiences of all generations with the best character in his 56-year acting career.

Lee Je-hoon, who showed the best collaboration in <I Can Speak> with national actor Na Mun-hee, won the Daejong Film Festival and Blue Dragon Film Awards Rookie of the Year award one after another for <The Watchman>. > In addition to the dramas [Signal] and [Tomorrow With You], he has established himself as a leading actor in the acting class, crossing screens and CRTs. Actor Lee Je-hoon, who has been challenging various genres, appeared in <I Can Speak> as 'Park Min-jae', a principled 9th grade civil servant, and returned to life acting with details. Lee Je-hoon said, “As an actor, I decided to appear in <I Can Speak> because I wanted to give warm happiness to many people by becoming a medium. The way back from filming was always a happy project,” he said.

The best national actor Na Moon-hee and popular actor Je-hoon Lee met in a special priesthood relationship in <I Can Speak> and show off their perfect chemistry. As director Kim Hyun-seok said, “I had a taste of seeing the clash of two actors who are good at acting in different ways,” Na Moon-hee and Lee Je-hoon in the play are the best characters that transcend generations, sometimes as quarrelsome rivals and sometimes as affectionate like grandmothers and grandsons. show breathing.

Director Kim Hyun-seok, who has a warm gaze towards people, empathy, and delicate directing skills!
Bringing smiles and emotions that will captivate all generations!
Based on delicate and sophisticated storytelling, director Kim Hyun-seok <Kwang-shik's younger brother, Gwang-tae> <Cyrano; He created an irreplaceable 'Kim Hyun-seok's movie' that contains a warm gaze and sympathy for people such as Love Manipulators> and <Ce Si-Bong>.

In this movie <I Can Speak>, he has further strengthened his laughter and emotion that he showed in his previous work, attracting a wider audience. He expressed his intention to understand each other and paint a changing image.” He added detailed direction to the story of two characters who are completely different in gender, age, and personality, intertwined and communicated in English, raising the perfection of the film to the highest level. . Here, the friendliness of actor Na Moon-hee and the meticulousness of actor Lee Je-hoon, as well as the active use of the images the two actors have in the past, were also completed through communication with the actors to create a lovely and attractive character. Actor Na Moon-hee said, "The trust that director Kim Hyun-seok showed me made me want to express the character 'Ok-bun' really well. Thanks to this, I was able to immerse myself in acting and create better scenes.” Lee Je-hoon also said, “With director Kim Hyun-seok, a good movie was able to come out. I think this work, which was born with the director's delicate direction, can be a warm gift for many people."

From Park Chul-min to Yeom Hye-ran, Sung Yu-bin, Kim So-jin, Lee Sang-hee, Jeong Yeon-joo, Lee Ji-hoon and Son Sook
Various colors! Representative actors of all generations are in full force! The powerful Jo Yeon-jin with personality and acting skills!
Representative actors of all generations, who show off their various charms, mobilize for the movie <I Can Speak> and catch the eye. First, actress Yeom Hye-ran, who imprinted her presence on the public with the tvN drama [Goblin], played the role of ‘Jinju’s House’, the VIP of ‘Ok-bun’ in the play. In particular, Hye-ran Yeom, who made viewers cry by appearing in the drama [Dear My Friends] as a mother-daughter relationship with Na Mun-hee in the role of 'Ok-bun', appeared as a close neighbor of 'Ok-bun' in this <I Can Speak>, bringing pleasant laughter and deep tears. In addition, Sung Yu-bin, who appeared as Choi Min-sik's son 'Seok-i' in the movie <Daeho> and showed a confident side, disassembled as 'Young-jae', 'Min-jae''s younger brother, so that they can share their hearts with each other as a link between 'Ok-bun' and 'Min-jae'. help. In addition, Lee Sang-hee, Chungmuro Blue Chip, who won the Rookie of the Year award at the 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards with the movie <Love Story>, plays the role of 'Hye-jeong', the owner of a resilient pig's feet shop, consistently showing a confrontation with 'Ok-bun', making the story richer.

Meanwhile, Park Chul-min, who has been active as a unique licorice actor in [Moonlight Drawn by Clouds] and <Pirates: Bandits to the Sea>, took on the roles of 'Okbun', the king of civil complaints and 'Chief of both teams', in 'I Can Speak'. energize the play. In particular, Chul-Min Park is famous for <Kwang-Sik's younger brother, Gwang-Tae>, <Scout> and <Cyrano; They have appeared in every film directed by Kim Hyun-seok, such as "Love Manipulation Team", boasting a strong sense of trust between each other. Then, Jeong Yeon-joo, who showed off her prominence through [SNL Korea], shows off her four-dimensional charm that she doesn't know where to go, such as dashing to the blunt "Min-jae" in her own way. Lastly, Lee Ji-hoon, who made his face known through works such as <577 Project>, <Roller Coaster> and <Rogue: The World of Bad Guys>, plays the role of 'Jonghyun', who has a civil servant mind to the core, and falls like a loach when 'Jade' appears. Bringing a smile to your face.

In addition, Son Sook, the master of the theater industry, who returned to the screen after 2 years after <Homecoming>, appeared as 'Jeongsim', the best friend of 'Okbun', as well as fluent English. raised In addition, Kim So-jin, who was recognized for her acting skills by winning the Best Supporting Actress award at the 53rd Baeksang Arts Awards for her role as a prosecutor with a strong sense of justice in the movie <The King>, is delicately disassembled into the role of 'Geum-ju' helping the victims of the Japanese military 'comfort women' in the play. His sincere acting adds strength to the film's heavy message.

[ PRODUCTION NOTE ]

It has been 10 years since the U.S. Congress passed a resolution to apologize for “comfort women” (HR121).
The story of an unfinished Japanese military 'comfort women' grandmother!
From the Manchurian Incident (1931.18) until 1945, when the Japanese army was defeated in the Pacific War, the Japanese army installed comfort stations in the name of effectively carrying out the war. According to Yoshimi Yoshiaki, who has been studying “comfort women” in the Japanese military for a long time, it is estimated that at least 80,000 to 200,000 women are forced to mobilize, and more than half of them are Korean women. Nevertheless, the issue of 'comfort women' by the Japanese military, which did not receive public attention, began to surface in the early 1990s as the domestic women's movement grew and spread to many affected countries in Asia. The UN recommended that Japan find out the truth, apologize and compensate, and punish those responsible, but Japan ignored the recommendations and distorted the facts themselves. Accordingly, Korean and Chinese Koreans in the United States strongly raised the issue, and in 1997, the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Rep. Michael Honda, a Japanese-American, recognized the seriousness of the issue, and the resolution to apology 'comfort women' demanded an apology from the Japanese government (HR121). ) was submitted to Parliament. It took 10 years from submission of the resolution to unanimous passage of the resolution. At this time, the decisive moment that completely solidified the decision of the U.S. House of Representatives was the public hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives on February 15, 2007, the victims of Japanese military “comfort women” Lee Yong-su and Kim Gun-ja. It was my grandmother's testimony (adopted the resolution (HR121) to apologize for the 'comfort women' of the Japanese military on June 26, 2007).

The movie <I Can Speak> is the first Korean film to embody the scene of the hearings of the Japanese military 'comfort women' victims' grandmothers, who testified to the world about the realities and atrocities of the Japanese military 'comfort women'. Na Moon-hee's 'Okbun' is a Japanese military 'comfort women' victim who lives in the present and brings this unfinished problem to the surface once again. Also, at the time of the hearing, the desperation of 'Mitchell', which was dramatized based on the testimony of Jan Ruff Ohern, a victim of a Japanese military 'comfort woman' from the Netherlands who attended the hearing as a witness and cried in tears, is not just a problem limited to Korea. emphasize the The movie "I Can Speak", which started from the actual case in which the resolution to apologize for the "comfort women" (HR121) was passed through a public hearing in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2007 show hot

The highlight of the movie, the story behind the birth of the US Congressional Hearing scene!
From the actual location of the U.S. Congress, auditions for overseas actors took place over three months!
The scene of the U.S. Congressional public hearing, which can be said to be the highlight of <I Can Speak>, was filmed at the actual U.S. Congress rather than on set. To enhance the vivid sense of reality, the production team of "I Can Speak" wanted to invite the Washington legislature, where the actual testimonies of the Japanese military "comfort women" victims Lee Yong-su and Kim Gun-ja were held. However, due to the disadvantage of being spatially narrow, the production team had to contact the local location manager with Australia, Canada, and the United States as candidate sites, and find a place with a similar sense of space. In the meantime, the Virginia State Film Commission, who was impressed with the scenario of <I Can Speak>, actively cooperated, and was able to film it at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia.

Despite the tight schedule, the production team of <I Can Speak> put a lot of effort into casting as well as the location to capture the actual hearing scene in a more suspenseful and realistic way. Dozens of actors, including the chairman and lawmakers, who appear in the hearing scene were selected through a three-month audition through a local casting director in Virginia. Among them, Marty Terry, who plays the role of 'Mitchell', a victim of 'comfort women', a Dutch Japanese military 'comfort woman' who testifies in the parliament along with 'Ok Boon' in the movie, was cast among many applicants for her overwhelming acting skills. Even though the actor is 92 years old, it is said that he performed a passionate performance without NG with an amazing immersion ability and took control of the scene and drew applause from the staff. Actress Na Moon-hee, who plays the role of 'Ok-bun', who testifies after 'Mitchell' grandmother, perfectly digests long English lines in a space where the sense of presence is well reproduced, and 'Ok-bun' courageously shouts out the words that have been swallowed up for a long time to the world. ' delicately and confidently captured the emotional lines of '. Actor Lee Je-hoon, who watched the scene where Na Moon-hee, who plays 'Ok-bun', testified at the US Congressional hearing, said, "I thought it was the most important scene in our movie. It was a scene where I had to pour out a lot of English lines, but I was in a position where I had no choice but to cheer. However, Mun-hee Na prepared well and expressed it confidently, so I was moved to see her acting.”