Cold Eyes was originally a Hong Kong film. It was redirected by Jo Ui-Seok and Kim Byeong-Seo and released in 2013. The film is about a police surveillance team who identified, monitored, and chased an armed robbery group and a leader named James. Most of the scenes were shot in the city center of Seoul. According to director Kim, he tried to differentiate Seoul from Hong Kong, where the city is highly dense. Amongst many places in the film, I selected
Cheonggyecheon since it is a crucial place in a film. After the robbery group failed to rob Korea Stock Exchange, James waited for his group members’ contact in Cheonggyecheon. At the same time, a surveillance team localized a leader’s location based on telephone tracking. A male police protagonist looked down on Cheonggyecheon from Gwantong bridge in order to identify a target, while a female police protagonist was from Mojeon bridge.
Many governments and large enterprise offices are located around Cheonggyecheon. Therefore, Cheonggyecheon serves as a resting promenade for the nearby workers. Not only nearby office workers but also many publics use this promenade. From Gwangtong bridge, I looked down on Cheonggyecheon. The place was almost empty. I felt like it was pretty peaceful and quiet. However, in a film, there were many crowds (mobile elements). The place in a film looks less spatial. As a result, a target can mix with ordinary citizens to conceal his identity. The site was presented in a grey-green tone, giving depressed and cool images. In addition, directors intend to express chasers’ cold eyes on a target. Skyscrapers surround Cheonggyecheon, but in film, it was not emphasized. Directors show a view of male police protagonist from Gwangtong bridge, a female police protagonist from Mojeon bridge and James who sat on a bench in Cheonggyecheon. This montage can intensify the tensions between James and the two police protagonists. It helps audiences to immerse into a movie. The camera angle in a scene is top-down. When a robbery group robbed the place including a bank and an accounting firm, a leader James instructed on the top of the nearby buildings and delivered the outside situations to his team members who robbed inside. In a Cheonggyecheon scene, it seems that James is observed on the bottom from the top(bridges).
The reason why the place in film was presented in this way is to depict the place where the police chased a criminal. By doing so, the normal promenade where citizens relax is converted into the place which is full of tensions between chasers and people being chased.
Lee Ganghyeok 3035835301
Could you explain why Cold Eyes was originally a Hong Kong film? It seems to me that it was set in Korea. I appreciate the photos you have taken to contrast with the movie scene. Nonetheless, I would suggest you use more images to illustrate the contrasts you observed. You have also made some film technique analyses with regard to the space. Perhaps you may utilize a few concepts that we have come across in class to anchor your piece?