Actor Park Shin-yang has returned to the screen for the first time in 11 years since ‘Gangdal Park’ in 2013. ‘Three Days’ is his first occult horror film in 28 years since his debut in 1996.

‘Three Days’, which will be released on November 14, is an occult horror film that depicts what happens when an exorcism is performed to prevent the demon from waking up in the heart of a dead daughter on the third day of her funeral.

At a press conference and distribution preview held at CGV Yongsan I-Park Mall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 12th, Park Shin-yang explained why it took him 11 long years to choose a new film, saying, “Until now, I‘ve mainly appeared in dramas, and recently I’ve been focusing on exhibiting my paintings. ”Both dramas and paintings require a (relatively) long time, and movies are a genre that requires more concentration and intensity, so I think it will take a long time,“ he said.

”Three Days“ is his first time challenging the occult horror genre, and he honestly said, ”Actually, I wasn‘t that interested in the occult genre,“ and ”I didn’t intentionally look for movies in this genre or think it was good material.“ However, he added, ”That‘s why I studied this genre intensively (for a short period of time) while doing this movie. I found it very interesting as I focused on looking for occult movies.“

He also said, ”In the occult genre in particular, I had to express emotions that were different from the emotions I’ve acted out so far. Usually, in movies, the other person appears as a clearly visible being, but in the occult mystery genre, it seems to be more effective when they are maximized as an invisible being. So I thought a lot about and had doubts about how to make an invisible being big. He added, “We had about 100 10-hour meetings. We put that much effort into it.”
He also mentioned how this film is different from the typical occult genre. “The scenario that included the occult genre and the human drama dealing with the heartbreaking emotions of a father and a daughter was the most interesting,” he said. “I thought that the occult genre was not a suitable genre for dealing with human drama, which made this film even more interesting. However, when it came to making this film, there were no references to draw on. That’s why it was difficult to make that story a reality, but that made it more fun.”

Meanwhile, director Hyun Moon-seop, who directed the film, said about casting Park Shin-yang, who had never acted in the occult genre, “Isn’t he a veteran in acting in any genre? I asked him to do it because I thought he would suit the occult genre well, and I thought he would be able to express emotions such as fatherly love well. On set, I think he really did a good job of expressing the process in which the main character, who was a rational doctor, becomes shaken and goes crazy in order to save his daughter. I am grateful for his passionate acting despite the difficult genre,” he said, expressing satisfaction.


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com