Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512183
132 M PS E . O R G Sisters (2003) which is one of my favorite Asian horror movies. Can you talk a bit about that project? RTY: It was a horror movie directed by Kim Jee-woon that I worked on about 20 years ago. This movie is a modern interpretation by director Kim Jee-woon based on the classic Korean legend story. I had already done a wrestling comedy movie called The Foul King before with him, so it was our second collaboration. Kim lent me several Japanese horror films for sound references but they actually didn't serve as a reference for this movie as I just designed the sounds how I felt they should be. It is a horror film, but the concept was that the emotional score of Lee Byung-woo shouldn't feel like horror at all. The music was designed to express the sad lyricism of the two sisters who listen while the horrors are seen visually. I then designed the hit & rising sound effects and the drone sound effects so that they would creep through the floor and flow along the ceiling of the theater—and they were designed to work without music. This movie was one of best of the films I did in the early 2000s and it won the Sound Award at the Korean Film Awards that year. PA: It has some wonderful dynamics and a lot of really creepy abstract sounds—how do you create a sonic palette for a project like that? Korean horror movies have become a phenomenon in itself. Do you have a specific approach when doing sound for horror? RTY: My approach to creating those palettes starts with a number of musical instruments. The envelope graph of every instrument in the world is similar to the response of the human ear and has a lot of characteristics of certain familiar sounds, and I seem to be very interested in the tone and pitch of these instruments. My musical background also has helped a lot, and I often recognize and process the pitch of sound effects as musical notes, so during the mixing process I keep continuously changing the pitch of sounds using the pitch shift plugin. PA: I see that you've also worked several times with director Na Hong-jin. The Wailing (Gokseung) was also a movie I loved. So wild and imaginative. Did you also work on that one? Could you talk about your collaboration? RTY: Yes, I worked with director Na Hong-jin on Chaser (Chugyeokja) and Yellow Sea (Hwanghae). But I decided not to work with him again because of his bad attitude toward others. I think a lot of people in film sound have probably experienced something like this at some point. Na Hong-jin was the worst person in my entire movie life. So, I didn't work on the movie The Wailing (Gokseong). The request for mixing work was received, but I refused. PA: When you look back at your career, which are some of your favorite experiences? RTY: My favorite experience is to communicate well with the people I work with, be considerate of each other, and work happily. First of all, projects that adhere well to a set schedule, have few modifications to the director's editing, and respect my sound imagination and creative ideas that have doubled my ability. The projects that have most of these characteristics are Bong Joon Ho's projects, and his projects are just neat. Personally, I loved the sound work of Parasite, Memories of Murder, and Mother. PA: What's coming up next for you? RTY: I just finished a Hollywood film, Mickey 17, director Bong Joon-ho's new film to be released next year. It was a very interesting movie, and the sound was very unique, so I enjoyed working on it. This movie was a project that I worked on directly with a major Hollywood film system and it was very interesting and enjoyable. Ralph with director Bong Joon-ho, winners of the Golden Reel Award for Outstanding Sound Editing of the Foreign Feature Film Parasite (2019).