Rough Cut (2008 film)

Rough Cut
South Korean Poster

Korean name
Hangul	영화 는 영화다
Hanja	映畫는 映畫다
Revised Romanization	Yeonghwaneun yeonghwada
McCune–Reischauer	Yŏnghwanŭn yŏnghwada

Directed by	Jang Hoon
Written by	Kim Ki-duk
Produced by	Kim Ki-duk David Cho
Starring	So Ji-sub Kang Ji-hwan
Cinematography	Kim Gi-tae
Music by	Roh Hyoung-woo
Production companies	Showbox Sponge Entertainment Kim Ki-duk Film
Distributed by	Studio 2.0
Release date	September 11, 2008 (2008-09-11)
Running time	113 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	₩650 million^[1] US$1.5 million^[2]
Box office	US$7.2 million^[3]

Rough Cut (Korean: 영화는 영화다; lit. "A Movie is a Movie") is a 2008 South Korean action film. It is the debut feature of director Jang Hoon and based on an original story by Kim Ki-duk. The film had a total of 1,307,688 admissions nationwide.^[4]

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Transcription

Synopsis

Gang-pae, played by So Ji-sub, is a local organized crime leader who still wishes he could be in movies. Soo-ta, played by Kang Ji-hwan, is a haughty actor who is easy to provoke. Within his latest film, where he plays a gangster, he gets into the role too much and sends one of the stuntmen to the hospital. The two men meet by chance at a room salon and Soo-ta enlists Gang-pae to join the production. But this real-life gangster will only join the production if the fights are real. The two main characters continue to try and one-up the other every chance they get.

Cast

So Ji-sub as Gang-pae (gangster)
Kang Ji-hwan as Jang Soo-ta (actor)
Hong Soo-hyun as Kang Mi-na (actress)
Park Soo-young as Chief Lee
Ko Chang-seok as Director Bong (director)
Song Yong-tae as Chairman Park
Jang Hee-jin as Eun-sun (Soo-ta's girlfriend)

Blurring of real and fake

Since this film crosses back and forth between being an actual movie and a movie within a movie, the lines get blurred as to which the audience is watching. Examples:

The character name Soo-ta (수타) is a parody of 스타 meaning "(movie) star" in Korean. And the character name Gang-pae (강패) is a parody of 깡패 which means "gangster" in Korean.
Choreographed fights become "real" and a "real" fight turns out to be planned but is however "real".
The actual movie script for Rough Cut is shown being read and held several times by rehearsing characters and crew within the film.
Numerous members of the actual crew, including the producer and editor, are seen in the film as "crew members".
Various movie posters can be seen including Time also written by Kim Ki-duk and an early draft of a Rough Cut poster, which is the same image on the cover of the scripts.
The "real" arrest of a bloodied Gang-pae for a recent murder turns out to be in image from a film shown in a theater right before the actual credits roll.