Gu Hye-sun’s feature directorial debut, Magic, is now a week from its release, and the following is an interview from Movieweek featuring both her and her star, actress friend Seo Hyun-jin (who, by the way, was also featured in Gu’s short film The Madonna).The movie takes place at an arts high school and is set in the world of music; Seo and the two lead actors (Kim Jung-wook and Im Ji-kyu) play students and musicians. Gu explains that she got the idea for the movie two years ago, when she went to a concert by cellist Song Young-hoon. She’d always wanted to do a music-themed movie and the lead character was originally a guitarist, but she changed that to a cellist after seeing the performance.Gu’s next acting role will be as an aspiring musical actress in The Musical. Her next project behind the camera is a “vampire romance,” a film project she is currently writing and will direct. Magic opens on June 24.I’ve seen a few reviews of Magic in the Korean press and the verdict is… mixed. They tend to praise the film’s visual quality but not so much the writing. Here’s a review in English from The Korea Times for the curious.Now on to the Movieweek interview:Director Gu Hye-sun & Seo Hyun-jin: “We get along really well”You worked together on the short film The Madonna. Did you become good friends then?Gu Hye-sun: “We were good friends before we started working together on it.”Seo Hyun-jin: “We had friends in common, so as we all met together, we became friendly.”Then somewhere along the line, you ditched the others and became friends?Seo: “That’s right. [Laughs]”Gu: “When we’re going through difficulties, we talk together.”
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