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- Movie: Cyrano Agency
- Revised romanization: Shirano; Yeonaejojakdan
- Hangul: 시라노;연애조작단
- Director: Kim Hyeon-Seok
- Writer: Kim Hyeon-Seok
- Producer: Shim Jae-Myung
- Cinematographer: Kim Woo-Hyung
- Release Date: September 16, 2010
- Runtime: 117 min.
- Genre: Romantic-Comedy
- Distributor: Lotte Entertainment
- Language: Korean
- Country: South Korea
Plot Synopsis by AsianWiki Staff ©
The Cyrano Agency consists of four people from a theater troupe who offers a unique cupid service for lovelorn clients. The company intricately devises and implements schemes, custom tailored to match the interests of their intended target, for the ultimate goal of obtaining romance for their client. The boss and mastermind behind the agency is Byung-Hoon (Uhm Tae-Woong).
Things take a strange twist at the Cyrano Agency when a new client named Sang-Yong (Daniel Choi) enters their office. Sang-Yong is a straight-laced financial trader who is rather inept with personal relationships. He has fallen for a free spirited woman named Hee-Joong (Lee Min-Jung) and seeks out the Cyrano Agency's help. The boss for the Cyrano Agency, Byung-Hoon, then notices that Hee-Joong is his ex-girlfriend with whom he has really never gotten over ....
Notes
- Based on Edmond Rostand's play "Cyrano de Bergerac".
- "Cyrano Agency" opened #3 at the South Korean box office selling 265,553 tickets during its opening September 17 - 19, 2010 weekend. The movie then moved up to the #1 spot for the next three weeks. As of October 10, 2010, "Cyrano Agency" has sold a total of 2,172,786 tickets.
- "Cyrano Agency" appears in episode 8 of the MBC drama Mischievous Kiss, aka "Naughty Kiss," aka "Playful Kiss."
- Related titles:
- Cyrano Agency | Shirano; Yeonaejojakdan (2010)
- Dating Agency: Cyrano | Yeonaejojakdan: Shirano (tvN / 2013)
Cast
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Q&A with dir. Kim Hyeon-Seok, supporting actress Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung & supporting actor Park Cheol-Min
Q&A took place after a screening of "Cyrano Agency" at the
2011 Jeonju International Film Festival on April 29th. AsianWiki editor
Ki Mun was there and transcribed/translated the session.
- Audience Question (to director Kim Hyeon-Seok): “The scenario was written a long time ago. How did you first come up with the story?”
- Kim Hyeon-Seok: “The first scenario for the movie I wrote in my 20’s, which was about 17 years ago. At that time I was a student and in the military service. I thought a lot about dating. In particular, why woman I like do not like me back. So I wrote freely about that. For a long time the scenario was forgotten, because back then I didn’t have enough credits to direct a movie. So since that time, I went on to make several movies. In the 1990's, the production company had the rights to the movie, but they did not make the movie. So, eventually, the rights of the movie came to me. Before “Cyrano Agency,” I made “Scout,” but that movie wasn't very successful. Afterwards, I didn’t have any more scripts, so I decided to finally turn that original scenario into the movie “Cyrano Agency.” Only the basic framework of the movie was the same, everything else I changed. 2 years ago, I began to work on the movie adaptation and my emotions were dried compare to the time when i wrote the original script. So, I had to squeeze a lot of it out my brain.”
- Audience Question: “Was there a particular scene you emphasized on as a director?”
- Kim Hyeon-Seok: "I put the most effort into every scene. Comparing the original script to the final script for ‘Cyrano Agency,’ the thing that changed the most was that in my 20’s I had a fantasy of love - like I believed if I lived good, than i could meet a beautiful woman. But, years later, when I began the movie adaptation, my idea of love changed. Rather than “I love because I trust,” it became more like “I trust because I love”.
- Audience Question (to actress Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung & actor Park Cheol-Min): “Was there a scene which you put the most energy into?”
- Park Cheol-Min: “For me it was probably, ‘I don’t like somebody that ad-libs.’ As an actor, I am not good at memorizing lines, so it takes a lot of time and repetition. That kind of work is very boring and tiring, so i communicate with the director by changing lines. But, some directors hate this, which i did not understand. In the movie I played a writer and the writers put passion into each line. Now, I have a better appreciation of the writer’s point of view. For that scene, the director told me to go out one more time and on the second try, ‘I don’t like somebody that ad-libs’ just came out.
- Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung: “I didn’t understand Seon-Ah originally and how she came to love the character played by Song Sae-Byeok. I did try to make myself innocent & pure. I’m 29 years old, and at the time of the shooting i was 28 years old. I had to imagine myself as a much younger woman who feels the excitement of the unknown before falling in love.”
- Kim Hyeon-Seok: “I knew her acting was good and I also picked Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung because she looked great in a uniform. I made a romantic-comedy, but for me it’s more difficult to express female characters. I actually don’t know women, so I could only express what little I know about them. It was my fantasy that the male clients who pursued the female characters played by Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung and Lee Min-Jung would succeed.”
- Audience Question: (to director Kim Hyeon-Seok) “I like your movies 'When Romance Meets Destiny,' 'Scout' and 'Cyrano Agency.' In these movies, men are the main characters and they meet their past lovers. They then try to take back their past love. Is there a reason you like to shoot in this format?”
- Kim Hyeon-Seok: “I use emotions that I know most and familiar with, comfortable with. I did not actually know while shooting 'Cyrano Agency,' that my past films except 'YMCA Baseball Team' had the main male character trying to get back their past love. Even though these are romantic-comedies, the endings are not really happy endings, but to me they are happy endings. I didn’t compromise in this aspect and I liked the way those parts turned out.
- Audience Question: (to actor Park Cheol-Min) “You did a lot of ad-libs in this movie and in your previous works. What is the most impressive ad-lib to you?”
- Park Cheol-Min: “In this movie, the scene at the beach as a coffee shop owner. ‘We don’t sell coffee here, this coffee is mine.’ I also enjoyed the scene with Song Sae-Byeok carrying the cello and talking in a low voice to Ryu Hyun-Kyung. It does look like a coffee ad.”
- Audience Question: (to director Kim Hyeon-Seok) “Most movies playing in the cinema now are typically all the same. What do you think about that?”
- Kim Hyeon-Seok: “I make commercial films. So I take responsibility for the money that gets invested. I want to make something different, even if it is a commercial film, but it is difficult. I tried to make something different, like my movies are romantic-comedies but not necessarily with happy endings. That is different. I do think about that.”
- Audience Question: (to actor Park Cheol-Min) “Before you ad-lib, do you think about that beforehand? Also, you always play supporting characters, do you want to play the male lead?
- Park Cheol-Min: “I made 50-60% of my ad-libs beforehand and 40-50% while shooting. I want to be good at playing supporting characters and would like to sustain my career as long as possible.”
- Park Cheol-Min: “I ‘m embarassed of the character in ‘The Suicide Forecast,’ because I think I acted like such a typical father figure without adding anything extra.”
- Audience Question: “I think the director understands women very well, like in ‘When Romance Meets Destiny.’ Do you have any intentions to make another type of movie that is calm and describes the trivial?”
- Kim Hyeon-Seok: “When I promoted ‘Cyrano Agency,’ I stated I wouldn’t make another romantic-comedy. In my 20’s I was only interested in that and I wrote the original script for ‘Cryano Agency’ at that time. To make a romantic film, getting the funding is not easy. Also it was very difficult to get financing for ‘Cyrano Agency.’ On television, half of the drama series are romantic-comedies so people don’t need to go to the theaters to watch that. I’ll probably return to making romantic-comedies after 2-3 different kinds of films.”
- Audience Question: (to director Kim Hyeon-Seok) “In the movie there are lots of trivial but very funny scenes. How did you come up with those ideas?”
- Kim Hyeon-Seok: “I usually think of funny episodes. Also when the producer pushes me to write … funny episodes seems to come out.”
- Park Cheol-Min: “At night drank alcohol and had a good time, the next day he wrote.”
- Audience Question: (to actress Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung) “What kind of movies and characters would you like to play?”
- Ryoo Hyoun-Kyoung: “I used to want to play crazy women, but nowadays I’m happy to play any characters. It has been a couple of years that I wanted to play certain characters, since then I don’t have a preference.”
- Audience Question: (to director Kim Hyeon-Seok) “Are you interested in the original play?”
- Kim Hyeon-Seok: “When I wrote the scenario there wasn't any mention of the play 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. The title was originally 'Agency.' 3 years ago, when I worked on the adaptation, I added the “Cyrano de Bergerac” twist. About 5 years ago, director Bae Chang-Ho, told me that the original screenplay of 'Agency' was similar to 'Cyrano de Bergerac.' I did not watch the play 'Cyrano de Bergerac," but in 1991, while in college, I did watch the movie 'Cyrano de Bergenac' with Gerard Depardieu. I liked that a lot, so when I wrote my screenplay I was influenced by the film. 3 years ago when I adapted the screenplay I remembered what director Bae Chang-Ho said. If the character were play actors, the story would be matched. Uhm Tae-Woong’s fate is similar to Cyrano de Bergerac so bring it to the movie. The two main characters meet in Paris and the original Cyrano de Bergerac is French. After the movie was released, the play 'Cyrano de Bergerac' was performed in a theater here. So I watched it. I liked the original.”
- Audience Question: (to director Kim Hyeon-Seok) “Tell us how you came to cast the performers in the movie.”
- Kim Hyeon-Seok: The 4 main actors on the poster … their dramas on TV were popular last year or the year before, so I wanted to use the momentum from their recent successes. Park Chul-Min first targeted the character played by Daniel Choi, but poster of Uhm Tae-Woong & Park Cheol-Min looked weird. Park Chul-Min next targeted the character played by Song Sae-Byeok, but Song Sae-Byeok’s scenes were only 5-6 among 45 shootings. I was comfortable with having Park Chul-Min for a longer shoot. So he was cast for the writer Park, who took part in about 20 shootings. I knew personally Ryu Hyun-Kyung, but did not know Song Sae-Byeok. The editing director, who previously worked on the “The Servant,” recommended Ryu Hyun-Kyung and Song Sae-Byeok strongly. Casting is done partly by the director and partly by the production company.
