Kang Je-gyu Says It’s ‘My Way’ or the Highway

Korea’s international attention for much of the past year has been with their regional conflicts. It’s no wonder that some of the most anticipated films for 2011 involve Korean Geo-political tensions. Perhaps the most anticipated film nearly had their production canceled. “My Way” (formerly known as D-Day) is budgeted to have the highest-production cost in Korean film history, and dubbed to be the Korean “Red Cliff” (China). The film nearly had production halted due to financial problems until a Seoul court threw out a copyright infringement lawsuit from one of the films producers. The film, which started shooting last October and is half-way through, had production halted after one of the producers–only referred to as Kim–transferred rights to the movie against the director’s wishes. The copyright was nearly violated, and the film would have been suspended with little chance to be completed, losing roughly $30 million. The film is expected to make a hard push to the foreign press at Cannes next month.

Directed by Kang Je-gyu (“Shiri“, “Taegukgi“), the movie is based on a true story about a Korean man (Jang Dong-gun – “Taegukgi”, “Chingu”) who is conscripted to the Japanese military during World War II. He’s forced to fight for Japan, China, and Germany. “My Way” co-stars Japan’s Joe Odagiri and China’s Fan BingBing. The film is actually a co-production between the U.S and South Korea.