Oldboy director’s iPhone-made short film getting theatrical release

Actress and singer Lee Jung-hyun in Night Fishing
Actress and singer Lee Jung-hyun in Night Fishing

Film Business Asia reports that South Korea’s Finecut will handle international distribution for the short film Night Fishing, which was recently shot on an iPhone 4 by Oldboy director Park Chan-wook (Thirst, Joint Security Area) and his brother Park Chan-kyong.

Night Fishing has been released in a limited number of Korean cinemas by Innocean Worldwide, Hyundai Motor’s in-house creative agency.

According to the report, several short films have been made using camera phones and Korea even held an iPhone 4 film festival in October, however Night Fishing is the first to receive a theatrical release in the country. International distributors will get to see the film during Berlin’s short film competition section.

The 33-minute mostly black-and-white film centers on a fisherman who encounters a female shaman and goes from this life to the next. Night Fishing stars Oh Kwang-rok and actress-singer Lee Jung-hyun (A Petal). It was made with regular film equipment, but substituted eight different phones with various lens attachments for conventional movie cameras, and cost $133,000.