Wild Card: Film Facts

Film Facts Film Facts:
Wild Card
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    by Third Window Films

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:
Born in 1950, Kim Yoo-Jin graduated from Chungang University with a major in film directing, and made his debut in 1986 with Hero?S's Love Song. Since then, he has directed and produced many titles, including the 1998 hit, A Promise, which drew a 300 million box office audience. He has always made films about the image of human life and is now presenting WILD CARD, which shows his particularly powerful and appealing directing style.
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    by Third Window Films



THE DIRECTOR'S CHARGE:
If you are being chased, you are a robber. If you are doing the chasing, you are a detective. We used to play chase when we were little, and the game did not end until the detectives caught the robbers. There's only one way to get a criminal: catching them. The game cannot end if you don?S't pursue, and the detectives always pursue. WILD CARD is about the people who are living in that game: the Homicide Team detectives.

Murder, robbery, rape, theft and violence. That is the sordid criminal news seen everyday on TV and in the newspaper. Those humane robbers with masks who used to ask us to raise our hands no longer exist. In this world, they kill first, then grab the bags of money. As to the detectives, the only thing that interests us about them is who took a bribe or is otherwise corrupt. Teenagers want to be like the gangsters in the films. The detectives have lost their dignity, their pay is low, and they get no respect. The Homicide Team detectives do the dirty work for all of us but are neglected. It is the righteousness of the detectives that captivated and inspired the director and the scriptwriter to join with the other staff members to write this story.

Many new directors are never heard from again after their debut films in Korea, and many directors from the 1980s and 1990s have now been forgotten. But director KIM Yoo-jin has been faithful to Korea films for 15 years and has become one of the foremost directors in Korea. A Promise, which had an audience of 300 million, made him a box office success. He gained further acclaim with Only Because You Are a Woman, a drama about a woman who fought a legal battle against an aggressive man and society. He earned Best Director at the Blue Dragon Awards with his family film Love is Oh Yeah! And in My Dear Geum-hong he portrayed the lives of a genius poet and an artist. The director shows us how real people live regardless of their work, space, sex or generation.

And in 2002, he who always paid attention to the human aspect gave us this powerful and developed story about the real Korean detectives, not those we are used to seeing in fancy action films. All the detectives have is their bodies. They feel paid when they are hit, are afraid when threatened with a knife and bleed when they are cut. They are just like us: human. Their passion, their naivety, and the desperateness in their hearts are the things the director wanted to portray.

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    by Third Window Films



PRODUCTION NOTES

INTRODUCTION 1
Number of citizens who need protection: 526 for every one police officer
Most likely of government workers to die in the line of duty!
Number of days of night duty worked each month: more than 15

Number of murders, robberies, rapes, thefts, and other crimes of violence committed in Korea each year: 532,243
Number of arrest achieved each year: 396,885
Number of police officers wounded on duty each year: 903
Number of police officers who die in the line of duty each year: 38

An office girl that catches a bank thief is hot news.
A housewife who catches a pickpocket and receives an award is written about in magazines.
An innkeeper who catches a robber is interviewed in the daily newspapers.
But when a police dies in the line of duty, his wife and comrades are the only ones who cry.

People make fun of police by calling them pigs. But who else can help the people who are attacked and robbed? The police are professionals who take pride in their jobs, including the important duty of chasing and catching criminals. They work so the innocent who have died can rest easily, but they still feel responsible for the death of the innocent.

Even though they get no round of applause or encouragement, they still work day and night to fulfill their duties. Their work strains their hearts and souls, but they will follow a criminal into hell to gain the satisfaction of catching him. They are born to help others.

INTRODUCTION 2
Unlike other preceding detective film, WILD CARD employs a totally new method to attract audiences: extreme realism. The audience sees and follows the investigations from the detectives?S' point of view. The storylines of earlier films, by contrast, have been split between the perspectives of the detective and the criminal, and have ended predictably. WILD CARD focuses on situations that detectives encounter in actual cases. As detectives can?S't anticipate the unpredictable, the audience can?S't know about the criminal before the crime is committed, with no clues or subplots given tell then. The audience is made to feel like they are watching the actual process of Homicide Team 3?S's investigation. They will experience without any filter the anxiousness of the victims, the tension of the unpredictable and even the threat to life created by the bloody fight. You haven?S't seen real Korean detectives yet.

It will be a new experience to see the portrayal of real Korean detectives who tirelessly work to track down the criminals, when before films have only portrayed unrealistically violent or dirty detectives. You might think the detectives belong to another world, but they are someone?S's son, husband, father, brother or lover ? they are just like us. You see the routine of their days and their families in this film. WILD CARD will wipe away your prejudices and misconceptions about detectives and will show you the real detectives who are working today for us.

You dial 911 in an urgent situation, knowing that the detectives are behind you no matter what. WILD CARD portrays the humanity of the detective who fall when he is hit and bleeds when he is cut, not the too-often-seen caricature who shows up to easily wipe out of the enemy. Given their devotion to protect victims and pursue criminals without regard to the perils of any situation, the detectives have no place to retreat to -- even in life?S's most threatening moments. They are able to place themselves in front of a criminal?S's knife because they have their colleagues behind them for reinforcement. It is not the fist or the gun that serves as their protection, it is the resolute faith of every single detective to protect the others. Our heart is moved by the image of a detective running to the scene shouting, ?§Everyone has to share the blade?S's cuts to survive.

Is the relationship between detectives and criminals really a hostile one? Seoul is a small city, and the veteran detectives know their beats like the backs of their hands. The gangsters have careers too ? building criminal networks and criminal records. As time has passed and experiences have meshed, the detectives and the criminals have become more and more acquainted and have developed unlikely relationships. These can be drawn upon to mobilize information from criminal networks and provide important clues to solve cases. But the detectives?S' work does not stop there. They also conduct intensive and extensive investigations to solve the most difficult of investigations. They do their best to overcome the difficulties caused by few clues and limited personnel and resources ? which, without the diligence of the detectives, can often lead to an investigation that is akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.

INTRODUCTION 3
My theme is human, detectives with burning hearts

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