I Love How In Something In The Rain The Characters Constantly Drop Or Fumble With The Props - Tumblr Posts

May I just express my absolute love and adoration for the way Ahn Pan Seok directs his shows?

How he creates sets that are very lived in and just sets his actors loose to just BE in them? So there's no real blocking to speak of and actions take time? Like that scene in One Spring Night where a character is waiting for extras to exit the elevator, but it closes on her as she pushes the cart in and her coworker has to push the door open button. Or the moment in The Midnight Romance in Hagwon when a character is fumbling her way through her house at night to turn on a light. Or that moment in One Spring Night where characters are talking while eating and one of them grabs tissues to wipe his mouth as he keeps up the conversation. Those aren't scripted moments, they're just actors being told to treat the set like real life. AND THEY DO. And then he does not edit those moments away in post! It creates a very atmospheric, lived in style.

And how he insists on getting scenes done in single takes with multiple cameras rolling rather than recording all character A's lines, then all of character B's lines? It just makes it feel very organic and real because the actors can really play off each other, build tension, and develop tangible chemistry that's not reliant on camera tricks. It's why they're all very explosive onscreen, regardless of the subject matter. I mean, Secret Love Affair had me rooting for adultery and sympathizing with a criminal. Because they felt real.

People bandy around the phrase "slice of life" to describe genre conventions, but Ahn Pan Seok has mastered the art of making dramas feel like actual slices of actual lives.