Words by Christopher Connor

Composer Jo Yeong-wook has been a mainstay of the Korean Cinematic landscape for the past four decades, since scoring his debut film, 1997’s The Contact. 

He is most associated for his collaborations with Director Park Chan-wook, in a pairing that stretches over 20 years from 2000’s JSA (Joint Security Area) to 2022’s Decision to Leave — one of the leading contenders in this year’s awards season. The pair have collaborated on some of Director Park’s best-known works including the acclaimed Vengeance trilogy, 2016’s The Handmaiden and the John Le Carré TV adaptation of The Little Drummer Girl.

The collaboration between the pair has stretched from hard-edged Crime films like Oldboy & Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, Horror with 2009’s Thirst, and Period Drama with The Handmaiden. The breadth of the pair’s collaborations has made this a fascinating partnership to follow with Jo Yeong-wook proving a key component in Park Chan-wook’s success, he is widely heralded as one of the finest Directors working today. The pair’s work together showcases the importance of the friendship between Director and Composer, with Jo Yeong-wook bringing consistent results across the genres and styles they’ve worked on together.

Decision to Leave — a Neo-Noir that sees a Seoul-based detective become infatuated with the lead suspect in a murder investigation — has received wide acclaim, with its music being one of the many elements that have been singled out for praise. Jo Yeong-wook discusses how his lasting collaboration with Park Chan-wook began and evolved over the course of time, as well as how he finds the process of moving between Film & Television — and why it isn’t as seamless as it might appear.

How did you first start working with Park Chan-wook?

It’s a long story. In our late 20s, we became friends. Park and I had the same taste in film, and music. So we became friends immediately!

At this point, Park had already made one film which hadn’t been successful. As his first feature failed at the box office, he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to make his next film, so basically we were both making no money at the time. As we weren’t working we had all the time in the world for each other, so we ended up hanging out almost every day. While Park was waiting for his second chance to come around, I got to make my first film score for a feature film titled, The Contact.

The Contact was a success and the production company placed a great amount of faith in me. One or two years later, the production company suggested a film titled JSA and they asked me about Director Park and whether he would be a good fit for the film. JSA was a huge success and the start of a lasting collaboration for the two of us.

Why do you think Park’s films endure so well?

From the beginning, Park had extraordinary taste and a different eye for things and was also very intellectual. He is a great writer, and this helps to make him a brilliant director. All those things seem to have come to nourish him to become the great filmmaker he is now. Also, he never stays idle. He constantly looks for something new, something fresh. Most importantly, he delves deep inside the human nature to truly understand it. I believe this is the foundation upon which he makes such wonderful films.

What were some of the influences for the music of Decision To Leave?

I prepared with the script as I would ordinarily. But after seeing the edited feature, it didn't work at all in the way it would usually. Decision To Leave is quite a unique case because usually music is added to enrich the narrative or to make the characters’ emotions come across as more expressive. But I quickly realised when I saw the rough cut that the conventional type of music will not suit this film. So, I had to agonise over how I can make the music more distinctive.    

So, what I decided to do was to focus on the awkward relationship and strange atmosphere created between these two characters. Rather than trying to boost the emotions of the characters, I wanted my music to heighten the tension between them. So, I tried to make music sound rather rough and numb - meaning with no emotion - like in modern music.

Were there any films that especially influenced the score? The film’s been compared to some of Alfred Hitchcock’s work. 

What I wanted to ultimately achieve was to create something that is classical, but has a modernity to it at the same time. I really wanted to accomplish that with solo instruments like the woodwind solos. So, that was something I was quite preoccupied with and there was nothing that really had an influence on my work. 

Later, some friends told me that the film reminds them of Hitchcock’s Vertigo and yes, I can see that in terms of the film’s themes and style, but the music not so much. Decision to Leave’s music is quite different from that of Bernard Hermann’s Hitchcock scores.

Can you tell us about Mahler's influence on the music of the film?

Mahler’s symphony had already been written into the screenplay but only for the scene where Ki Do Soo climbs up the mountain. While watching the rough cut, though, I thought it would be a shame if we use this music only once, because this music spoke to the film so perfectly. So, I ended up picking some more scenes where Mahler’s symphony can be used. However, Park was at first a bit hesitant to use it for additional scenes since it had become already so famous for its use in Death in Venice (directed by Luchino Visconti). He considered this for some time and finally concluded that there’s no reason why we cannot use this music just because it’s well-known. So, he decided to use it for other scenes, too.

How did you find balancing the Noir and romantic elements of the film in the score?

To be honest, I wasn't thinking about the Noir genre. Seorae could be labelled as a conventional femme fatale that you would find in noir films. Instead, I composed the score in such a way as to enhance the tension created between the two characters, which I believe ended up sounding a bit noir-like to some audiences. However, that was never my intention.

How do you find moving between film and TV? You’ve worked with Director Park on television as well with the likes of The Little Drummer Girl.

For me doing TV projects is much more difficult. For TVs, there is a lot more volume but much less time to prepare but the same workload for me. For TV compared to film work, they have so many things to do, but I do the same method and same recording processes.

Are you able to tell us what you're working on next?

I'm working on director Park's next TV series from HBO Max, titled Sympathiser.

Decision to Leave is available to watch now on MUBI.