Busan 2012: 'B•E•D' Pushes the Envelope With Oft-Nude Cast

The three stars of veteran director Park Chul-soo’s B•E•D said that the numerous nude scenes in the erotic drama about a menage a trois were not as challenging as everyone expected.

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“I’m a married woman, so I gave it a lot of thought before taking the role — but my husband recognized that I’m a professional actor,” said Lee Min-a on Sunday at BIFF, where the film bowed. “The first day, I did four or five hours of scenes in bed, but I felt very relaxed. We did a lot of impromptu dialogue and I forgot I had no clothes on.”

Director Park said that he “hypnotized” the cast to keep them calm by always speaking to them in a “very soft voice.” The film features just three characters: B, a married man who has an affair with another man’s wife, E, behind the back of his own wife, D. Jang Hyeok-jin, who, like the other leads, made his name in theatrical productions, said the role was “no different to playing with my clothes on.”

The film is Kim Na-mi’s second feature, and her debut Melo is also showing at Busan this year. “This is my first year in film, so I feel like it was kind of soon for me to be walking the red carpet, but I really feel like this is ‘my’ festival now,” said Kim. “When I first read the script I was more worried about getting rejected for the part than the nudity.”

Park, who has been directing since the late 1970s, explained how his emphasis has shifted in recent years from storytelling to focusing on imagery of the basic needs in life: eating, sleeping and sex.

“However, unlike Red Vacance Black Wedding, the psycho-sexual drama I made last year, this film examines three different viewpoints on sex,” said Park.

B•E•D is based on a short story by female author Kwon Ji-ye, and Park sounded somewhat touchy in his responses to questions about his “male interpretation” of the original work.

“I’m a man, so the movie is different,” said Park, adding that the author had given him the freedom to adapt the story. “I’m not an expert on female psychology, but I don’t have a skewed male view of sexuality.”