Director July Jung reveals reason for casting Sakura Ando

Director July Jung has directly revealed the reason why she cast actress Sakura Ando.

On the morning of the 9th, a press conference for the 31st Busan International Film Festival Gala Presentation 'Dora' was held at the BIFF Hill 1F press conference room at the Busan Cinema Center in Haeundae District, Busan, and Director July Jung and actors Kim Do-yeon and Song Sae-byeok attended.

Director July Jung explained that this character was originally a Korean character. She said she had never imagined making a film with a foreign actor.

She continued by saying she began to worry about whether she could truly understand the unknowable emptiness and loneliness of Nami. While thinking, she considered what it would be like to change this character from a Korean to a Japanese person, and at that moment, Sakura Ando came to mind, she revealed.

Director July Jung said that although there was no prior connection, she contacted her management after inquiring around with the thought of taking on the challenge. She added that after receiving a response saying they wanted to see the scenario, she translated it into Japanese and sent it a month later.

She said that when watching Sakura Ando's acting, she felt that even though it is a different character, on the other hand, it feels like Sakura Ando. She recalled that she contacted her thinking that if there were a Nami and a Sakura Ando that she could not fully know, Nami could exist between her and the actor, and they met after expressing a desire to meet once.

Director July Jung said that since she had never spoken Korean before, she had many worries at first because of the Korean lines. Nevertheless, she said she participated because she wanted to express Nami, Dora, and Nami's appearance with Dora through this film, and that it was a stroke of luck.

'Dora' depicts a story where, while a family leaves Seoul and heads to a seaside villa in midsummer, Dora, who suffers from an unknown illness, learns love for the first time, and everything slowly begins to shake.

Read the original (Korean)