I had seen Ten Zan for the first time at the screening facilities of the Korea Film Export & Import Corporation in Pyongyang in 1999 when I was preparing a North Korean film series to be shown at various European film festivals. I found it strange enough to include it into my movie series. Along with the rest of my series, the film premiered at the Gothenburg Film Festival in Sweden in January 2000. But the festival where it found the biggest appreciation was the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. For obvious reasons; the Italians were thrilled to see what one of their country fellows had done in that sealed country. The festival catalogue hyped the movie as “a true example of globetrotting Italian filmmaker’s daredevil vitality”. The festival organizers invited Baldi but he fell ill a few days before the shows started and the movie ran without his presence.
I had always wanted to hear the stories behind that film. Finally, on a rainy Friday evening in late February 2002, my Japanese friend Tomoko Katayama and I took the night express from Munich to Rome.
Rome, Sunday morning. Bar Vanni, near Piazza Mazzini and the RAI state television studios. Baldi had told me on the phone that it would be very easy to recognize him because he was “an old man”. Well, as Tomoko and I sat in the glaring morning sun on the outdoor chairs of Vanni and looked at the customers filing into the cafe, it seemed as if only old men were entering.
One was standing close to us, staring down the street as if he expected somebody. I somehow doubted he would be my interview partner but asked him anyway: “Excuse me, are you Mr. Baldi?” “Ohhh yes, I am!” he replied with a deep raspy voice in heavily Italian-accented English. We hurried inside, the old man seemed very energetic, and ordered our first cappuccino. I told Baldi: “You know, we just took the night express from Germany here. I watched your film Terror Express right before I went to the train station…” “You did? That’s crazy!” he replied, “I never heard of anybody doing that! Weren’t you afraid riding that train, then?” “Oh no, I told Tomoko all the details about the movie while we were on that train.” “You are crazy, young man.” he said and shook his head.
The cappuccino came. I gave Mr. Baldi the latest issue of the English-language South Korean fanzine Bug for which I had written a lengthy account of my visits to North Korea and a catalogue from the 2000 Gothenburg Film Festival. I asked him: “Do you have a video of Ten Zan”? He sadly shook his head. “I have nothing of that film anymore.” “Well, I made you a copy,” I said, “Please take it.” I gave him the tape and he seemed very happy. “I will watch it as soon as I can and write you what I think about the film now… 14 years after making it.” “Do you know anybody here at the North Korean embassy in Rome?” he suddenly asked me. “No, but I used to know some folks at their embassy in Berlin. But they are all back in North Korea now.” “Yes, they change. Many times,” he said somewhat hesitantly, suspiciously eyeing Tomoko. I assured him that she was Japanese, had nothing to do with North Korea whatsoever and had just come here with me for the simple sake of travel. She would snap a few pics of the interview, though. He finally seemed to believe me and relaxed.
Time to get my tape recorder in position and start with the questions….
Johannes Schönherr: “Alright, let’s start… Lorenzo Codelli of the Udine Far East Film Festival did an interview with you and you told him that you made that film War Bus and that War Bus got you involved with the North Koreans. Can you tell me something about how you got in contact with them?”
Ferdinando Baldi: We showed War Bus in Cannes, in France. The North Koreans were there. Looking. They liked the picture. They said: ‘Why don’t we shoot something in Korea?’ Let me confess, I thought the idea of going to the north of Korea very strange but I said: ‘Okay, let me think.’ We talked to some people at their embassy here in Rome and to the manager of their film company; anyway, with my producer, they started to find the terms of business. I said: ‘I absolutely want to see what will happen.’ So, I arrived in North Korea with a script that had no real relation to reality.
J.S: The script was about the Pacific War?
F.B: Yes. About the battle of Ten Zan. Ten Zan is a classic. It’s a mountain on an island in the Pacific where the Americans had a big battle with the Japanese. When I arrived in North Korea, the script was only a direction… like, where to go with the project and to see if the North Koreans were really interested in the picture. They started to discuss it in Korea again. They don’t speak English there, some spoke French. They gave me a young boy and I said: ‘Okay, you are my assistant.’ They said: ‘We have to go over the script again. They made calls… For about one month I tried to save the basics of my script. At the same time, they totally rewrote it. Finally, we agreed on something. But I said ‘Before we do the final script, is it possible to see the locations?’ ‘The locations? Right.” They scratched their heads. ’How can we do that? Well, we can go there only once.’ (Baldi went to Pyongyang together with production manager Nino Milano. Cast and crew arrived in Pyongyang 4 weeks later for the start of shooting.)
J.S: You were in Pyongyang all that time?
F.B: In Pyongyang, yes. In one hotel in Pyongyang. You know Pyongyang?
J.S: Yes. I stayed there at the Pyongyang Hotel and at the Koryo Hotel, the big twin-tower hotel.
F.B: The Koryo Hotel, that’s it. I was staying there… And, finally, we went to see the locations. It was very difficult. It would take a lot of time getting trucks and all that. There were many delays. I think that was good for us, to have some time to create a relationship with them. Especially to my assistant – I thought, that gent is very good, so young. They invited us to some places and we could see the situation there. Finally, we started to shoot. For 8 weeks, we did the picture. Very difficult. Because some times, in the morning, some authorities showed up and said: ’At this place, shooting is impossible.’ So, we were obliged to change. I asked for trucks, for 4 or 5 of them. They sent only 2. But finally, we finished shooting. I can tell you, it was an experience, unbelievable.
You never forget the contact with the people there. North Korea was the only place where I was shocked and at the same time, I got a very good feeling with the North Koreans I worked with. I invited them to a projection of the film here in Rome. 6 people of them, the assistant, directing manager… They came, they were my guests. They were happy. And they went back to North Korea. But you cannot phone them there, you can’t write them, the contact was cut then. The business stopped.
J.S: Going back to the script. It started out as a story about the Pacific War but in the end, the movie is set in current times…
F.B: The North Koreans changed it to what it became.
J.S: There are some parts I could never understand in the script. Like Professor Larson hires the two mercenaries, the Frank Zagarino-character and his sidekick, to destroy some of his own operation. In the end, everything is destroyed. But why does he hire them to destroy his own operation?
F.B: Listen, there was a problem there. I can’t remember exactly. It was a problem of production. We did something wrong. We did not see the rushes. We couldn’t see the rushes. Nobody could say: “What are we doing here?” I don’t know what happened; but something happened.
Now, when I see it again (knocking on the video tape I gave him which was sitting on the table), maybe, maybe I remember the reason for this. In this case, I will tell you by phone, if I remember the real reason. Well, something happened back then but after seeing the film again, I will tell you the truth of what happened. Okay?
