Read the Jan. 13, 2008 interview in The Desert Sun.
On the yellow brick road of life, we all need a little help from our friends. In director Jieho Lee's film, The Air I Breathe, characters find common ground with The Wizard of Oz roles while also reflecting the emotions of an Asian proverb.
"As an Asian-American, I was really born in my own little world," said Lee of a life that straddled the United States and Korea, resulting in a clash of cultures.
"America is all about the beauty of the individual and the power and freedom of discovering who you are," he explained. "In Asian culture, (there is a) responsibility to the collective and a strength from being part of the whole."
In his feature debut, as Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow begin a journey to discover who they are as individuals, they are connected (and named) by the emotions they represent: Sorrow, Happiness, Pleasure and Love.
"We find out who we are and retain humanity while doing so," Lee revealed. "Like air, it is very private and the essence of who we are, but it is also something we share as a collective."
When presenting the story to the actors, Lee maintained a smaller focus. "I didn't want to make it too heady for them," he said. "I wanted them to find the character and make it as truthful as possible, even though crazy and outlandish things that happen to them."
The casting was challenging as the film is an ensemble piece and the first-time feature director had few funds at his disposal. Lee's overly ambitious script (initially written for a Korean audience) was repeatedly edited as he and writing partner Bob DeRosa were forced to make sacrifices. "We had a very low budget and were always killing babies along the way," he said. "Changes were made when the cast came on board, but it was important not to fight the truthfulness."
Leads Sarah Michelle Gellar, Forest Whitaker, Brendan Fraser and Kevin Bacon are supported by Andy Garcia and Emile Hirsch.
"At the time of casting, Forest and Emile hadn't blown up. The role Emile plays is this foul-mouthed youth, but I knew the only way I could pull it off and make him likeable required a needed vulnerability," Lee said of the actor who recently received one of the Rising Star Awards from the Palm Springs International Film Festival. "With every role he plays, there's a certain quietness to the storm that's really hard to find in actors his age."
Though the characters are molded by people he has known (Korea's version of J.Lo, himself as a salaried man, an Asian gangster and his father, for example), their emotional journeys are most important.
"They all need each other to get where they're going, like in The Wizard of Oz," Lee said. The main characters each have a voiceover throughout the film, except for Sorrow. "(She's) the farthest from knowing who she is, and it takes the other three to help her get her there."
"You cannot love without knowing pleasure, have sorrow without knowing happiness," said Lee. "You need to know all of them to know one, and that balance came out."