RETURN - FocusTAGE PRODUCTION
JOB TITLE - Sound Effect designER
return
Original version of The drama: Return was premiered in South Korea in 2015. It won the Outstanding Repertoire Award and Director Award at the Seoul Theater Festival that year. In 2017, it was adapted to a movie with the same name which won the Montreal International Film Festival Golden Award. Produced by Focustage Production, directed by Ge Miao, the Chinese version The drama: Return has made some localization compared to the Korean version.
The story takes place in a city in northern China. So there were a lot of characteristic Chinese northern city sound elements in my sound design, I used large numbers of symbols to highlight the place behind the story.
For example, in northern China, people love to have a long-horned grasshopper as a pet. They always carry the grasshopper within a bamboo cage and listen its call. Magpie is also another important symbol of northern China, its call is especial and distinctive. You can basically find it everywhere.
I used my own field-recording of the city as part of my sound design. I recorded the ambient sound of residential neighborhoods in the city of northern China and the sounds of Hutong as well. Hutong means alley in Chinese which is also an important symbol of Chinese northern culture.
Return, June 2019, Directed by Ge Miao / Photos by Focustage Production