Park Chan-wook compares painting and photography with the process of creating movies and TV shows.

We can learn more about celebrities through leisurely interviews that go beyond their public personas and initial impressions. The first season of "The Sympathizer," a six-episode TV series co-produced by HBO and HBO Go, was discussed by director Park Chan-wook.

The director, who has won awards at Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, is best known for his visually striking, thematically charged, and frequently violent films, such as "The Handmaiden," "Thirst," "Decision to Leave," and the three films that comprise his Vengeance trilogy, "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance," "Oldboy," and "Lady Vengeance." He also enjoys directing TV shows, such as "The Little Drummer Girl."

He started drawing comparisons between filmmaking and painting and photography when we asked him what distinguishes directing and showrunning TV shows like "The Sympathizer" from making movies.

“The biggest difference when directing a TV show is you aren’t allowed an abundant number of shooting days in comparison to shooting a feature film. When you’re making a TV series, you have to continually change a script, unlike in the movies where you sort of have a finished screenplay by the time you start working. When you’re making a movie, you have months to prepare.

Park Chan Wook compares filmmaking to painting and photography, drawing comparisons between watercolor and oil painting. He likens the process of directing a television program to watercolor painting, citing the latter's greater freedom and fluidity. He likens capturing candid photos of children or animals in photography to taking feature films, which demand the ability to capture fast movements.