Goodbye SAIGON

Trevor Hogg gets held captive by multiple versions of Robert Downey Jr.while uncovering the visual effects of HBO's spy series The Sympathizer

- Trevor Hogg

At first the idea of Robert Downey Jr. playing five different characters known A as the Priest, Auteur, Congressman, Professor, and CIA spy Claude seems rather outrageous. However, given that Park Chan-wook is the co-showrunner, director and writer for The Sympathizer it becomes less so, as making bold, non-conventional choices has become his trademark, demonstrated by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Decision to Leave. This latest dark satire takes place at the end of the Vietnam War and revolves around a police captain in Saigon becoming a refugee in America, secretly reporting back to his communist superiors.

Park directed Episodes 101, 102 and 103 while Marc Munden and Fernando Meirelles handled the remaining four episodes. "On his own episodes there is a ton of planning," says visual effects supervisor Chad Wanstreet, who was collaborating with the acclaimed Korean filmmaker for the first time. "When we got into planning out the tarmac scene, which was tons of storyboards, we took that into animatics and previs. Director Park doesn't always get the opportunity to previs, which we were able to do here. Marc Munden, who directed Episodes 105, 106 and 107, wound up storyboarding a lot as well."

Insects are used as a frequent visual motif by Park. "There are cockroaches running around the floor [of the refugee camp]," says Wanstreet. "We did the cockroach that the General stomps on. Director Park loved that so much that he started adding cockroaches in everywhere. At one point we were calling him the Oprah of cockroaches! There were all these little cockroaches hidden here and there, especially in the beginning because we wanted to set this world up and establish that where Bon and Captain are living is dirty and not nice."