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| yna@yna.co.kr 2022-08-03 11:37:38
SEOUL, August 3 (Yonhap) -- S.Korean movies “Emergency Declaration” and “Hunt” are joining a four-way race while first series of “Alienoid” and “Hansan: Rising dragon” are currently screening.
“Emergency Declaration” and “Hunt,” released July 3 and July 10 respectively, are both Invitational works of Cannes Film Festival. “Emergency Declaration” was invited to out-of-competition category of the Cannes Film Festival last year, while “Hunt” was invited to the Midnight Screening section at the Cannes Film Festival this year.
Two movies, second round of summer blockbusters, are not only competition between works that spent several tens of billion won for production, but it is also a confrontation between pro director Han Jae-Rim, who has cumulative viewers of 17 million people, and “new director” Lee Jung-jae.
◇ 30 billion won and 23.3 billion won blockbusters.. huge aircraft set and diverse action scenes
“Emergency Declaration” and “Hunt” spent huge amounts for production like the previously released movies “Alienoid” and “Hansan”
Production budget of “Emergency Declaration” was 30 billion won, and break-even point is cumulative viewers of 5 million. Castings are also impressive, starring Song Kang-Ho, Lee Byung-hun, Jeon Do-yeon, Lim Siwan, Kim Nam-gil, and Kim So-jin.
Set with real aircraft is a must-see. The set was built over two months with an old Boeing 777 aircraft. The scene of the plane shaking or overturning was filmed by rotating 360 degrees a set of 7 m in width and 12 m in length with a gimbal. It is a new attempt, not even seen in Hollywood.
Production budget for “Hunt” was 23.3 billion won, while break-even point is 4.2 million cumulative viewers. Like Lead actors Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung, special guests are strong. Park Sung-woong, Yoo Jae-myung, Lee Sung-min and more will add the fun.
It also displays splendid action scenes with the backgrounds of Washington, Seoul, Tokyo, Bangkok and more. Various scenes such as shooting battles where the characters run and roll, bombing scenes, and car chases will catch audiences’ eyes.
◇ Opposite story lines... different character depiction and story development
Two movies boast huge production costs and scale, but there are differences in composition.
“Emergency Declaration” is a fictional story of terrorizing aircraft with chemical and biological weapons, but it also reminds us of the pandemic that the world has experienced over the past three years. The conflict between passengers as they are divided into infected and non-infected, contact and non-contact, is similar to the COVID-19 crisis; Conflicts that happen between countries and the issue of collectivism before the landing of aircraft are also similar.
“Hunt” is a story based on major events in Korean modern history, such as the Aung San bombing terror, the MiG defection case, and the Gwangju Democratization Movement. It reflected the social atmosphere of the 1980s, such as Agency for National Security Planning, which under the name of “This is for the benefit of the country,” imprisoning and torturing innocent people to force them to turn lies into truth.
The nature of the two works is different. Although “Emergency Declaration” is about national aircraft and passengers, people all over the world who went through the pandemic can relate to it. But “Hunt” is not easy to comprehend if you do not know the S.Korean history, even though the story unfolds in various countries such as the United States, Japan, and Thailand. It is the reason why foreign press commented “The story is too much to follow” during the Cannes Film Festival.
Story development is also different. “Emergency Declaration” focused on depicting people who faced emergency after specifying the terrorist. But “Hunt” lets the audiences to infer who the spy is until the end of the movie.
Film critic Jeon Chan-il said, "The target audience for the two films is not so different," but also said, "'Emergency Declaration' is noted as disaster film and blockbuster, while 'Hunt' gives the audience a lot to think about based on modern Korean history.”
(This article is translated from Korean to English by Jiwon Woo.)
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