"I thought I was going to die", "I absolutely can't do this." Groans escape naturally, but they ultimately pulled it off. Director Ryu Seung-wan's most pure cinematic form,
The film HumiNt (director Ryu Seung-wan, distributed by NEW, produced by Oyu Naegang), which opened on Feb. 11, is gradually gaining word of mouth. That is thanks to the relentless action that leaves viewers barely able to breathe until after the film ends and delivers refreshing thrills and catharsis during almost two hours without a break.
Set in Vladivostok, where secrets and truths are submerged in a cold sea of ice, HumiNt depicts a clash between people with different objectives, centering on NIS Director Jo (Zo In-sung) and human-based intelligence operations. As North Korea-origin drugs and human trafficking, which view people only as means to make money, escalate into international crimes, the shifting alliances between Director Jo, who tries to capture both human and material evidence, and North Korean State Security official Jo Jang Park Geon (Park Jeongmin) deliver pulse-pounding excitement through action.
Although full-scale action scenes appear only after the film passes the midpoint, Director Jo and Park Geon execute intense action from their first appearances. Zo In-sung performs one-against-many action in an incident where he loses an informant for the first time, including handgun action, and Park Jeongmin appears with overwhelming presence by trapping a human-trafficking broker with a dartboard.
These devices effectively show character setup, but even the lead actors were stunned by the intensity of the action. Zo In-sung admitted, "I thought I might die filming this movie," and Park Jeongmin said to HumiNt's assistant director, who had worked with him since the film The Guard, that "I absolutely can't do this."
Director Ryu Seung-wan wrestled with deep concerns. "It's hard making action. The physical amount you have to shoot is different from making a drama, and because it's dangerous I'm careful that people might get hurt," he said. Even so, he said, "Action movies are still the most pure cinematic form to me," and refined the action in HumiNt more precisely.
The completed late-act joint action between Director Jo and Park Geon even evokes nostalgia for classic Hong Kong noir and sends shivers down the spine. In the roughly 20-minute large-scale action sequence, tension is created without a single line of dialogue from the characters. There is inherent tension in a rescue and escape fought for survival. But the stepwise, nonstop exchanges of gunfire across pillars, railings, bulletproof glass and even people create tension that exceeds the structure. The focused use of gunfire sounds and minimal lighting that blurs vision draws concentration and gives the audience deeper immersion.
Director Ryu Seung-wan said, "It's still a fantasy to create something composed really only of pure sound and light. I can't seem to escape that charm. And I think it's because it's an area where curiosity remains. When someone does something new I think, why didn't I think of that? And there are still things I thought I loved that I feel I didn't fully immerse myself in, so it's an area where a slightly childlike feeling remains," showing strong affection.
To that end, despite actually holding a fourth-degree black belt in taekwondo, Zo In-sung even underwent knee cartilage surgery to perform the action. Director Ryu Seung-wan also demonstrated stunts on set himself. HumiNt is a film whose pure action itself rekindles the appeal of tension that only allows you to breathe again once it's over.
[Photo] Provided by NEW.
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