(Following interview ④) Director Yeon Sang-ho of the film
On the morning of the 26th, director Yeon Sang-ho held an interview at a cafe in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. At the event, he spoke with domestic reporters about his newly released film
Gunche is a film about survivors isolated inside a building sealed off by a mysterious outbreak who confront infected people evolving in unpredictable ways. As Yeon Sang-ho's third zombie film following Train to Busan and Peninsula, it opened on the 21st and is meeting audiences.
In particular, Yeon Sang-ho was invited to the midnight screening section at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival and visited Cannes. It was his fourth time at Cannes following Train to Busan, Peninsula and the Netflix original series Hellbound.
On returning to Cannes, he said, "There was a really strong specificity. The audiences there were very fanatic. Going all the way there and waiting until dawn to see a film really shows there is a special quality to it."
Director Yeon Sang-ho was actually more excited about meeting Korean audiences. He laughed and said, "Coming back from Cannes to Korea and having the press and VIP screenings on the same day, it was a joy to meet regular audiences. If the timing had been spread out, I would have worried for days about how audiences would react, but showing it as soon as I got back put me at ease."
He continued, "When I did Train to Busan, it premiered at midnight in Cannes and opened almost two months later, and that process was very difficult. Showing it in Cannes and releasing it right away this time was wonderful. The facilities are good. There's nothing that surpasses IMAX. I saw that the Lumière theater had its sound redone this time, but even so, the IMAX sound and Korean theater facilities were really excellent," he said emphatically.
Following his first visit to Cannes with Train to Busan, he has continued to present zombie films through his new film Gunche. Yeon Sang-ho admitted about the zombie genre, "Although I made films like The King of Pigs and The Fake, my mainstream live-action commercial recognition came from zombie films, so they hold a special place for me."
He added, "I never expected to make so many zombie films. Nowadays, when I want to express social phenomena as genre allegory, zombies often come to mind. There's fun in zombies themselves. When you plan a zombie film you think, 'This could work too,' and other ideas come, and ideas feed on ideas and never end."
Director Yeon Sang-ho said, "When I thought about why that is, I realized that the birth of zombies itself reflects contemporaneity. Zombies manifest the latent fears of their time, so when making films that have contemporaneity, zombies are incredibly attractive," and added, "There is an idea to expand the world of Gunche in other formats. We are discussing gamification. There's a case called Inside the Play: Gunche that expanded into theater and film. That's also interesting. Train to Busan had zombies specifically for Train to Busan. Even if I make another zombie film, I think it should be a zombie film with a different setting."
However, he drew a line on the possibility of a sequel regarding Gunche's open ending. He added, "There is more to the story. But it will probably come out as a book. I think a game will be made based on that book. I thought the book would be released when the film opened, but it was a bit delayed. The Gunche book will probably come out when the next film is released."
[Photo] Provided by SHOWBOX.
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