‘Seungri-ho’ swept the top spot on Netflix… “Our reference is the universe”

As soon as the production cost of the space sci-fi movie’Seungri-ho’ (director Jo Seong-hee), starring Song Joong-ki and Kim Tae-ri, was unveiled in 190 countries through Netflix on the 5th. According to’Flix Patrol’, a video content viewing site,’Seungri-ho’ rose to number one in the world, sweeping the top spot on Netflix in 16 countries, including Korea, France, Finland, Bangladesh, and Malaysia, within a day of its launch. The next day, Russia, Denmark, and Hong Kong were added to the top 25 countries and ranked first in the world. Since its release in Korea in June of last year, the disaster movie’#Alive’, which was released on Netflix in September, is the first Korean content to be ranked first in the world.

This is the second film in which Director Jo and Song Joong-gi mobilized 6.9 million viewers in the fantasy’Wolf Boy’ (2012) depicting a wolf boy’s pure love. As described in “The story of the four bums living on the space sweeper in 2092” (Song Joong-ki), the background is the UTS, a new home in space satellite orbit, instead of the earth, which has been sluggish due to desertification, 71 years later. Captain Jang (Tae-ri Kim) who leads the space cleaner Seung-ho with the Taegeukgi flag, Tae-ho (Song Joong-ki), a genius pilot who has fallen into the poor, Tiger Park (Jin Seon-gyu), an engine engineer, and Go-dong-i (Yoo Hae-jin), a harpooner robot, are a mass of human children He discovers the lethal weapon Dorothy and sets out in a dangerous chase.

On the overseas criticism site’Roton Tomato’, the freshness of the review is low at 50% out of 100%. Foreign media who have given high marks for reinterpreting Korean genres such as’Parasite’ of the Academy 4 crowns and’Kingdom’ of the Joseon zombie historical drama showed disappointment that’Seungriho’ was only equipped with a Hollywood-style SF assortment. The Hong Kong Daily South China Morning Post criticized, “‘Seungri-ho’ is more like a thorough practice of filling in items devised by some committee, rather than boldly realizing a consistent cinematic vision.” Film Week, an American Public Radio (NPR) film broadcast, pinched the storyline, saying, “There is no tremendous explosion or tension at all.” Critic Lee Dong-jin criticized it as “a writing method of inpersonality that hides technological achievements.” On the other hand, the freshness of Rotten Tomatoes to the general public reached 83%, and it is generally evaluated as a popcorn movie that is not bad to enjoy lightly.

The leading actors evenly radiate familiar charms, even from Yu Hao-jin, who played the first Korean robot to challenge motion capture. In addition to Hollywood actor Richard Armitage, who played UTS founder Sullivan, there is a corner where the hard acting of foreign supporting actors of various nationalities hinders immersion. Dorothy, also called the Korean name’Flower-nim’, as well as adult characters such as grown-up teenagers, brutal action, poop, and fart are often used as elements of laughter.’Seungri-ho’ is rather than a science fiction for adult genre fans. It is a family film aimed at a family audience of all ages including children.

The cutting-edge VFX (visual special effects) also stands out. Concept art was conceived from the stage of writing for the spectacle of space, spaceships inside and outside the space, and the spectacle of future cities, which have not been seen in Korean movies, and 8 domestic VFX companies, totaling 1,000 VFX experts participated. The movie, which was originally aimed at the theater release, was delayed due to Corona 19 last year, and went directly to the OTT (online streaming) platform Netflix.

After making the hell of the movie’With God’, VFX supervisor Jung Seong-min, who jumped into the’Seungri-ho’, said, “I didn’t find a reference in a Hollywood movie.” “If you search for NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) space station, people who went to space It streams real-time video to the Internet. Our reference was the universe.” On the 4th, he and Jung Cheol-min joint VFX supervisor and director Bong Joon-ho’s disaster fantasy’monster’ followed by an e-mail interview with producer Cho Neung-yeon aboard’Seungri-ho’. The following are questions and answers.

Jeong Seong-jin: “It is the first work that a major Korean CG company has assembled for the first time. It can be said to be a measure of how far Korea’s technology has come. I would like to see it as a single Korean movie rather than comparing it with a Hollywood movie.

Jeong Seong-jin: “Director Jo Seong-hee and I were also worried about whether the live-action filming and the universe implemented by CG would match well. It is an unfamiliar picture of a Korean pilot in space. It had to be a VFX that melted the Korean sentiment well in terms of look and reality.”

Jo Neung-yeon: “Through the pre-production meeting, I tried to reduce green screen shots (with a green mat installed in an empty space for later CG work) and make it a real set so that actors can concentrate on acting. Not only actors who made and acted as many video conties (previsuals) as possible, but all the staff, including directors and filming, worked while aware of the situation in the space in the movie.”

Seongjin Jeong: “I referred to the design of a large truck or tow truck and crane. It is not a futuristic image, but a cleaning line was completed by tuning past parts. It is a setting that picks up parts that have the Seungri and makes a mighty spaceship. As the tuning was gradually added, an asymmetric image was created. They even have license plates like cars. It may seem clunky, but it’s one of the things that’s different from any Hollywood movie.”

Jo Neung-yeon: “Eopdong is a metal robot, but his emotions are clear. It was only Yu Hae Jin, who was learning to instill intimacy without any discomfort. I started shooting in the hot summer, but I was admired by the way I was acting while wearing motion capture equipment. His voice and gestures melted into the business.”

Jung Cheol-min: “I designed the robot first, and then made special accessories such as helmets and chest and shoulders (suitable for the design of the business). Actor Hae-jin Hae-jin wore a motion-capturing suit and a gray suit with markers (to record the movements on the computer), then put on special accessories and a movie costume (t-shirt, gown, etc.) over it. Before each shoot, I walked left and right, took the basic posture of moving my arms, and when these movements were synchronized with the computer program, I started shooting in earnest. (For later CG work) After filming with actor Hae-jin Hae-jin, other actors filmed the same scene one more time without him. Since then, CG animators have gone through the process of elaborately catching the part where the finger or the head is less inclined based on the motion capture data by referring to the actor’s performance. Although not often, the motion capture sync connection was lost in the field. Environmental management was not easy due to the influence of radio waves around it, and it took a lot of time to clean up vast amounts of data. As a result, I’m glad that it doesn’t bounce and it seems to be naturally melted into the movie.”

Jeong Seong-jin: “Eopdong holds a harpoon. Like whalers on a whaling boat, space debris is collected by harpooning. It is a setting that melts analog. Actor Hae-jin Hae-jin made more than 100 types of designs, such as a face similar to the actor. Based on the idea of ​​director Cho Sung-hee, the design is now available. The front view is humorous and cute, but considering the past of Updong, the skeleton protrudes and looks a little scary. The part was expressed in sharp contrast. Five kinds of robots besides Updong made it closer to the design that would be able to be driven in an actual industrial site. The UTS SWAT was designed to look like a powerful police robot of the future, halfway between robots and humans.”

Jung Cheol-min: “Because I’ve never been to space, I talked a lot about the realization of the universe in the beginning with the filming and lighting director. Through the space documentary, I thought that the strong light with strong contrast (because the universe has no atmosphere) would be the main. I boldly chose to light up hard in one direction, not in multiple directions (like the previous movie). For example, when the spacecraft is flying, the sun shines through the windshield. Filming and lighting directors must have been worried because they were different from common sense. Art preserves the sense of life, but focuses on minimal sets. Only part of the characters touched was produced as a set and the rest were extended to CG.”

Jung Cheol-min: “The scene where Taeho jumps to Seungriho avoiding bullets. It was shot against a green mat, not an actual set, but the actor had to play on a wire while imagining a huge spaceship parking lot. At the same time, the background composition work was carried out at the same time and the space was continuously matched and filmed. The scene of Godong-i turning into a combat robot and running around a spaceship was powerful, and the scene where Captain Jang bounced into outer space and climbed the side of Seungri was high. It was difficult for Tiger Park to rescue a falling flower from a rope. When Taeho meets Kkotnim for the first time, the space walk scene is 100% CG.”

Jo Neung-yeon: “The color correction work was renewed in Dolby Vision format. Music director Kim Tae-sung and Korean Symphony Orchestra also recorded music.”
Jeong Seong-jin: “I am excited and happy to show Korean science fiction when I am interested in Korean content. I hope you can watch a lot on a big TV.”

Reporter Na Won-jeong [email protected]