[INTERVIEW] 'Gyeongseong Creature' director discusses international responses, present's historic message

Chung Dong-yoon stresses ‘forgiveness and forgetting are completely different’

By Park Jin-hai

The director of Netflix’s “Gyeongseong Creature,” Chung Dong-yoon, expressed shock and gratitude on the international response to the film, significantly from Japan. He acknowledged the difficulties of crafting a story grounded within the harsh historic actuality of Japanese navy experiments throughout the colonial period.

“In gentle of the affect of the Korean Wave, significantly in Japan, Korean actors have been hesitant to tackle initiatives of this nature for practically a decade. The truth that actors like Park Search engine marketing-joon and Han So-hee, who’ve immense reputation in Japan and globally, have chosen to take part on this venture is, I imagine, an act of nice braveness,” Chung stated in an interview with The Korea Occasions at a café in Seoul on Monday.

The second season of the present, launched worldwide on Friday, soared to the No. 3 spot on the worldwide TV present rankings simply two days after its launch. The sequence topped the charts in Asian nations equivalent to Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand and ranked throughout the high 10 in 80 nations, together with Japan, the place it ranked fourth, in line with the streaming analytics web site FlixPatrol.

“Initially, we did not have excessive expectations for a worldwide viewers, as we anticipated it is likely to be troublesome to garner curiosity in Korean historical past overseas. Many individuals, even right this moment, nonetheless confuse Korea with Japan or China. So I believe a giant a part of its reputation was because of the actors. Their participation has been instrumental in elevating international consciousness of Korean historical past, particularly contemplating the widespread misconceptions that also exist,” he added.

Actor Han So-hee is seen from Netflix’s “Gyeongseong Creature” season 2. Courtesy of Netflix

Season 2, set in Seoul in 2024, continues the story of Jang Ho-jae (Park), the spitting picture of Jang Tae-sang from the primary season, and Yoon Chae-ok (Han), who survived the spring of Gyeongseong, as they unravel the unfinished threads of destiny, future and sick destiny in Gyeongseong.

Chung pressured that the drama will not be supposed to be anti-Japanese however reasonably goals to convey a universally resonant message that “forgiveness and forgetting are completely different.”

“There are victims, and there are those that have dedicated horrible acts and nonetheless maintain energy. At the same time as time goes on, new victims proceed to undergo. We should not stay silent and should proceed to talk out in opposition to these injustices. I imagine that is how we will create a greater world,” the director stated.

Concerning the criticism concerning the creature’s restricted display screen time, he defined that the creature on this sequence will not be a typical monster designed for motion sequences. As an alternative, it is offered as a topic of scientific experimentation.

“Our drama’s creature is a reworked experimental topic uncovered to anthrax, so reasonably than being depicted as overly sturdy or giant, we needed to deal with the emotional elements. In Season 1, because the creature was Chae-ok’s mom, we emphasised a sorrowful expression and swollen eyes attributable to hitting the bars of her cage, permitting viewers to nonetheless see her as a mom,” he stated.

In Season 2, he launched a extra numerous vary of creatures. The primary creature was imagined to be muscular, the second extra female, and the third bigger and extra highly effective. Regardless of their monstrous look, he needed to depict the creatures as victims of experimentation in order that viewers can really feel empathy for the creatures, he stated.

“After the face down with the creature, Ho-jae says, ‘You are struggling too, aren’t you?’ It is meant to indicate that they are additionally experimental topics and that they do not wish to be doing this. I needed to spotlight that time, even when only for a second. When Ho-jae says, ‘You do not need this both,’ the creature retreats quietly,” Chung defined.

Direct stated he needs to create an “alien” sequence some day. “My lifelong dream is to go to the moon and see Earth. I’ve at all times been drawn to that story. Watching the sci-fi movie ‘The Moon’ (2023) made me notice how far Korea’s expertise has come. I believe we will do much more sooner or later. Being a director, I want to create a story centered round aliens some day,” he stated.