D-War

I watched movie “D-War” few months ago. It became the center of public interest even before it was on at the theater, because its director was Shim Hyung Rae and this movie was known to be the first SF movie in Korea. Shim Hyung Rae is South Korean former comedian (everyone knows Yung-Goo). After he got interests on filmmaking, he directed several movies. His movie themes were usually the dragon. The most popular ones he directed so far were “Yonggary” and “D-war: dragon wars.” When “Yonggary” came out, he became the target of criticism. SF movie in Korea was just started and the technology in that field was very poor. Even he got a lot of criticism, he did not give up and brought new upgraded movie “D-war.” When it opened, it was very popular throughout Korea. Everyone claimed this movie. Because of its popularity in Korea, it sold all over the world. I do not think it was very well made film itself. However, it truly showed the future potential on SF movie. This movie is about tail of “Imugi.” And leading actors were all Caucasians. Shim Hyung Rae interviewed that he wanted globalizing Korean films. And casting nonkorean was the best way. In the last scene that Imugi was going up to heaven, he inserted Korean traditional song, Arirang as sound track. It touched Koreans’ mind. People said this part was most impressing scene of the movie. Even though plots were not very fluent, and some plots were poorly made, I enjoyed this movie a lot. I give him a credit for his effort trying new field, and stepping up the difficulties. I also hope lots of Korean movies can be spread globally.