Director Yeon Sang-ho and Gianna Jun on their thrilling new zombie movie

“Practice to Busan” proved that people can’t outrun contaminated folks. “Colony” proves they’ll’t outsmart them.

Director Yeon Sang-ho returns to the zombie style together with his third live-action thriller, “Colony,” increasing the “Yeoniverse,” the cinematic universe he constructed by his genre-defining horror movies. The South Korean movie marks the long-awaited return of Gianna Jun (aka Jun Ji-hyun) to the large display screen after 11 years alongside Koo Kyo-hwan and Ji Chang-wook.

“Colony,” which made its North American premiere because the opening movie of the twenty fifth New York Asian Movie Pageant, and can arrive in U.S. theaters Aug. 28 by way of Nicely Go USA, follows Kwon Se-jeong, performed by Gianna, an unemployed biotechnology professor who finds herself trapped in a high-rise constructing after the outbreak of a quickly mutating virus. The survivors should escape whereas the contaminated evolve into one thing smarter and extra harmful than you might be simply strange zombies.

Certainly, the zombies in “Colony” are not like something audiences have seen from Yeon earlier than. Reasonably than customary reanimated corpses, the contaminated are linked by a collective intelligence, permitting them to be taught, adapt and coordinate as one. When a zombie evolves, your complete group evolves with it.

“The toughest half,” Yeon tells Selection“was in search of how you can visually specific zombies that exist as a colony with collective intelligence. To convey this intuitively to the viewers, the motion of the zombies needed to be distinctive.” In “Practice to Busan,” he used breakdancers to choreograph the actions of the contaminated. “Colony” took a distinct strategy: “This time, we employed fashionable dance groups extra skilled in choreographing group actions, with the aim of making actions that would emphasize their collective nature extra. »

Based on Yeon, the thought of ​​a collective organism influenced his strategy to the movie. “I discovered it very attention-grabbing how, in actuality, collective or colony-based organisms at all times produce variants or mutations. The reason being that, as a result of they’re a bunch composed of precisely the identical properties, if a single weak spot is found, your complete colony may die directly, and so they’re continually creating variants.”

The driving pressure behind the movie’s antagonist, Search engine optimization Younger-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan), is his perception that imperfect communication is the supply of all tragedy. This conviction pushes him to orchestrate the bioterrorist assault within the movie. Nonetheless, Yeon disagrees with him.

“I believe I’ve explored the query of what it means to be ‘human’ by a lot of my earlier movies,” he says. “On this work, I had the identical considerations. What I think about ‘humanism’ on this movie is individuality. In different phrases, I imagine that people haven’t any alternative however to own individuality, and since we can’t obtain good communication, we’re the truth is all of the extra human.”

Whereas Younger-chul considers individuality to be humanity’s biggest flaw, Se-jeong’s character represents its power. In growing Se-jeong, Yeon imagined a personality who was an outcast however not somebody weakened by isolation. He needed her to be somebody assertive and assured sufficient to decide on solitude. “Kwon Se-jeong is a posh character. She needs to be somebody who’s an outcast but in addition somebody who’s assured,” he says. “Once I considered who may specific that, I naturally considered Gianna.”

Yeon’s admiration for Gianna’s capability to painting unconventional feminine characters dates again to the start of her profession. “Even in her first movie, ‘My Sassy Lady,’ her character was one thing that had by no means actually been seen earlier than in Korean cinema,” he explains. “I’ve at all times thought-about her an actress who modified the paradigm of feminine characters. Since then, she has continued to alter this paradigm repeatedly by varied roles and performances.”

The ultimate scene of the movie means that the battle towards the contaminated might not be over. Yeon admits that there are already plans for the sequel, however not in the way in which followers anticipated. Reasonably than teasing one other movie, Yeon revealed that he’s at present discussing the potential for persevering with the “Colony” story. as a online game with Smilegate, the movie’s co-producer and recreation developer.

With regards to the inspirations behind “Colony,” Yeon pointed to the 1978 sci-fi horror basic “Invasion of the Physique Snatchers” as one of many greatest influences behind the movie. Different current works that impressed him are “28 Years Later” and “The Final of Us”.

As Korean cinema continues to develop globally, Gianna was requested if she hopes to pursue Hollywood initiatives sooner or later. The brief reply is not any. “I imagine that ‘what’s most Korean is what’s most world,’” she says. “Reasonably than in search of work overseas, I believe it’s extra significant to work with nice administrators and actors proper right here in Korea.”

Yeon shared an analogous sentiment when requested a couple of potential Hollywood remake of “Practice to Busan.” Whereas acknowledging that there have been efforts to remake the movie in English, he mentioned he had no want to direct one himself: “I really feel that I’ve totally expressed every part I needed to do by the unique ‘Practice to Busan’ movie.”

Almost a decade after “Practice to Busan” modified the world’s notion of Korean horror, “Colony” means that the subsequent evolution of on-screen zombies will not simply be quicker or stronger, however smarter.