Korean sci-fi films up the ante with latest VFX technology

Movies

Published: 04 Mar. 2023, 07:00 Updated: 04 Mar. 2023, 14:16

Korean sci-fi films up the ante with latest VFX technology

Actor Kim Hyun-joo portrays two characters — a human version of her character Jung-yi and humanoid warrior Jung_E in Netflix original film “Jung_E.” Visual effects (VFX) studio eNgine Visual Wave, a subsidiary of film distributor NEW took charge of the project. [ENGINE VISUAL WAVE]

The latest special visual effects technology is being implemented in Korean sci-fi films, and it’s killing two birds with one stone — it’s more cost-effective and high quality.

Director Choi Dong-hoon’s sci-fi fantasy adventure film “Alienoid Part 1,” failed to gain popularity domestically after its release in local theaters last summer but gained traction overseas. After the film’s release on Netflix in December, it earned rave reviews from foreign media outlets such as the New York Times, which said, “this is the rare film that makes going off the plot rails wildly entertaining.”

It earned 89 percent fresh on the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a U.S.-based review aggregator, higher than Marvel’s latest “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which earned 83 percent fresh after its release in global theaters last month.

“Jung_E,” a Netflix original film by director Yeon Sang-ho who is also behind hits such as “Train to Busan” (2016) and “Hellbound” (2021), was released in January and became the most-watched non-English movie on Netflix from Jan. 16 to 22.

Set in a post-apocalyptic future, the film revolves around a determined researcher at an artificial intelligence lab seeking to clone the brain of her mother and a legendary soldier named Jung_E to supply humans with a force to fight robots. Actor Kim Hyun-joo portrays the android warrior in the film.

It roused interest from the local film industry as the first Korean title to front an android robot as a full-fledged protagonist. It’s the first time a character made from computer graphics dominates the screen time from beginning to end.

Actor Kim Hyun-joo as the android robot Jung_E in a scene from "Jung_E" [NETFLIX]

Robots in domestic sci-fi films, combined with visual effects (VFX) technology have come a long way: In one of the short films for omnibus film “Doomsday Book” (2012), an android robot achieves enlightenment from Buddhist teachings which leads to a dispute about its existence; In “Sori: Voice from the Heart” (2016), a father searches for his missing daughter with a robot which can track a person’s location using their voice; In “The Prayer” (2021), a robot built as a caregiver deciphers life and death.

These films used dummies to film the scenes with robots or actors applied special make-up to portray the robotic features. “Jung_E,” on the other hand, shows how much progress the film industry has made in terms of visual effects.

The VFX studio pre-visualized the mechanic operations of the robot which does not appear in the film “Jung_E.” [ENGINE VISUAL WAVE]

While critics were critical of the muddled narrative in “Jung_E” and shinpa code — a Korean term referring to overly emotional scenes stemming from cliches such as relationships between lovers, friends and family or the sacrifices they make for their loved ones — it earned high praise in terms of its visuals.

CNN likened the film’s visual effects to “most closely resemble the Will Smith movie ‘I, Robot’ in terms of the androids, with a pinch of ‘Blade Runner’s’ grimy dystopia.”

Film distributor NEW’s subsidiary VFX studio eNgine Visual Wave participated in the effects for “Jung_E.”

“I’ve been hearing from overseas that the visuals of ‘Jung_E’ are on par with Hollywood blockbusters which spent billions of dollars,” said VFX supervisor Jung Hwang-soo who worked on “Jung_E.” “With the current technology that the domestic industry possesses, we can fully portray effects of that of Hollywood’s robot series. It’s now possible to realize content where Robot Taekwon V [a popular character from the hit animated series with the same title between the 1970s to 1980s] goes against Megatron from the Transformers franchise, right here in Korea.”

VFX image from “Jung_E” [ENGINE VISUAL WAVE]

Preproduction art director Na Il-hwan emphasized that the appearance of CG-based robot characters, which closely resemble an actual person, is a huge leap forward in the film technology.

“We’ve been working with Yeon from ‘Peninsula’ and ‘Hellbound,’” said Na. “We tried to reinforce and expand technologies which could realistically portray the apocalyptic future. In a world sunken in water due to climate change, we imagined that it will be full of remains of destroyed ships and recyclable trash so we incorporated that into the robot as well, using stainless aluminum and plastic to visualize the character instead of the conventional metal used in other sci-fi films.”

The film’s attempt to distinguish itself from other sci-fi genres include focusing on the character, or the robot’s emotions as it is stored with memories of a middle-aged woman with a young, sick daughter instead of highlighting the physiques of female robot, as other films have done.

This is why the film put particular focus on the humanoid character’s face — even in scenes where the actor’s face is nowhere to be seen, the robot’s facial features such as the shape of her mouth and her facial outline closely resemble that of Kim. Her eye movements, on the other hand, resemble robotic mechanisms. The eye components were meticulously designed so that the character’s emotions could be seen beneath the robotic exterior.

VFX image from “Jung_E” [ENGINE VISUAL WAVE]

“As actors in the ‘Avatar’ series used motion capture for their characters’ movements, we did the same for Kim’s face,” said Jung. “Specific movements down to the tremor of her eyes were drawn by the animators for the CG character. Kim repeated the emotional scenes multiple times, which we captured and referenced to incorporate her various facial movements.”

According to Jung, Hollywood already possesses technology and devices to simultaneously capture an actor’s multiple movements. He forecast that the local industry would soon be able to use them.

BY NA WON-JEONG [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]