'‘Alienoid’ holds a special place in my heart': Director Choi Dong-hoon hopes for better turnout

Movies

Published: 08 Jan. 2024, 16:51

'‘Alienoid’ holds a special place in my heart': Director Choi Dong-hoon hopes for better turnout

In ″Alienoid 2,″ time-traveling swordsmen and alien prisoners in human bodies clash in an epic science fiction-fantasy mash-up [CJ ENM]

Imagine going through 50 different edits of a film to get to the perfect final cut. Director Choi Dong-hoon, who made the two “Alienoid” films, did. And though the task was not an easy feat, he managed to push through.

“Usually, the first part of a two-part film project needs to do well at the box office, but we didn’t have that for ‘Alienoid’ so it was hard deciding on a final cut for ‘Alienoid 2,’" Choi said during an interview with reporters on Jan. 5. “In the original script for ‘Alienoid 2,’ the characters go back and forth between the past and the present four times, but I reduced that to two. And to keep the central plot the same while changing the details, that meant we had to start with scenes from the past. Restructuring ‘Alienoid 2’ hopefully has made it more approachable to viewers.”

The first part of the two-part film project — about time-traveling swordsmen and aliens trapped inside human bodies — opened in summer 2022 and was expected to be a hit, not least because it came from Choi. He is the force behind two films that sold 10 million tickets, “The Thieves” (2012) and “Assassination” (2015), as well as numerous other hits including “Tazza: The High Rollers” (2006), which attracted 6.84 million viewers, and “Jeon Woo-chi: The Taoist Wizard” (2009), which saw 6.13 million.

But “Alienoid” flopped at the box office with only 1.5 million viewers in total, tainting Choi’s illustrious filmography record. Despite this, the two-part “Alienoid” series has been the most meaningful and at the same time the most challenging project for Choi, according to the director, who is looking forward to unveiling the second film in local theaters on Jan. 10.

Director Choi Dong-hoon [CJ ENM]

“I poured six years into this project, and I think it was a completely new attempt in Korean film,” Choi said. “I have had many hit films and films that I am very proud of, but even among them ‘Alienoid’ holds a special place in my heart. Mixing sci-fi together with fantasy was so fun, and I hope that even decades later people will approach ‘Alienoid’ with a sense of curiosity.”

Attempting that genre mix and producing a two-part epic saga has made Choi realize once again the delight of making films, and has opened his eyes even further to the joy of working with actors and “coming to love them,” the director said.

“Working on ‘Alienoid’ has made me see that both the struggle and the fun of making films are all in the director’s destiny,” Choi said. “This project has left a strong mark on me, and now I fully see that a director’s job is to come to love the actors, and it ends when that love is at its peak. I would stare into the actors’ eyes in the footage as I was editing the final cut, and that was very fulfilling for me.”

Main poster for ″Alienoid 2″ [CJ ENM]

As “Alienoid” was designed as a two-part film from the get-go and boasts a unique setting and complex timeline, some have asked why it wasn’t produced as a TV series instead. Director Choi explained that the extravagant visual effects for “Alienoid” was best fit for being watched at theaters, and addressed the possibility of a third “Alienoid” film.

“A lot of people said that this should have been made into a series instead of two films, or even that the setting and plot should be expanded into a series after the films are released,” Choi said. “But I felt that the film format was best for the story since it features a lot of big visual effects. As for the possibility of a third part of ‘Alienoid,’ we talked briefly about it during the post-production of the second part, but I think it is too early to say for sure at this point.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]