Hyundai casts innovative line with "Night Fishing" Ioniq 5 short film

Industry

Published: 11 Jun. 2024, 18:13 Updated: 11 Jun. 2024, 19:45

Hyundai casts innovative line with "Night Fishing" Ioniq 5 short film

A still from the film ″Night Fishing,″ starring actor Son Suk-ku and co-produced by Hyundai Motor [HYUNDAI MOTOR]

A mysterious agent fights with an undefined creature that steals electricity from an EV charging station on a dark night.

Batteries hang at the end of fishing rods seeking to lure the alien.

A unique plot, but a weirder angle: The 15-minute mystery thriller film "Night Fishing” is filmed from the perspective of seven cameras installed in an Ioniq 5 EV to capture the field of vision seen in black box footage.

A poster for the short film ″Night Fishing,″ starring actor Son Suk-ku and co-produced by Hyundai Motor [HYUNDAI MOTOR]

Starring actor Son Suk-gu and co-produced by Hyundai Motor, the film is the automaker’s latest new marketing strategy to “offer customers an indirect experience of its EVs” using cameras, surround view monitors and digital side mirrors.

Unlike traditional product placement, the full body of an Ioniq 5 never appears throughout the entire movie.

“The purpose of this film is to communicate with consumers in new and innovative ways; if we wanted to just show off our product, we could've just made a promotional video," said Jee Sung-won Jee, global chief marketing officer of the automaker, during a media event Tuesday.

"As consumer content consumption evolves, so does Hyundai’s approach to content marketing."

A still from the film ″Night Fishing,″ starring actor Son Suk-ku and co-produced by Hyundai Motor [HYUNDAI MOTOR]

Directed by Moon Byoung-gon, who won the Palme d'Or for short films at the Cannes Film Festival with "Safe" in 2013, "Night Fishing" was presented at the Sundance Film Festival’s ChefDance program in January. The film has been invited to compete in the short film category at Canada's Fantasia International Film Festival in July.

The innovative film will open on June 14 exclusively at 15 CGV theaters across Korea for six days, with tickets priced at 1,000 won (70 cents).

Hyundai Motor’s EV sales are rising overseas, especially in the United States, despite the slowing down consumer demand.

The automaker sold a total of 7,174 EVs in the U.S. market in May, up 45.3 percent on year of which 4,449 were Ioniq 5s, hitting a monthly all-time high.

Cumulative sales of Hyundai EVs this year through May jumped 47 percent to 26,838.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]