The Lion King 3D‘s successful release, and the subsequent Disney announcement that more converted classics are coming, has pretty definitively proven that the post-converting industry will stay hopping long after new 3D movies have all moved to shooting natively in the format. And while in America we already have a packed pipeline of converted 3D films, over in South Korea they are just completing their first-ever post-conversion. The 2D-to-3D process has been in fact been applied to a film you probably recognize: The Host.
The 2006 monster movie was very well regarded by genre fans in the states, as its mix of well-shot monster action and entertaining family drama hit all the right notes. But while we certainly liked it here, the film is beloved in its home country and became the highest-grossing film in the country’s history.
[Those lucky fucking Koreans… their highest grossing movie is a badass monster extravaganza, and we get silly blue cat people playing Pocahontas.]
The producers of the remake obviously promise that the conversion hasn’t tampered with the effectiveness of the film, and director Bong Joon-ho (who is quite old-school, and doesn’t seem to have been much involved in the conversion) suggests there’s some value to the experience:
“It was interesting to watch something that I directed in a different format. I had wanted to reinterpret the Han River, a familiar space for Koreans, in an exotic way, and the 3D effects do highlight the sense of space that I had wanted to capture. The visuals also brought back memories of what I felt myself while shooting by the river.”
There’s no suggestion that the conversion will make it to the states, but I would imagine it would make it to some theaters at some point or another. Whether that’s purely an LA special screening type thing or if it gets some kind of minor stateside rerelease along with its Korean bow is up to guess at this point. The article also throws out a mention that Joon-ho is currently working on his first english-language film, based on french graphic novel Le Transperceneige, which he’s been attached to since he made The Host. There’s also an expected sequel to The Host said to be coming to Korea in 2013, but that’s not Joon-ho’s film. I’d imagine we’ll hear more about both of them in 2012.
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Source | THR
2 comments
I’m pretty sure Avatar was bigger than The Host in Korea, so by your calculation there must be plenty of idiots there as well? The fact that the bigget Korean movie of all time is a special effects monster movie, would suggest that they are more similar to our tastes then this article would suggest. Now if there biggest movie was something along the lines of say Enter the Void or even No Country For Old Men, then you might be able to argue that there tastes are somehow deeper and richer than ours. The Host, while definitely entertaining, was a bit overlong and the family relationships bordered on ridiculousness at times. It’s a good movie but not some sacred cow that makes our tastes seem foolish. Admit it, you just wanted to take a shot at Avatar, right? Fish in a barrel…Night Watch, a film about magicians and vampires, is also the biggest film in Russia. Is it because it is so unique and vanguard? Not necessarily, though I do think it is also a solid action flick. All people, all over the world, love to see shit blow up real good…IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE…That is, partially, why a movie like The Host did so well in it’s native country. Also, let’s be honest, no matter what you think of the story, a lot of the monsters in Avatar are pretty badass too…
wow, I used “there”, instead of “their” a few too many times….maybe these American movies are rotting my brain… 🙂
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