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| "Emergency Declaration" follows a terrorist attack on an airplane. Courtesy of Showbox |
New film draws mixed responses from audiences
By Lee Gyu-lee
The star-studded disaster film "Emergency Declaration," one of the most-anticipated flicks of this year, has finally hit movie theaters, Wednesday, after a long delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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| Han Jae-rim, director of the film "Emergency Declaration" / Courtesy of Showbox |
"I wanted to talk about hope ― that if we come together in a catastrophic situation, we can get through it," Han said in an interview with The Korea Times, Wednesday.
"When I wrote the script and started filming, I had no idea that the coronavirus pandemic would come. The film shows conflicts that are also seen in this pandemic … I wanted to cast light on healing and hope while also portraying humanity undergoing changes from psychological fear."
The blockbuster film revolves around a terrorist attack on a flight bound for Hawaii from Korea. A terrorist threat is made online, and as detective In-ho (Song Kang-ho) finds out that the suspect (Im Si-wan) was on the flight, a passenger dies suddenly on the plane.
While people on board, including Jae-hyuk (Lee Byung-hun) and Hyun-soo (Kim Nam-gil), try to deal with the rising tension and panic erupting among passengers, In-ho joins the government authorities' operation to save the lives of all on board.
The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, opened on Wednesday at the top of the local box office, with about 336,000 ticket sales.
The director expressed excitement about the film's long-awaited opening. "It took years to release. We screened it to audiences at Cannes last year and received feedback. But it feels like another premiere. Meeting Korean audiences feels incomparably exciting and nerve-wracking," he said.
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| A scene from the disaster film "Emergency Declaration" / Courtesy of Showbox |
Han shared that the primary focus in filming the scenes was to make them as realistic as possible. The film comprises first-person point-of-view shots and scenes filmed on a gimbal set for action sequences and turbulence on the airplane.
"A large number of people get on an airplane. So there were many limitations to making the scenes realistic. The space between the seats was tight and it was hard for the actors playing passengers and the production crew to all get on the plane and film," he said. "So to portray a major catastrophic situation, we built a gimbal set. For authenticity, the cinematographer went onto the set and captured each character with a handheld camera."
Despite the film's much-anticipated release, it already is getting mixed responses from moviegoers. The director expressed that although he understands the split reactions, he hopes audiences will empathize with each character.
"I feel there can be different opinions from my own. There has been varied feedback ― some understood my intention while for others, I wondered how they got such an impression. For example, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, some people didn't really mind eating out, but others were scared of going to restaurants and would dine in," he said.
"'Emergency Declaration' also has characters that can be interpreted in different ways. So I do hope that these figures would come through as understandable through the film. I would like the film to lead the audiences to think 'it's possible to act like that,' instead of thinking 'why they would act like that?'"
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