‘Steel Rain’ takes ‘cool-headed’ view on inter-Korean relations
SEOUL: The director of the new action blockbuster Steel Rain has indicated that, via his film, he hopes to create awareness on the need for a “cool-headed” look at inter-Korean relations.
“North Korea is a country of the same tribe but clearly is our enemy at the same time, which makes it difficult for us to look at inter-Korean relations in a coolheaded manner,” Yang Woo-suk said during a news conference to promote the movie.
“We can find a solution when we look more cool-headedly at the relations imagining the worst-case scenario. I thought my film would be of help in that sense.”
Speaking of the worst-case scenario, Yang said: “We cannot escape from a nuclear war should a second war break out on the peninsula,” he said.
“When that happens, at least one of the two Koreas would disappear from Earth. So, that kind of war should not happen.”
In the movie, the Korean Peninsula is on the brink of a nuclear war following a military coup in North Korea and a preemptive strike on the North by the United States.
The North Korean leader is found seriously wounded by an elite North Korean agent Um Cheol-woo (Jung Woo-sung).
The agent then surreptitiously takes the leader to South Korea with him seeking shelter and encounters Kwak Cheol-woo (Kwak Do-won), the country’s chief presidential secretary on diplomatic and security affairs. The two combine forces as they struggle to prevent nuclear war.
The movie is based on the popular 2011 webtoon of the same English name by the director, who is also a prominent webtoon author.
The webtoon depicted a Korean Peninsula at crisis following the death of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
Yang said he changed the political setting and characters in the original story to make a film adaptation years later because Kim actually died after the webtoon went into circulation.
“So, the film doesn’t start with the death of Kim Jong-il but with the occurrence of a military coup.”