Ahead of the release of the movie Omniscient Reader: The Prophet, director Kim Byung Woo responded to the controversy surrounding the choice of Jisoo (Blackpink) to play Lee Ji Hye in the movie.
At the press conference on July 17, the director explained: "Jisoo's character appeared quite late in the plot of the film. But in the original novel, Lee Ji Hye was a very important character and had significant development.
Based on the timeline of the film, it was impossible to speed up her progress. So I think if she was played by a famous actress, people would recognize her as an important character.
After that, responding to some viewers' complaints that Jisoo playing Lee Ji Hye was a "bad choice" due to the singer's limited acting ability, director Kim Byung Woo stated: "I know there are criticisms. But that also proves that it was the right choice.
If Lee Ji Hye's role was taken by someone else, the audience might not pay attention to her (due to limited screen time).
Notably, in this film, all the characters appearing in the second half must solve a problem together. As Kim Dok Ja said, no character is allowed to be taken lightly.
I think I have to somehow bring them all together and show the process of gathering strength in this film."
The director also mentioned the controversy of "distorting" the plot by equipping Lee Ji Hye with a gun, instead of the sword she used in the original story.
I understand that there will be strong reactions from the original fans. We have tried to minimize the uncomfortable points, but there are still some missing details.
I had not expected the controversy over the use of weapons. In the original work, many characters use swords, so I wanted to make the fighting scenes in the film more special in terms of images, so I diversified the types of weapons. I think it will be interesting. My first thought was to try many different things, the director shared.
When asked, "Jisoo is a character who didn't even appear for 5 minutes, don't you feel sorry for all that much controversy? , the director replied: "I think she is an actress who deserves such attention. In fact, none of Jisoo's scenes were cut. She appeared with the exact duration as in the script.
Omniscient Reader: The Prophet has a production budget of about 30 billion won, based on the famous online novel of the same name that is loved by global fans.
The film stars Ahn Hyo Seop, Lee Min Ho, Nana, Chae Soo Bin, Shin Seung Ho, Jisoo (Blackpink)... will be released in Korea on July 23.
