According to Hankook Ilbo, with a production budget of more than 30 billion won, "Omniscient Reader" is one of the most expensive Korean films ever.
The film was released at a key time in Korean cinema, when recent Hollywood works such as "Jurassic World: Dominion" and "Superman" did not achieve the expected revenue, giving way to domestic films to return.
Omniscient Reader is adapted from an extremely popular online novel of the same name, which has attracted 200 million views.
The story is told about Kim Dok Ja (Ahn Hyo Seop), the sole reader of a long-running online novel. On the day the novel ends after more than a decade, Dok Ja discovers the fictional world in the novel suddenly becoming a reality.
Dok Ja, along with the novel's main character Yoo Joong Hyuk (Lee Min Ho) and his accomplices, must find a way to survive in a world in decline.
Director Kim Byung Woo said that he wanted to create a work that even those who did not know much about the original novel could fully feel the story.
When it was released on screen, "Omniscient Reader" had some changes in the plot, such as the character Lee Ji Hye played by Jisoo (Blackpink) using guns instead of swords like in the original story.
This was controversial, but the director thought that having too many characters using swords would reduce the uniqueness of the action scenes, so he decided to let Lee Ji Hye switch to using guns.
It is known that the film only adapted the first part of the original novel. However, with her content of thousands of pages of novels in a 117-minute film, it was a big challenge.
Some critics commented that the plus point of the film is the fast-paced content, but it also caused points except for the plot about some characters lacking emotional depth.
In terms of images, the film has more than 1,300 scenes created using CGI (computing image simulation technology) out of a total of about 1,500 scenes.
realism such as Seoul's Geumho and Chungmuro subway stations (Korea) are recreated as a battlefield between humans and monsters.
Hankook Ilbo revealed that "Omniscient Reader" has an open ending, promising a longer story behind it. The director confirmed that the script for the sequel has been completed, and most of the main cast is said to be ready to return.
Even before its domestic release, the film had been sold in more than 110 countries, affirming its global appeal.
However, the sequel will depend on revenue in Korea, the film must attract at least 5 million domestic views to offset costs and " put the green light" on the sequel.
"Omniscient Reader" starring Ahn Hyo Seop, Lee Min Ho, Nana, Chae Soo Bin, Shin Seung Ho, Jisoo (Blackpink) will officially hit theaters on July 23.
