(Korean Movies) The Pirates, 2014

Summer 2014, the national laughter summoning project!
Transgenerational! fun exhilarating! Only one entertainment movie this summer!
Among the historical drama films that will be released in large numbers this summer, the only attractive point of <The Pirates: The Bandit Who Goes to the Sea> (hereafter <The Pirates>) is the 'humor' code. Unlike the July-August releases that have serious, heavy or dark tones, <The Pirates> is armed with pleasant and sophisticated humor. The face of the pirates, bandits, and nationalist characters struggling to find the national bird is the most reassuring point that supports the entertainment of the movie <Pirates>. In the episode of a bandit gang who go to the sea triumphantly because they have never seen the sea let alone whales, the comic acting ensemble of the boss Jang Sa-jeong (Kim Nam-gil) and Cheol-bong (Yoo Hae-jin), who has turned into a bandit from a pirate, always brings laughter to the audience. Director Lee Seok-hoon said, “Did people know what whales were like 700 years ago? It is even more comical because it is pathetic to see the people of the Joseon Dynasty who were ignorant of the sea.” In addition, the three real-life characters, Seong-gye Lee, Jeong Do-jeon, and Sang-jil Han, are set as the most comical characters that are 180 degrees different from the existing images drawn in historical dramas and movies depicting the Joseon Dynasty, giving them the thrill of reversal.

The comic acting carried on the body of the luxury actors who believe and see here draws sympathy from audiences of all generations thanks to their innate acting skills. The movie <Pirates>, which boasts the best entertainment among films released in the summer of 2014, is expected to captivate the entire nation in August with a 'humor' code that is easy to communicate with, as well as a 'generational empathy' point that encompasses men and women of all ages.

A witty imagination added to historical facts!
There was no national seal for the first 10 years of Joseon's founding?!
A delightful synergy between writer Cheon Seong-il of <Level 7 Civil Servant> and director Lee Seok-hoon of <Dancing Queen>!
The movie <Pirates> is an action-adventure depicting the exhilarating battle over the sea between pirates and bandits looking for an unprecedented case of the disappearance of the national bird due to a whale attack a month before the founding of the Joseon Dynasty. Writer Cheon Seong-il, who captivated the taste buds of critics as well as the public through numerous works such as the movie <7th Grade Civil Servant> (2009) and the KBS drama [Chuno] (2010), and <Dancing Queen> (2012) were recognized for their excellent directing sense. It is a fact+fiction historical drama created by director Lee Seok-hoon.

The story of <Pirates> is actually based on the historical fact that there was no official seal for nearly 10 years until 1403, after returning the Goryeo royal seal to the Ming dynasty in the early days of Joseon's founding. To the historical fact of the founding of the Joseon Dynasty and the absence of the national seal, questions such as “Why was there no national seal?” and “Why did such a situation arise?” and imagination were added. In addition, it gives a different kind of pleasure by introducing a 'pirate' that has never been dealt with in domestic movies or dramas.

Pirates vs Bandits vs National Powers gathered under one goal of 'National Bird'!
Complete a character battle full of personality with multi-casting that spans generations!
The highlight of the movie <Pirates> is undoubtedly the character battle full of personality and the fantastic acting ensemble of Korea's top luxury actors. The 12 people who gather at the sea in search of the national bird for different reasons are divided into three groups: pirates, bandits, and national powers, showing off their individuality. In addition to Kim Nam-gil, Son Ye-jin, Yoo Hae-jin, and Kim Tae-woo, a multi-casting that encompasses generations from Sulli, born in 1994 to Kyungyoung Lee, born in 1960, adds vitality to the character and is expected to captivate the taste buds of all generations of audiences.

First, the bandits, the owners of the land, have never seen or heard of the sea before, but they head to the sea with the ambition that if they find the national seal, they can grab a huge amount of gold and silver treasure in one day. Actor Kim Nam-gil, who left a deep impression with his thick acting in the movie <Beautiful Island> (2008), MBC drama [Queen Seon-deok] (2009), and SBS drama [Bad Man] (2010), plays the role of Jang Sa-jeong, the leader of a bandit who leaves with only motivation. As a character, he tries to transform his image by showing not only the masculine side of the man, but also the absurd charm of the reversal. The bandits with him as the main axis are Hae Jin Hae, a former pirate who turned to a bandit because he hated seasickness, Wonhae Kim as Chunseop, the second-in-command of the bandits complaining, Jo Dal-hwan as Jo Dal-hwan, the role of an unidentified carnivorous monk Deng-jung, and Cheol-min Park as a pleasant character line. build

The pirates, who pride themselves on being the masters of the sea, did not become pirates to hunt whales, but protect the sea to find the national seal and restore their lost honor. Son Ye-jin, the screen empress who led the box office of many films such as <Eraser in My Head> (2004), <My Wife Got Married> (2008), and <Tower> (2012), took on the role of Yeo-wol, the head of a pirate corps, for the first time in her life, They perform high-level action performances. Shin Jeong-geun, a deckmaster who follows and cares for Yeo-wol like a shadow around her, Sulli as a black pearl black cat with a beautiful face of the pirates, and Lee Yi-kyung as Chambok, a young watchman of the pirates, work as assistants to enrich the story of the movie and the charm of historical dramas. make it stand out

The national powers further reinforce the point of watching <Pirates>, where various character groups boast different personalities, even under the same purpose of being a national bird. The people who are the masters of the country go to the sea to find the absurdly lost national bird and complete the founding of the Joseon Dynasty with their own hands. Actor Oh Dal-soo, who is a must-see in 10 million films such as <The Monster> (2006), <The Thieves> (2012), and <The Attorney> (2013), is the real person who puts the Joseon Dynasty in crisis by losing the national seal. Responsible for reality In addition, Kim Tae-woo, who played the role of Mo Heung-gap, the Joseon general, and Lee Kyung-young, who played Soma, who abandoned the pirates and joined hands with the founding forces, form the two main villains in the movie <Pirates>, demonstrating a heavy presence, giving vitality to the film.

Reasonable challenge of trending actors!
Son Ye-jin's life's first high-level action, the only female protagonist in the theater this summer & Hong Il-jeom action actress!
Kim Nam-gil's comic acting, the most synchronized character ever!
Son Ye-jin and Kim Nam-gil show a different side in the movie <Pirates>. Son Ye-jin, who boasts eight colors of charm from innocence, elegance, cuteness, and sexiness, challenged action for the first time in film history. Kim Nam-gil, who has shown acting in the image of a sophisticated urban man, plays the role of 'Jang Sa-jeong', the bandit boss, and shows a rough man's side and a playful comical character at the same time.

'Yeowol' is a charismatic female pirate boss who commands the sea of Joseon, and is a character with strong character and good martial arts skills. Son Ye-jin, who was burdened because there was no reference to a female pirate, challenged her because she was a unique and attractive person. The only female lead in the theater this summer and the action actress Hong Il-jeom, she picked the most difficult part of the first difficult action scenes in her life, the chase scene with Byeokrando, which had a lot of wire action and had to ride a slide. To cinematographer Kim Young-ho, “I think there will be a lot of action movie offers in the future” and to martial arts director Go Hyun-woong, “Son Ye-jin is a hard worker. She was praised for making the martial arts staff hard.” She is expected to solidify her position as a versatile actress who has mastered all Korean movie characters since the movie <Pirates>.

'Jang Sa-jeong' is from a Goryeo samurai, so he has splendid swordsmanship skills, but after becoming a bandit, he is a sloppy boss who never succeeds in stealing properly. At the beginning of the Goryeo period, he shows a serious and cool figure, but after the founding of the Joseon Dynasty, he shows a playful and pleasant character. The 'Jang Sa-jeong' character has a high synchro rate that people around Kim Nam-gil commented, "Kim Nam-gil himself!" In addition, Kim Nam-gil himself expressed his affection, saying, “The character most resembles my personality in the history of the film.” In addition, about Kim Nam-gil, who made the character laugh, but did a great job without a double, martial arts director Ko Hyun-woong said, “Kim Nam-gil is an actor who is good at action. know how to use the body He has a quick comprehension of actions.”

Mysterious 'Ghost Whale Project'!
Characterizing & design reflecting the characteristics of real ghost whales!
A unique solution developed exclusively for the movie <Pirates>, in perfect harmony with the sea CG!
The movie <Pirates> started with the 'Ghost Whale Project'. The ghost whale, the scientific name of the native whale in Korea, is actually a mysterious spirit creature that haunts like a ghost around the eastern coast of Korea. The 'Ulsan Ghost Whale Migratory Sponge', the route that ghost whales travel to to give birth, is also designated as Natural Monument No. 126. In the movie <Pirates>, which features a total of 12 characters including pirates, bandits, and powers of origin, the ghost whale that swallowed the national bird is just as important as the two main characters. This is a whale that attacked the meandering ship that received national seals from the Ming dynasty, and is a mother whale trying to protect its young. The setting of the whale in the movie reflects the character of the ghost whale, which in fact has a strong protective instinct for its young and sometimes becomes aggressive.

The art team and the CG team tried to convey a friendly feeling with maternal love rather than drawing a wild and scary whale in this scene. In addition, I tried to express the whale, whom I had a relationship with since childhood with the pirate 'Yeo-wol' (Son Ye-jin), as cute as possible and like a friend. For this reason, we did a thorough examination of the appearance and habits of the ghost whale that lived in Joseon 700 years ago, but added a new interpretation and imagination to design it in a mysterious and friendly way. As a result, the whale in the movie was born with the visual of a humpback whale similar to a ghost whale.

With the character and design of the ghost whale decided in this way, the part that the production team paid attention to is the visual of the ghost whale that is naturally realized with full CG. It was a task that was as important as the sea to the CG team who had to work with computer graphics for all scenes with the sea as the background. The R&D team of 'Dexter Studio', which has been recognized for its technological prowess by embodying a gorilla's fur in the movie <Mr. Go> (2013), developed its own solution in the movie <Pirates>. Zephyr's* technology shines especially in the scene where Yeo-wol, who jumps into the sea to find the Buddha image dropped by the Bu pirates at the beginning of the movie, encounters a whale. The realistic and lively sea embodied by Zephyrus made it possible to achieve the perfect visual as if a giant CG whale was actually swimming in the sea. As such, the whale in the movie <Pirates> is another character created by the luxury production team with the characters completed by the performances of the luxury actors, and will provide the audience with a fresh visual experience.

*Tip. What is Zephyros?
A solution independently developed by the R&D team of 'Dexter Studios' to direct the sea scene in the movie <Pirates>. Zephyrus, the god of the west wind in Greek mythology, is a simulation of creating the sea. It is a technology that has made it possible to reduce the work time by more than two-thirds and to devote more time to the production of more elaborate scenes.

250 CG personnel, 3,000 costumes, 120 art staff alone,
Two 32m mega-sized ships, up to billions of gimbals!
Everything about <Pirates> production in four keywords!

☞ pirate ship
One of the parts that the production team of <Pirates> struggled the most in order to express the realistic action on the ship and the overwhelming scale was the pirate ship. Unlike ships of the founding powers, which were built after thoroughly examining the ships of officials and envoys in the late Goryeo and early Joseon Dynasty, pirate ships in the East did not have a proper reference. For this reason, the art team responsible for the production of the ship for the movie <The Pirates> had to devote more than half of the preparation period to research and study exclusively for the pirate ship. The art team, who was struggling, referred to ships such as the Panokseon, a representative battleship of Joseon, and sought advice from the Maritime Museum to find a midpoint between the West and the East with the unique characteristics of the movie <Pirates>. The pirate ship of 'Yeowol' (Son Ye-jin) is a setting in which a Chinese ship is seized to fit the character of the best pirate who commands the sea, and the design is borrowed from a Chinese junk ship. In addition, the ship of the cold-blooded pirate 'Soma' (Lee Kyung-young) is a design made by combining the strengths seen from ships of each country while sailing all over the world. Art director Kim Ji-ah, who was in charge of designing the 32m extra-large boat set, expressed her affection, saying, "I had to show a completely new visual, so I didn't have a reference, but it was meaningful because I was able to try and take on a different challenge."

☞ Gimbal
The staff of the movie <Pirates>, which mainly consists of sea scenes, cited the production of a 'gimbal' as the reason that they were able to take on many challenges through this work. In order to control the numerous variables that occur when shooting in the sea, such as waves and wind, as intended by the production team, we decided to shoot all sea scenes without going out to sea, and the 'gimbal' was specially designed. The gimbal, a 9m high leveling device specially made for the movie <Pirates>, is a device to give the feeling that the ship is actually moving through the waves. The gimbal, an essential tool in the movie <Pirates>, in which various seas such as calm seas and turbulent seas appear, provides actors who have to act in places other than the sea with strong winds and special lighting in the real sea. It provides an atmosphere where you can focus more than the situation of the movie, enhancing the film's perfection. Regarding 'Gimbal', the production team said, "Everyone was thrilled when we put a large ship on the gimbal with a crane," and "It was a situation where we could not have dared to challenge 5-6 years ago, but we did it."

☞ Byeokrando
Byeokrando is a space just as important as the sea in the movie <Pirates>. It has appeared in many historical dramas and movies. Therefore, the production team had to recreate it as a space that can give new and enjoyable to the audience. Like production keywords such as pirate ships, gimbals, and whales, this was also created by adding new interpretations and imaginations through thorough research. Interestingly, the films the art team referenced for the authorship scene of Byeokrando are the European film Perfume (2006) and the Hollywood film Sherlock Holmes: The Shadow Game (2011). And the hill of Byeokrando, where the action unfolds dynamically, is an idea inspired by the European port city of Monaco. Art director Kim Ji-ah, who said, “I designed it as an international and Goryeo color,” and Kang Jong-ik, VFX supervisor, “I wanted to create an action and situation using space,” the scene of Byeokrando, where a large number of historical drama genres are released. It will be one of the attractive points of the movie <The Pirates> in the summer theater district.

☞ Guk bird
The most important prop in the movie <Pirates>, which depicts the fierce battle of Joseon's strongest thieves in search of the national seal, is by far the most important prop. At the beginning of the movie, the Joseon envoy Han Sang-jil (Oh Dal-su) was attacked by a whale while he was receiving it from the Ming Dynasty and disappeared. ) is a prop. In fact, it took a month and a half to confirm the design and a month and a half to produce the seal of <Pirates>, which started after showing the design to a Korean seal maker. It took a lot of money and time, so it was the prop that the art team loved the most.

[ Production behind the scenes ]

☞ Climbing for the first filming?!
On August 15, 2013, in the midsummer of the summer, the first filming location of the movie <Pirates>, where the entire staff worked with a pounding heart, was Mt. Cheongwan in Jangheung, Jeollanam-do. Nearly 100 staff, including actors, had to climb to the top of a mountain 870 meters above sea level, carrying heavy equipment such as Jimmy's house, cranes, cameras, and sound equipment to capture the image of the bandit gang heading to the sea. Actors and staff alike, everyone carried a bottle of water and even a single piece of equipment, and it became an opportunity to become even stronger. It's hard to shoot in thick movie costumes on a hot day, but the actors and staff, who had to climb a mountain, thought that the difficult filming would be over, but they all agree that it was more difficult ever since.

☞ The filming site of <Pirates> is a construction site?!
A gimbal with a height of 9m, two ships with a length of 32m, and a set of tanks. The production team of the movie <Pirates> had to produce all the sets used as the background of the movie by themselves, such as compacting the ground for the Yangsu-ri set and building a steel structure. The sight of several dozen staff wearing hard hats, such as the piles of wood used to build ships and digging with shovels or welding, was reminiscent of a large construction site. It is said that people who came to the filming site of the movie <Pirates> sometimes confused whether it was a filming site or a heavy industry construction site.

☞ The secret to making the delightful movie <Pirates> more fun lies in the field?!
If you ask director Lee Seok-hoon, actors, and staff about the mood maker of <Pirates>, a different person's name comes up every time. Kim Nam-gil, Yoo Hae-jin, Park Chul-min, Kim Won-hae, and Sulli, etc.'s friendly atmosphere was not created by the efforts of only one actor. It means that all the seniors and juniors are friendly and the atmosphere on site is good. In particular, Kim Nam-gil, who had the burden of acting in a comic for the first time in film history, revealed that he was able to melt a pleasant character on the screen with the help of such a scene atmosphere, raising expectations for the film.