An 'unofficial operation' between Morocco...The history of overseas locations for Korean films

Scenes of unfamiliar and exotic landscapes, where people speak the same language and unite for a common goal or fight fiercely. Recently, you can often find movies set in overseas locations on the screen. It seems that there is some kind of formula to turn overseas rather than domestically. When did you start getting used to filming on location overseas?

The movie 'Unofficial Operation' (Director Kim Seong-Hoon), which will be released on August 2, is set in 1987, where Min-Jun (Ha Jung-Woo), a diplomat in charge of the Middle East, listens to a coded message from a missing diplomat in Lebanon and volunteers for a mission to unofficially rescue his colleague. What is happening while doing it. After arriving in Lebanon, Min-Jun meets Pan-Su (Ju Ji-Hoon), a Korean taxi driver, and they work together. Lebanon is a major setting in the film, but in fact, 70 percent of the actual shooting was shot in Morocco, Africa. Actor Ha Jung-woo also revealed an anecdote, saying, "It was difficult being in an uncontrollable situation due to the overlapping pandemic."

Morocco, an overseas place name, is familiar somewhere. Director Ryoo Seung-wan's movie "Mogadishu" (2021) also has a cinematic background in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, but was filmed 100 percent in Essaouira, a western city in Morocco. Thanks to this, the space showing a cloudless sky and a different landscape evokes a sense of liveliness as if the audience were directly involved in the local situation. Director Lim Soon-rye's film 'Negotiation' (2023), which is discussed on the same line, is also set in Afghanistan, but filmed in Jordan.

What do the three works have in common? It can be pointed out that all three works were based on true stories before simply filming overseas. First of all, 'Unofficial Operation' is a movie based on the kidnapping of a Korean diplomat in Lebanon in 1986. This incident occurred when Do Jae-seung, a secretary who was dispatched to Lebanon, was abducted by gunmen in a Mercedes-Benz in the middle of downtown Beirut, and the news of the abduction became known to the world after nine months of disappearance. The South Korean government sent a diplomat to the site, and through negotiations, the case returned after 21 months of abduction.

'Mogadishu' is an amazing incident in which South and North Korea cooperated and stayed together for about 12 days during the civil war in Somalia in 1991. As rebels and government forces battled, both the South Korean and North Korean embassies were under threat. If the South Korean embassy, which had newly established diplomatic relations, was protected, the North Korean embassy, which had become distant, was neglected in the center of the civil war. In summary, it can be said that the South Korean embassy's Ambassador Kang Shin-seong and the North Korean embassy worked together to safely escape Mogadishu.

'Negotiation' is a film based on the 2007 kidnapping of the Saemmul Church missionary group in Afghanistan. Church members who forced entry into Afghanistan, a conflict-affected area, went to preach the gospel and were taken hostage by the Taliban. Like the three films above, there are cases where they are filmed locally because they are based on true stories, but there are also cases where the spatial background is set overseas to create a dramatic situation.

Then, what was the first Korean film to be filmed on a foreign stage? The 1957 film 'Chunjiyujeong' (director Kim Hwarang), set in Hong Kong, was the first film set in an overseas location, and it was a sensation in the Korean film industry at the time. Of course, Korea went through the Japanese colonial period and the film industry did not grow as fast as Hollywood. Starting with Korea's first film, 'Royal Vomit' (director Kim Do-san) in 1919, it gradually took off, but production also suffered due to Japanese censorship and oppression. For that reason, unlike overseas cases where they went to overseas locations earlier, the speed in Korea was slow and required courage.

In the case of the United States, as the supply of television expanded in the 1950s, the film industry felt the danger, and thus, with the introduction of the Cinemascope with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, overseas location shooting was more active. If you had used 1.33:1 or 1.37:1 before, CinemaScope showed a movie that would overwhelm the audience with a screen with a wider aspect ratio. Beginning with Henry Coster's 1953 film 'The Castle', the first Cinemascope film, the overwhelming scenery in David Lean's 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962) was filmed in Wadi Rum, Jordan, followed by 'Doctor Zhivago' (1965). ) was filmed in Spain or Finland.

The Korean film industry developed at a slower pace than overseas. After liberation in 1945, the Korean film industry gradually began to turn its attention to overseas filming, starting with 'Chunjiyujeong', the first joint film produced with a foreign country. After that, I got used to seeing unfamiliar landscapes on the screen, and production costs also tended to rise. The movie 'The Good, the Bad, the Weird' (2008) by director Kim Jee-woon chose China as a location to effectively show the vast continent of Manchuria in the 1930s. Director Choi Dong-hoon's film 'The Thieves' (2012) has expanded its scope overseas to steal the diamond called 'Tears of the Sun' in Hong Kong and Macau, providing many attractions. Looking at Korean films from the early 2000s to the 2010s, places familiar to us, such as Japan and China, were often chosen as overseas locations.

However, in the late 2010s, it can be confirmed that there has been a rapid increase in the number of films set in Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam and Thailand or Africa. In particular, a clear change can be seen through the history of the 'Criminal City' series. The background of 'Criminal City 1', which was released in 2017, is Seoul, but Jang Chen (Yun Gye-sang), a Korean-Chinese, appears as a major character. Then, 'Criminal City 2', released in 2022, starts with the setting to take the suspect who escaped in Vietnam, and in the case of 'Crime City 3', which was released this year, the background is Seoul, but it shows options such as China and Japan. .

Among them, Vietnam in 'Crime City 2' is meaningful in that it is Vietnam, although the set was filmed in Korea rather than on location due to the pandemic. Now, China and Japan have become familiar and safe options, and they have chosen a direction to go a little farther from us. Of course, it could be that he made a strategy while projecting a new space unfamiliar to the audience onto the screen.

Before the spectacle of the overseas background, the fun of the play should be prioritized. No matter how magnificent a scene is, it is useless if a story that goes beyond it is not reprinted. On August 2nd, 'Unofficial Operation' is expected and feared whether the atmosphere of the local location background can capture both interesting stories and captivate the audience.

Reporter Lee Ha-neul, Ten Asia greenworld@tenasia.co.kr