KILLER TOON

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KILLER TOON

Nov 26, 2019

Writer by Pierce Conran
View1394

2013 | 104 MIN | Horror, Thriller

DIRECTOR KIM Yong-gyun

CAST LEE Si-young, UM Ki-joon, MOON Ga-young, KWON Hae-hyo, KIM Do-young

RELEASE DATE June 27, 2013

CONTACT CJ Entertainment

TEL +82-2-371-5500

FAX +82-2-371-6340

EMAIL filmsales@cj.net

By 2013 the K-horror trend had largely been relegated to a few low-budget chillers that failed to move either critics or viewers, coming and going with very little fanfare each summer. June 2013 welcomed minor new entries to the horror genre such as the omnibus Horror Stories II, the torture horror Doctor and the low-budget psychological horror The Puppet, but the end of the month brought with it one of the most significant horror films in years, the CJ-backed commercial horror Killer Toon.

A webtoon publisher works alone at her office one night when she receives the new draft of her top author’s latest tome. When she opens the files she is shocked to see images of herself at that very moment. Come morning, the police arrive to her dead body and webtoon drawings mirroring her apparent death by suicide. Yet the strange scene doesn’t sit with Detective Ki-chul who suspects foul play. His investigations bring him to Ji-yun, a sensationally popular comic artist whose new book appears to be mirroring several deaths that are taking place around town.

So with a genre which by then was largely avoided by the major studios, what prompted CJ to delve back in with Killer Toon? The answer may lie in the subject matter of webtoons, which had by then become a sensation in Korea. In a country with the fastest internet in the world and highest smartphone usage as well as a long-standing love of manhwa (comic books), traditional comics made a very swift transition to the digital realm in the form of webtoons, which became available as serials through major portal sites such as Daum and Naver.

With Killer Toon, a fairly traditional horror setup of a vengeful spirit of a young woman is combined with the popular medium to deliver a horror film with more style than its contemporaries. An investigative element is also brought in, mirroring the popular thrillers that litter the box office, with several twists thrown in for good measure. What’s more, the format is well mined as several horror set pieces dive into dark backstories through a combination of live action film and comic panels.

If some of the elements of Killer Toon feel derivative, there’s enough of a novelty with the concept, while the style and narrative curveballs make it a consistently compelling watch. LEE Si-young, on screen again just a few months after LEE Won-suk’s How to Use Guys with Secret Tips (2013), makes for a compelling lead. For viewers watching it today, look for supporting actress KIM Do-young, who plays the publisher and first victim in the opening scene, who is now better known as the director of this year’s hit KIM JI-YOUNG, BORN 1982.

While KIM’s film explores the world of webtoons, it isn’t itself based on one but around the time of its release webtoon adaptation were on the rise. CJ delivered both Fists of Legend and The Fives later that same year. It would only take a few years for webtoons to conquer the box office as Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017) and its sequel Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days (2018), based on JOO Ho-min Along with the Gods webtoon, became two of the top-selling Korean films of all time.

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