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A small change in trends has been occurring in Korean films. In recent years, heavy and tough genres such as thriller, action, noir and crime have become the center of gravity of the Korean film industry, and there are many cases where these have been employed to create spectacular blockbusters. As a result, sentimental genres like romance and melodrama are slowly losing popularity. However, these genres have started to strike back this November in theaters. The keyword is ‘fantasy’. 

 

VANISHING TIME: A BOY WHO RETURNED fired the first shot. Directed by UM Tae-hwa, the director of INGtoogi: The Battle of Internet Trolls (2013), this film tells the story of a boy who has grown up in a place where time stopped. While venturing into a cave with his friends, Sung-min (GANG Dong-won) disappears to a mysterious place and reappears as an adult in front of his friend Su-rin (SIN Eun-su), a young girl.

One of the most important achievements of this movie is its amazing visuals, never seen before in Korean cinema. Director UM created some wonderful and spectacular images in an attempt to portray a place where the laws of physics don’t apply, a place without gravity or passing of time. The director says: “I was wondering how I could create a world frozen in time that the audience might find interesting, and what could be the images that would feel new.”

In addition to that, director UM says that VANISHING TIME: A BOY WHO RETURNED is above all a story about faith. He stresses that his film is a romance about a pure relationship, and explains: “Our society has grown suspicious. If somebody like Sung-min were to tell me such an unbelievable story, would I be like Su-rin and believe him? I created this story with this question in mind.”

There is another fantasy time-travel film that is expected soon. HONG Ji-young’s Will You Be There?, will hit theaters in December and is a Korean adaptation of Guillaume Musso’s novel of the same title. Although there were a lot of propositions coming from Hollywood and European countries, it’s in Korea that the novel will be brought to the big screen for the first time. 

In present time (in 2015), Su-hyun (KIM Yun-seok) receives ten magical pills from an old man as a thank you for having saved his grand-daughter’s life. Out of curiosity, he tries one of the pills before going to bed, but he’s suddenly sent back 30 years earlier (in 1985) and meets his younger self (BYUN Yo-han). How this odd encounter may change his life thus constitute the main point of interest of this film.

Another fantasy drama is about a medium. JOO Ji-hong, who made his debut with Maybe (2009), has directed his sophomore feature, BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. In this movie, Lee-hyeong (CHA Tae-hyun) has the ability to enter people’s bodies, and by doing so tries to help these people to express their feelings, as they all suffer from bad relationships. 

Also, director LEE Yoon-ki’s new melodrama, My Angel, is about a man who can see dead people. Gang-su (KIM Nam-gil) has been spending all his days in despair since his wife died. One day, a woman named Mi-so (CHUN Woo-hee) appears in front of him. She’s already dead, but he’s the only one who can see her. This will be the starting point of their surreal relationship. 

 

These movies, which are all getting released by the beginning of next year, are ridding themselves from the dark tone of local movies that have long been excessively perverted by ‘reality’. Instead of that, they tell stories about life, love and relationships, and do so in a lighter, calmer and more beautiful fashion. 

What could be the main reason for these movies to come out all at the same time? It might be the result of a self-reflection within the industry. The box office records show that romantic comedies and melodramas, which used to have a big share in Korean cinema, have often been outperformed recently by foreign productions. 

At this year’s box office, Familyhood, starring KIM Hye-soo, has been the only exception. Romance, comedy and nostalgia used to be Korean film industry’s area of expertise, but it’s now dominated by Me before You, Bridget Jones’s Baby and Our Times (2015). Moreover, the rerelease in Korea of films like The Notebook (2004) or 500 Days of Summer (2009) are doing well, maybe because it has become more difficult to find domestic melodramas. 

In that sense, the reappearance of romance, comedy and drama, led by VANISHING TIME: A BOY WHO RETURNED, seems to be an effort by the industry to reclaim the territory they have lost. Furthermore, by including some characteristic elements of the “fantasy” genre to these movies, their stories become suspenseful and heartrending.

Meanwhile, elements of fantasy are shown in other genres as well. Lucid Dream (W/T), which will open early next year, is set in a world between dreams and reality, as it’s about a man who has lost his son three years ago and finds clues through lucid dreams. This thriller is KIM Jun-sung’s directorial debut, starring SUL Kyung-gu, KO Soo and GANG Hye-jung. 

Fantasy blockbusters are also expected to arrive very soon in theaters. Based on JU Ho-min’s webcomic of the same title, With God (W/T), by KIM Yong-hwa, is currently one of the most anticipated films in Korea. It is about the 49 day-long succession of trials a dead man is going through in the afterlife, and the angel of death starting to get involved in the human affairs. The film boasts star cast, including HA Jung-woo, CHA Tae-hyun, JU Ji-hoon, Don LEE and LEE Jung-jae.

Could fantasy breathe new life into Korean cinema, which has been in recent years confined to specific genres and slowly losing its novelty? Let’s hope this new trend towards fantasy will pay off, for the sake of genre diversity in Korean films.