The 39th Tokyo International Film Festival closed on November 4 with a screening of the Korean film "Colony" ("Gun-tai"), and director Yeon Sang-ho, actor Koo Kyo-hwan and the Japanese dub cast appeared on stage. Voice actors Nao and Yuki Kaji joined them, along with producer Yang Yu-min.
Yeon directed "Train to Busan," which became a hit worldwide. The new film is a visceral attraction-style movie set in a high-rise tower in central Seoul, where a bioterror attack produces infected people who evolve at extraordinary speed.
Yeon opened by saying how glad he was that the film had been chosen to close the festival. Koo, greeted by loud cheers from Japanese fans, said in fluent Japanese, "Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having me." He added, "I'm happy to be able to introduce this film to you. Please have a good evening."
Koo said he agreed to the project as soon as Yeon described the plot to him early in development. "I thought, whatever the role, I want to work with you," he said. He plays Seo Yong-chul, a mysterious biologist who holds a key to the story.
“Rather than feeling that I played Seo Yong-chul, it felt more like I was watching over him from beside him. I felt fear while acting, too, and I wondered why he had become such a troubled person. Thinking about that made my heart ache.”Koo Kyo-hwan, actor
Yeon called Seo an "elusive, extraordinary person" and said the part had to go to an extraordinary actor, which is why he offered it to Koo.
Nao, who voices the lead played by Jun Ji-hyun in the Japanese dub, said she was moved when she first saw the film. "I felt a new kind of zombie had been born," she said. She told the audience that the story unfolds inside a single building, and that the theater would merge with it for the screening.
Kaji said the film offers "a genuinely new sensation," and pointed to the speed and force of the infected on screen. He also praised the subtlety of Koo's performance, down to his facial expressions and breathing, and urged the audience to watch it on a large screen.
Nao, known as a longtime fan of Korea, then addressed Yeon, Koo and Yang in fluent Korean. She thanked them for coming to Japan and said she was happy that "Colony" was her first Japanese dubbing job. She said she had been nervous because it was her first time, but drew courage from the cast, especially Jun Ji-hyun.
Yeon and Koo bowed deeply and replied "thank you" in Japanese as the audience applauded. Koo drew laughter by offering to dub Nao's voice himself when her work is released in Korea.
Yeon, who began his career as an animation director, said he grew up watching Japanese manga and anime. He spoke about the influence of Yoshihiro Tatsumi, the manga artist credited with founding the gekiga style, and about his love for director Mamoru Oshii, whose latest work, "Armored Trooper Votoms: The Grey Witch," is due for release.
Kaji, who voices a role in that film, said he could feel in Yeon's movies the appeal of Japanese animation, and a world that would be fascinating in animated form too.
"Colony" opens across Japan on January 1, 2027.