“Snow Piercer,” potentially one of the most intelligent and evocative comic-book movies coming our way, has completed principal photography in Prague.
Screen Daily reports that director Bong Joon-ho’s $39.2 million sci-fi thriller is South Korea’s costliest movie yet. Kang Je-gyu’s $24.5 million war movie “My Way” was previously the country’s most expensive film, writes Jean Noh.
The multi-language “Snow Piercer,” based on the French comic book series “Le Transperceneige,” stars Chris Evans (“Captain America”), the Korean star Song Kang-ho (from Bong’s 2006 “The Host”), Alison Pill, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Ed Harris, Octavia Spencer, Jamie Bell, and Ewen Bremner.
“Transperceneige” is set in what remains of Earth following a devastating world war and global glaciation. Nothing like the futuristic bullet train of Wong Kar-wai’s “2046,” the eponymous passenger train ploughs its way through a desert of snow and ice on a circular track.
The few survivors of the war exist on it in a class-divided microcosm of society. According to the Twitch website, which gleaned its information from an interview Bong gave Cine21, “while the poorest live in pathetic conditions, suffering the cold and hunger, those living in the ‘premium class’ lust, party and live like kings. The Transperceneige continues to travel in this vicious circle, but one day one of the ‘miserables,’ Proloff, decides to change the status quo, discovering all the secrets behind Earth’s last train.”
The three-volume “Le Transperceneige” (1984-2000) was originated by writer Jacques Lob (who died in 1990) and artist Alexis (died 1977) and completed by writer Benjamin Legrand and artist Jean-Marc Rochette. Bong met with Legrand to discuss the project and has been endorsed by Rochette.
"I remember it was around the end of 2004,” the director said in an interview published by the Yonhap News Agency in 2008. “ It was when I finished 'Memories of Murder' and was working on 'The Host.' I went to a comic book store near Hong-ik University. I go there once or twice a month when I am stressed out. 'Le Transperceneige' suddenly came into my sight, and I read the whole trilogy standing there. I could not wait until I got home to read.
"This train has enraptured me,” he continued. “I believe everyone has a fantasy about trains giving off chugs and puffs, and landscapes viewed from the window. What you can see from the window in this story, however, is only the world icebound, with minus 80 degrees outside. Survivors live in the train, but they can't stay in harmony even at a time of adversity.
“It's going to be tough work. I need to use a lot of visual effects and special effects. There is a lot to prepare. During making 'The Host,' I had such a hard time. I am not fond of making blockbuster movies. As for 'The Host,' it was inevitable, since we had to make the monster.
"Le Transperceneige is going to be much more spectacular with all the trains and frozen scenery,” Bong said. “But the spectacle is not what I really want to show. The mood and sentiment you can feel inside the train, the desperateness. The exterior should be only groundwork to show all that."