USA.
The production company of the movie [Survivors], Bearound.
âHowâs the reaction?â
The planning team leader asked the employee who was monitoring the SNS.
âItâs on fire. Itâs so heated that there are some posts cursing the production company.â
The planning team leader smiled satisfiedly at the uproar of people that increased every second.
It had been only a day since they uploaded the [Directorâs Cut], but the response was tremendous.
-I enjoyed watching [Survivors] and was looking forward to the [Directorâs Cut], but I didnât expect this:(
-Me too. My [Survivors] is only the theatrical version.
-I think I need to reset my memory. Iâm going to the theater.
-I liked the [Directorâs Cut] ð
He couldnât help but laugh, thinking that all this buzz and interest would lead back to [Survivors].
âWhat about the ratings?â
The employee who was checking the information coming in real time from Plus+ answered the planning team leaderâs question.
It was the views and evaluations of [Survivors-Directorâs Cut] with subtitles in various languages.
âThere are a lot of 1 stars, but there are also quite a few 10 stars.â
1 star and 10 star.
The peopleâs evaluations were so extreme that if an article came out, anyone would be curious about what kind of movie it was, and how the [Directorâs Cut] and the [Theatrical Version] were different.
âTheyâre still in theaters, so theyâll head to the cinema.â
They watched the [Theatrical Version] and were satisfied, then wondered how the [Directorâs Cut] would be, so they watched it, and then went back to watch the [Theatrical Version] again to cure the aftereffects. And among them, there would be some people who would watch the [Directorâs Cut] again.
âItâs like a Mobius strip.â
Everyone laughed at one employeeâs remark.
âOh. Team leader. The interview with Director Jeffrey came in.â
It was Jeffrey Rodex, who had been interviewed several times before and after the release of [Survivors].
It seemed that a new interview proposal had come in as the [Directorâs Cut] became a hot topic again.
âReally? Iâll contact him myself.â
And two days later.
The interview with Director Jeffrey Rodex was released.
***
âHello. This is Moviegoer.â
Moviegoer smiled weakly at the camera.
-You⦠sighâ¦
-Sigh⦠youâ¦
-Hello! Moviegoer!
-? Why are you all so down?
âHaha.â
He laughed at the contrasting atmosphere from the comments.
It seemed obvious what movie they had watched.
âToday, as I promised before, Iâm going to review both the theatrical version and the Directorâs Cut of Survivors. If you havenât seen the Directorâs Cut yetâ¦â
He stopped talking.
And sighed.
âI canât tell you to go see it, but I canât tell you to watch this review without seeing it either⦠Itâs complicated.â
-Thatâs true. It was kind of a twistâ¦
-I want to stop my past self who saw the directorâs cut.
-s⦠t⦠a⦠yâ¦
-But I think I would have been curious and watched it anyway.
-I had a certification exam on Saturday 22nd, but I watched it at 1 am that day⦠haha (of course I failed lol)
-Ah, I havenât seen the directorâs cut yet! Iâll go watch it now!
-⦠Donât cross that riverâ¦
-That person seems very cheerful right now, but I think heâll come back completely deflated lol
-He might not come today lol
-I get why Plus+ uploaded the directorâs cut on weekends. The aftereffects are no joke.
-Now that you all say that, Iâm curious.
-Iâll go watch it quickly on 22nd!
Some people who hadnât seen the [Directorâs Cut] yet left the live broadcast and some people who were waiting for Moviegoerâs review came in.
Moviegoer looked at the fluctuating number of viewers and opened his mouth when it stabilized.
âThen letâs assume that everyone who is watching this live has seen the directorâs cut and start the review.â
Moviegoer sighed lightly and raised his voice.
âFirst, let me introduce you to Galleria Mall, which is the background of the movie. In the movie, it is set as a huge shopping mall that tourists who come to LA must visit. It looks cool enough to make you want to go once, but it only appears in the beginning.â
-I want to go because it looks cool.
-But I donât want to go in reality.
-I donât think there will be any shopping malls with that design in the future lol
âYes. Me too. I want to go but I donât want to go. First, here is the south shopping street where Hyun-woo and his family were. And the west restaurant street. Where Raymond Wishâs family was. There was a broadcasting room in the east cinema and an amusement park in the north.â
-Honestly, I wondered why they showed the amusement park in such detail.
-At the end, the balloon went up to the sky. Didnât that mean escape?
-They also showed the sky. When they introduced other places, it was just the ceiling.
-Oh. Thatâs true.
âDonât go ahead of me.â
The viewers laughed at Moviegoerâs scolding. Moviegoer also smiled and continued.
âYes. I also think that the balloon was a directing that made me think of escape. Unlike other places with four floors above, the north amusement park was a place that came out directly outside. There was another hidden element in the front part besides the balloon. I donât know if anyone noticed it. If you look closely at the movie, there are things on the pillars or walls.â
-Really?
âYes. It also appeared briefly when they introduced the south shopping street. You wouldnât have seen it if you didnât look closely because people were passing by. Those things were the bombs that would explode later.â
-⦠What?
-I studied, but I couldnât see it!
-So thatâs why you introduced them one by one.
-Do you think there were bombs in the stadium or the amusement park too?
-I think so!
-But what if the security guard had found the bomb in the east instead of the south first? Would it have exploded there first?
Moviegoer nodded.
âProbably. I guess the terrorists had a goal of freeing their leader, so they couldnât let the bombs be discovered before the attack. They must have been watching from somewhere. Maybe there was a terrorist among the customers.â
-Oh. Thatâs why it didnât collapse all at once.
-It seemed like⦠there was a lot of time to escape.
-And there were a lot of exploding bombs.
âThe terrorists must have known that the negotiation would take a long time. So they wanted to drag it out as much as possible. I think they targeted LA because Hollywood was nearby and there were a lot of tourists, so it would make more global news.â
-Well. If they blew up bombs in New York or Washington, that would be a declaration of war.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-They would have to do whatever they could to save their own citizens, but wouldnât it be hard for other countries to tell the US to release the terrorist leader?
-Yeah.
-But it seems like the US canât ignore the eyes of the world either.
-â¦Donât you think they will?
-Itâs really complicated.
âBut none of that is shown in the movie. Except for the beginning, itâs all from the perspective of the survivors. The survivors donât know why the bombs exploded, who did it, if anyone outside will come to save them, or how many bombs are left. They just have to escape on their own or wait for rescue.â
-But what if they had stayed still? Wouldnât they have been rescued?
-I donât know. There were four floors above them⦠They might have been crushed before being rescued.
-It really seems like luck. They could have died trying to escape or given up and been rescued.
Moviegoer nodded and continued with the movie talk.
âLetâs talk about Lee Hyun-woo and his family first.â
-Lol hiking clothes lol
-They looked like real Koreans lol lol lol
-Package lol trip lol
âYes. The Korean tourists who made us laugh from their first appearance. I knew it from the making film, but it was still amazing and funny. Of course, the actorsâ acting skills were beyond words. They were Lee Seo-jun and Kim Jong-ho. Wow. I never thought I would see Kim Jong-ho in a Hollywood movie.â
Lee Seo-jun was familiar, but Kim Jong-ho was surprising.
-I was more surprised by Lee Seo-jun being familiar lol lol When did Korean actors become familiar in Hollywood movies lol lol
-They all acted well and I liked it.
-When Kim Jong-ho appeared, I thought it was a Korean movie lol lol
âAfter the bomb exploded, Lee Hyun-woo headed to where his parents were. It was understandable, but it was frustrating to see him go in the opposite direction alone. There is a scene here that is getting a lot of attention overseas.â
-Is it this one? The mom wants to let go of his hand, but the dad holds on tight ã ã
-The dad must have struggled a lot too ã ã He would regret it no matter who he chose.
-I also liked the scene where Lee Hyun-woo saw his parents and smiled with relief. It broke my heart as a viewerâ¦
Moviegoer clicked his mouse with a smile.
An image appeared on the monitor. It was a still cut that was released recently. In a collapsing building, Kim Jong-ho holding Joo Jae-eunâs hand tightly and yelling fiercely.
-Is this the last scene?
-Kim Jong-ho acted well, but⦠is this worth being a hot topic?
-Yeah.
-Nope. This part is very popular.
-Foreign friend: Koreans might not know because itâs too natural for them, but foreigners who donât know Korean find this scene very amazing.
Moviegoer said with a smile.
âEveryone. When you watch a movie with subtitles, your eyes get distracted, right?â
-Yeah, when there are important scenes, I canât miss both facial expressions and meaningful lines.
-Thatâs why I watch it multiple times lol lol
âBut in this scene, there are reviews on SNS that say they could understand Korean without looking at the subtitles. They said they heard something like âGoâ.â
-Ah. The line here was âGo awayâ, right? Maybe âawayâ sounded like âGoâ.
-The power of watching it multiple times lol lol
Moviegoer nodded at the viewersâ guesses.
âYes. As you expected, the line âGo awayâ played an important role. But itâs not easy to act in a way that foreigners can recognize even if the pronunciation is the same. If he emphasized âawayâ with foreigners in mind, it would sound weird to Koreans.â
Moviegoer said with a smile.
âBut we heard âGo awayâ as a natural sentence. Itâs not easy to say a line that is natural for Koreans and also understandable for foreigners. Kim Jong-ho is amazing.â
-Ah. I want to watch it again lol lol
-I have to go to the theater again lol lol
-I wish they would sell VOD soonâ¦
-But thereâs something about watching it on the theater screen lol lol
âThe next characters are Cynthia Lindberg and Ian Weaver. Cynthia Lindberg is an information staff at the Galleria Mall and Ian Weaver was a missing child.â
-ã ã Our Ian ã ã
-Missing ã ã
-Thatâs so sad ã ã
âWell, this has nothing to do with the movie, but weâve seen this similar story before.â
Moviegoer said with a chuckle.
-???
-Really?
âYes. It was the same when Shadowman Mac and Jin Natra first met.â
-â¦Bell Natra!
-I didnât expect to see that name here lol lol
-He was abandoned on Earth then lol lol
-The scale is different;;;
-It was Earth then, and now itâs a mall lol lol
âI just brought it up because there are actors who appeared in both movies.â
Moviegoerâs words made the viewers laugh as they thought of one actor.
âThen letâs go back to the movie and talk about Jackson Miller and Raymond Wish. Jackson Miller looks like an ordinary person and Raymond Wish has a âIâm the protagonistâ vibe from the start.â
-But he wasnât.
-lol lol lol lol
âYes. Honestly, when I saw the character introduction part for the first time, I thought the roles were roughly decided. I thought Raymond Wish, a former soldier, would use his experience to be the real hero and the others would be helpers. Lee Hyun-woo would be a nuisance character. Of course, Ian was hope.â
-I thought so too. Disaster movies are all like that lol lol
-But the directorâs cut wasâ¦ã
-Letâs not talk about the directorâs cut here.
âBut it changed in the middle. Raymond Wish, who seemed mature and reliable, became a bomb that could explode at any time and Lee Hyun-woo became an even more precarious trigger. But the audience couldnât hate anyone because of the sincerity they expressed.â
-I hate nuisance characters, but I really understood Lee Hyun-woo ã ã He acted so well that I wondered how painful he must have been to do that ã ã
-I hated Raymond Wish when he got angry, but I understood him when I heard his story ã ã
-It seems like the reaction depends on who you empathize with.
âYes. If you empathize with Lee Hyun-woo, you would hate Raymond Wish and if you empathize with Raymond Wish, you would hate Lee Hyun-woo. But thatâs only for a moment. The audience is convinced by the actorsâ acting. The characters become ones that you canât help but understand because of their acting skills.â
Moviegoerâs eyes sparkled.
âAnd the ones who made a different progress from usual disaster movies were these actors. Davis Garrett and Lee Seo-jun.â
-?? What are you talking about?
-Isnât it because of the good scenario?
-Yeah. It seems like the director wrote a good script. It feels different from his previous work.
-Arenât movies dependent on the director?
Moviegoer smiled brightly and said.
âToday, an interview with Jeffrey Rodex, the director of Survivors, came out. It was an interesting interview full of behind-the-scenes stories about Survivors. Iâll share them with you while I do the review today.â