The leading cast of the latest Korean blockbuster movie, The Battleship Island was in Singapore last week to promote their movie prior to the official public release in cinemas. Singapore is the first stop outside of Korea to host the promotional tour, where fans also got to catch a glimpse of the cast members Hwang Jung Min, So Ji Sub, Song Joong Ki, alongside with director Ryoo Seung Wan at a public meet-and-greet event at Suntec City.
During the media conference, the actors and the director shared their thoughts about the movie and also revealed the preparation that went on behind-the-scenes for the filming. Ryoo Seung Wan shared about how he was inspired to do this movie, after he was moved from seeing a photograph of the actual Hashima Island back in 2013.
In The Battleship Island, Song Joong Ki plays the role of Park Mu Young, an operative for the Korean independence movement. He candidly joked that from his military service, to Descendants Of The Sun and till now, he has already been a soldier for five years!
So Ji Sub, who portrays gangster Choi Chil Sung in The Battleship Island, mentioned that although there were many tough action scenes, there was not much NGs and thankfully there were not really any injuries as well, due to the wonderful chemistry between the actors.
Despite Joong Ki being the youngest lead characters, he was very well taken care of by the other cast members, such that he did not feel uncomfortable as being the maknae (youngest)!
Hwang Jung Min, who takes the role of talented musician Lee Gang Ok in the movie, has a number of scenes where he spoke fluent Japanese. When asked if he had prior knowledge of the Japanese language before filming the movie, he revealed that he had actually memorised all of the Japanese lines!
One of the toughest things during the filming was that the actors all had to lose weight, as they had to play the roles of malnutritioned labourers that were in captivity.
The cast members also shared their most memorable scene in the movie – for Joong Ki, it was the mass escape scene as it showed the hardship the labourers went through; for Jung Min, it was the scene where he was playing with his daughter on Hashima Island, as that touching scene reminded of them playing back in their hometown; for Ji Sub, it was the last scene where the camera zooms in on the young girl, Sohee’s (played by Kim Suan) face, as it shows both the hardship she has endured and hope on her face.
We will not reveal more as we do not wish to spoil the movie, so do head down to the cinemas and catch it on the big screen as The Battleship Island is screening nationwide from 17 August!
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Article by: Zhen Zhen @ KAvenyou
Photography by: Yanglin @ KAvenyou