'Noryang' Kim Han-min's Yi Sun-sin Trilogy, Fiery 100-Minute Naval Battle Finale (Comprehensive)

Kim Yoon-seok as Yi Sun-sin: "A Film Condensing 7 Years of War"
"History Repeats Across Eras... I Feel Fear"

Director Kim Han-min (55), who attracted 17.61 million viewers with the film Myeongryang (2014) and 7.26 million with Hansan: Rising Dragon (2022), has completed the "Yi Sun-sin Trilogy Project" with Noryang: Sea of Death. Having drawn a total of 24.87 million viewers with the previous two films, Director Kim expressed with a trembling voice, "I never thought this moment would come."

On the afternoon of the 12th, at the press screening of Noryang: Sea of Death held at Lotte Cinema World Tower in Jamsil-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, Director Kim said, "It has been 10 years since I conceived the Yi Sun-sin trilogy. I wondered if the moment to make the final story, Noryang, would ever come, and the feelings are very special."

Director Kim Han-min
[Photo by Ace Maker Movie Works·Lotte Entertainment]

He stated, "People around me asked why I was making a film about Admiral Yi Sun-sin. I wanted to depict Yi Sun-sin's loneliness and his determination to achieve complete surrender." He continued, "I believed that pursuing complete surrender even to the ends of the Japanese islands explained the intensity of the war."

Noryang: Sea of Death, which opens on the 20th, is a war action film depicting Admiral Yi Sun-sin's final battle to completely annihilate the Japanese forces retreating from Joseon seven years after the outbreak of the Imjin War.

Director Kim said, "The Battle of Noryang was a fierce and close-quarters chaotic battle. There were times when I doubted whether I could truly portray it and lacked the courage. I also questioned myself whether the goal was simply to show a large-scale intense war." He added, "At the center of it was Yi Sun-sin. I wanted to fully follow the naval battle, and through this idea, a naval battle lasting over 100 minutes was created."

Regarding the naval battle scenes filmed in long takes, the director explained, "I pondered how to fully show Yi Sun-sin amidst the pandemonium of soldiers from the three kingdoms (Korea, China, and Japan)."

Actor Kim Yoon-seok [Photo by Ace Maker Movie Works·Lotte Entertainment]

Following Choi Min-sik in Myeongryang and Park Hae-il in Hansan: Rising Dragon, Kim Yoon-seok took over the baton. Playing the leader of Joseon and the heroic Yi Sun-sin, he said, "If I were to portray Admiral Yi Sun-sin, I wanted to do Noryang among the trilogy."

He added, "Though his inner thoughts are hard to gauge, I wanted to show a resolute figure full of conviction. This film contains everything about the seven-year war." He said, "I was curious about what kind of feelings Admiral Yi Sun-sin had after the seven-year war ended."

Regarding the scene where the turtle ship appears in the Battle of Noryang, Director Kim said, "There is no historical record, but I wanted to include the turtle ship." He continued, "The turtle ship has symbolic meaning. I thought it would have boosted the morale and will of the Joseon soldiers."

About the scene where Yi Sun-sin heroically dies in the Battle of Noryang, Director Kim said, "After the Imjin War ended, the Japanese colonial period began. History strangely repeats itself. My hometown is Suncheon, Jeollanam-do, and I never understood why there was a Japanese castle in the neighborhood where I played as a child. History repeats beyond eras. That was a great fear. This became a theme for me and the seed that led to making Noryang."

Still from 'Noryang: Sea of Death'
[Photo by Ace Maker Movie Works·Lotte Entertainment]

Finally, Director Kim said, "Whenever a film about Admiral Yi Sun-sin is released, significant social events have occurred. During Myeongryang in 2014, there was the Sewol ferry disaster; when Hansan and Noryang were released, the periodic COVID-19 pandemic occurred. Korean cinema is in crisis, but I hope we can overcome this crisis well together with Admiral Yi Sun-sin. I hope many people find comfort and hope through the film. Through this, I hope Korean cinema will enter a new renaissance."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.