‘Concrete Utopia’ more black comedy than disaster flick

Six years after “Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned,” director Um Tae-hwa returns with disaster thriller “Concrete Utopia,” in which home turns hostile for a group of apartment dwellers.

The movie is based on the second part of a webtoon about an earthquake and its aftermath, “Pleasant Neighbor.”

Lee Byung-hun, Park Seo-joon and Park Bo-young star as few residents of Hwang Gung Apartments in the devastated city. Lee plays Young-tak, a leader among the residents, Park Seo-joon as Min-seong who supports Young-tak and Park Bo-young as Min-seong’s wife.

“I was attracted to the original story’s unique background set in an apartment where many of us live and spend so much time. It was fun for me to imagine how a familiar place can turn extremely dangerous,” Um said during a press conference at Lotte Cinema Konkuk University in Seoul on Wednesday.

Lee Byung-hun, who has starred in several disaster thrillers, said this movie was about more than just surviving a disaster.

“In a typical disaster film, the main plot revolves around the disaster. This film, however, delves more into how residents cope with the disaster and how they communicate in an extreme environment,” said Lee, adding that the film was more like a black comedy.

“Just by looking at the people living in the apartment, there are so many different types of people. So the main plot begins with a disaster but the film shows more than that, and that’s why I chose to appear in this movie even after working on disaster thriller films like ‘Ashfall’ and ‘Emergency Declaration,’” said Lee.

Park Seo-joon and Park Bo-young said the biggest reason for choosing “Concrete Utopia” was the cast.

“Not just because I wanted to show different a aspect of my acting spectrum, I’ve been a huge fan of Lee and I’ve always wanted the chance to do a project with him,” Park told reporters, adding that he reached out to the director first even before the project was suggested to him.

“Concrete Utopia” is also Park Bo-young’s first film in five years.

“I read the scenario and told my agency that I have to do this project. I really wanted this project because the movie was something that I can show different acting compared to my previous ones,” Park said, adding that she also asked to be part of the project.

The production staff took five months to build a life-sized three-story apartment building that showed the reality of a damaged apartment in a devastated city.

“It was important for me to add reality to the film sets. It took two years for the computer graphics team to study the geography of Seoul and apply it to the CG work,” said director Um.

“Because every detail is well-depicted in the film sets, all I had to do was immerse myself into the setting and just act,” said Park Seo-joon.

Kim Sun-young (“Reply 1988,” “Crash Landing On You”) and Park Ji-hou (“All of Us Are Dead”) and Kim Do-yoon (“Hellbound”) also star as residents of Hwang Gung Apartment.

With the tent-pole film slated for a summer opening, the actors encouraged people to watch “Concrete Utopia” at the cinema to get the most out of the film’s overwhelming sound and visual effects.

While the exact date has not been confirmed, “Concrete Utopia” opens in local theaters in August. The movie is set to be shown in 152 countries.