Yeon Sang-ho challenges AI era with zombie film ‘Colony’
Actor Jun Ji-hyun in a scene from "Colony" / Courtesy of Showbox
Director Yeon Sang-ho, who made his feature debut with the acclaimed 2011 animated film "The King of Pigs," has long been recognized by audiences for exploring human nature across various genres.
His fans often point to his unstoppable work ethic as one of his greatest strengths as a creator. Just last year, Yeon directed "The Ugly," a low-budget film about lookism and human desire that became a surprise hit, surpassing the 1 million ticket sales milestone.
The prolific filmmaker is returning to the big screen without taking a break with his latest post-apocalyptic zombie film "Colony."
Having built a strong reputation in the zombie genre with hits like "Train to Busan" (2016) and "Peninsula" (2020), Yeon attempts to differentiate "Colony" from his previous works by introducing more intense, highly synchronized, dance-like zombie movements.
The director introduced "Colony" as an easy and entertaining movie that audiences can enjoy without overthinking. True to his word, the film features a fast-paced, straightforward narrative.
The story begins with biologist Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan), calling the police to announce a biological terror experiment inside a building. Meanwhile, another biologist Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun) visits the building for a job presentation with her ex-husband Gyu-seong (Go Soo).
While there, Se-jeong witnesses a heated argument between the company CEO and Young-cheol. As she tries to walk away, Young-cheol stabs the CEO with a syringe, instantly transforming the executive into a zombie.
The movie then instantly turns the building into chaos as people rapidly infect each other, delivering a classic zombie thriller. The film then captures the desperate struggles for survival of various characters trying to escape the madness.
A scene from director Yeon Sang-ho's movie "Colony" / Courtesy of Showbox
What makes this movie different from other zombie films is the unique connection between the infected creatures. In "Colony," the zombies share their cognitive abilities through biological reactions, evolving to act like a single intelligent entity to hunt down the survivors.
The director explained that he came up with the idea of creating zombies with collective intelligence by observing the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
"The starting point of this film was my interest in how AI works. AI felt like the total sum of very common and generalized human thinking," Yeon said Wednesday after the movie's premiere in Seoul.
"In today's world where collective intelligence dominates everything, I thought true humanity might lie in individuality," the director added. “Se-jeong is different because she can disagree with the crowd. Near the end, she teams up with Seol-hee (Shin Hyun-been), showing a clear contrast to the shared mind of the infected.”
"Colony" stands in stark contrast to Yeon's previous project in terms of production scale. While "The Ugly" was an ultra-low-budget film made with around 200 million won ($132,745), this new zombie movie cost about 20 billion won, marking a 100-fold increase that comfortably places it in the blockbuster category of the Korean film industry.
Yeon's new film received positive reviews from international audiences after being screened in the Midnight Screening section at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival in France.
“Colony” will hit the local theaters on Thursday.