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First commercial VR film to hit local theaters

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<span>Bryan Ku, director of CGV's first 4DX VR film

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Bryan Ku, director of CGV's first 4DX VR film "Meet the Memories," speaks about the upcoming film during a press conference at a theater in central Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap.

By Park Jin-hai

CJ CGV will release the first 4DX VR film "Meet the Memories," which will hit the local theaters on March 31.

The 38-minute romantic comedy combines the 4DX technology, which utilizes motion chairs that move in perfect synchronicity with the movie being shown onscreen, and virtual reality technology, which has been fast making inroads into the movie theater business.

By wearing head mounted displays, audiences can see the 360-degree views of the film, while experiencing the wind, water, light, fog, scents of the film, as if they are literally "in" the fictional story.

"Meet the Memories," starring actors Kim Jung-hyun and Seo Ye-ji, will tell the love story of an aspiring musician who is awkward at dating and misses his first love.

"Friend" (2001) director Kwak Kyung-taek produced the film, while Bryan Ku, who previously directed VR animated film "Bohwagak _ A Long the Way to Utopia," one of the selections in the VR Cinema section at this year's Busan International Film Festival, directed the film.

Although the VR genre is often linked to action or horror, director Ku says it can make a good storytelling tool for romantic comedies.

"Many people assume that flashy and sensational things are for VR cinemas. But I thought that it is my task to utilize it in telling rather universal stories through which audiences can share their feelings," said Ku, who also participated as artist in such Hollywood movies as "Lord of Rings: Return of the King" (2003) and "Golden compass" (2007). "The VR genre is like a new-born baby. Previously, majority of VR content had been designed to give immersive experiences to viewers, nowadays we are getting to see more VR technologies used in storytelling content."

Producer Kwak who says that he has always been keen on new media and filming devices, said for his first VR experience that, "I felt that small modifications in filming was not sufficient. I thought I needed to start anew from scratch to produce the film. The experience expanded the horizons of how I look at the film genre."

The VR film market is fast growing. This year alone, more than ten VR films are scheduled to hit the local theaters. Last year, Korean director Gina Kim's 12-minute VR documentary film "Bloodless," dealing with camp town sex workers for the U.S. army stationed in Korea, won best VR story award at the 74th Venice International Film Festival.

"It is meaningful that Meet the Memories ushers in the commercialization of a VR feature film, which had remained in the pilot stages so far," said Cho Hyun-hoon, director of culture technology at Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA).


Park Jin-hai jinhai@koreatimes.co.kr


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