Posted in: Movies, Trailer | Tagged: asian movies, cowboy bebop, firefly, han solo, Jin Seong-Ku, Kim Tae-Ri, korean movies, Song Joong-Ki, Space Opera, space sweepers, trailer, Yoo Hae-Jin
Space Sweepers: Trailer for the First Korean Space Opera Blockbuster
A new trailer dropped today for Space Sweepers, dubbed the first Korean space opera blockbuster. The movie opens in September in South Korea and Asia. The trailer seems to be going viral on YouTube. Can you see why?
Let's see… The future. Check. Earth is messed up and everyone wants to leave, but they need money to do that. Check. Rickety spaceships! Check. A rag-tag crew of space scavengers. Check. Space battles! Check. Scrappy, pissed-off blue collar people in space. Check. The cocky pilot (Song Joong-Ki). Check. The no-nonsense, no more f's to give captain (Kim Tae-Ri). Check. The grouchy, foul-mouthed engineer (Jin Seong-Ku). Check. The snarky robot that's a deadly weapon (Yoo Hae-Jin). Check. The salvage crew discovering illegal cargo. Check. Illegal cargo turns out to be a dangerous bomb that looks like a child. Check. More fights in space. Check. The snarky robot in a bathrobe stepping over a bunch of bodies! SOLD!
Are you getting a serious Cowboy Bebop, Han Solo or Firefly vibe from that trailer? Then it's probably done its job. Director Jo Sung-hee seems to be throwing everything he can think of into this movie. South Korea has made its fair share of Science Fiction movies and TV shows over the years, but it's a bit of a surprise to be told this is the country's first ever space opera. Space Sweepers looks like it has the weirdness, snarky sense of humour and sheer go-for-broke craziness that defines the best Korean movies. At this point, while everyone in the West still harps on about the latest overhyped Hollywood blockbuster, South Korea has been ceaselessly making the best commercial genre movies in the world: gangster thrillers, action thrillers, romantic comedies, adult dramas, even taking the action thriller crown from Hong Kong in the past 15 years. And who doesn't want a good space opera that's not a Star Wars? It's a big universe out there.
Space Sweepers opens in South Korea on September 23rd. There is as yet no news of US distribution, but that's probably going to change shortly.