A Closer Look at 신기전 (The Divine Weapon)

Posted by . X . at 2:51am.

Posted in Trailer Alerts , Asia.

You’ve likely seen it, at least in one of the many sageuk airing on Korean Tv. The Shingijeon of the (Korean) title was a rocket-propelled arrow launcher able to shoot multiple arrows at once. After Choi Mu-Seon brought gunpowder to the Korean peninsula during the late Goryeo Dynasty, near the end of his rule Sejong the Great tried to improve Joseon’s military power through this and many innovations. This fueled one of Sejong’s dreams, that of making Joseon a much more feared nation (his other obsession, as you probably know, was creating hangeul, the Korean alphabet). Aaallright. Boring lesson over, now the fun. Producer Kang Woo Suk has decided to spend some of his hard (?) earned cash on a project which sounds a little meatier than the usual flag-waving, Japan-doesn’t-scare-me-anymore-Bubba bonanza which plagued his past works like 실미도 (Silmido) or 한반도 (Hanbando), with a film about the making of such cabalistic weaponry. Then again, it’s Kang Woo-Suk…

But the good news continue: although at first Kang was supposed to direct, veteran director Kim Yoo-Jin of 와일드 카드 (Wild Card) is helming this instead, which should help smoothen things considerably. And then, the cast. Ahn Sung-Gi plays a role he was probably born for, although it took 50 years to see it… King Sejong. Oh mama. And then we have plenty of sageuk veterans, including Hur Joon-Ho, Jung Sung-Mo and Kim Myung-Guk, with Jung Jae-Young and Han Eun-Jung leading the list. The clip just shows some of the battles with interviews sandwiched in between, but a trailer should be out in no time. This one, too, is slated for September. Clip below the break.