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At the end of the week on May 12th, 2023, Netflix will be launching its latest exclusive K-drama, Black Knight based on the webtoon comic of the same name by Lee Yoon-gyun.
We were lucky enough to attend a press conference about the new shows hosted by its director Cho Ui-seok and the central cast. Here, they described a little more about what viewers can expect from the new series.
The Plot of Black Knight
Black Knight takes place in a dystopian version of Korea devastated by air pollution, the survival of humanity depends on the Black Knights, a group of not-so-average ‘delivery men’ who bring oxygen, water, and resources to what’s left of the society following a comet that destroyed 99% of the population on the Korean Peninsular.
All materials became scarce and it’s impossible to breathe properly without a mask due to polluted air. Those left behind are classified by a QR code, and those who do not receive the code live as refugees without an identity. The greatest hero of this era is the deliveryman as clean oxygen can only be received by delivery, but the existence of a “deliveryman” has also led to the problem of “hunters”, and refugees that attack delivery men for their supplies.
Deliveryman 5-8 (Kim Woo-bin) is a legendary deliveryman who is considered the strongest among them. After experiencing the refugee genocide nine years ago, he dreams of a world without the Cheonmyeong group behind the incident and secretly helps refugees alongside The ‘Blacks Knights’ rebel group.
He soon meets the refugee boy Sa-wol (Kang You-seok) who lives in secret in the house of Jeong Seol-ah (Esom), who rescued him when he was young. He dreams of being a deliveryman and is soon able to become one but soon finds the world of deliveries is far harsher than he could have ever thought.
The world created by Cho Ui-seok
The series Director Cho Ui-seok is well known for his tightly-knit narratives, and high-octane action setpieces in works like Master and Cold Eyes. He spoke more about creating the world of Black Knight
“The setup was very innovative. It’s not the deliverymen that we know of – they fight off the hunters to deliver oxygen and supplies, meaning that they play the most crucial role in the survival of the remaining mankind. That really appealed to me.”
In this world, the Korean peninsula has turned into a desert wasteland, and a brutal social hierarchy has taken root, dividing the city into four districts – the Refugee District, General District, Special District, and Core District. Deliverymen work as lifelines to people during the daytime, but at nightfall they morph into Black Knights, as the English title of the show suggests, to help out the refugees and plot to upend the unfair system.
Main star Kim Woo-bin said, “The setup was very intriguing because I think this is something that can actually happen in the far future”.
The Cast
Black Knight brings together an all-star cast of K-Drama talent. Main star Kim Woo-bin, who previously appeared in works like Master, Our Blues, and Uncontrollably Fond, takes on the role of the deliveryman 5-8 who turns into a Black Knight when night falls.
Kim describes the character 5-8, a formidable fighter who’s got a strong sense of justice as “the toughest among the Black Knights who desires to achieve an equal society”.
Song Seung-heon, famed for his works Voice Season 4: Judgment Hour, Dinner Mate, Player, and Black, portrays Ryu Seok, the villain of the series. He’s the merciless heir to The Cheonmyeong Group and de facto ruler of the new world with a firm grip on the supply of oxygen.
Song says he delved deep into the character to get into the role and believes: “Ryu Seok has his own conviction and vision. He’s the one who thinks that one cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs”.
Celebrated for his performance in Payback: Money and Power, Light on Me, and Netflix series Start-Up, Kang You-seok plays Sa-wol, a refugee boy who aspires to become a Black Knight. Sa-wol is described as “the beacon of hope for the next generation in the post-apocalyptic world”.
Kang portrayed the naive yet strong-willed Sa-wol in his own charming way and commented: “Sa-wol often finds himself at a crossroads but when he makes up his mind he goes full-on. I focused most on portraying his personal growth.”
Finally, after her portrayal of characters in the Netflix film Kill Boksoon and Taxi Driver, Esom plays DIC major Seol-ah who harbors refugee Sa-wol at her home. Esom depicts Seol-ah as a proactive and independent character who leverages her power to build justice and use it for the people. She recalls, “Seol-ah has a strong sense of duty so I tried to keep a stiff upper lip no matter what came my way”.
The Class Structure of Dystopian Korea
Creating the dystopian set for Black Knight was also a challenge in itself. The world is covered in sand and polluted air; only a selected few get to hide in the bunkers built underground. Air is no longer for everyone and there is also strict social stratification in place.
Director Cho points out the irony in the setup “Gangnam is like the Beverly Hills of Korea, but in this universe, the refugees find shelter in the region and the selected few hide underground – hence a reverse pyramid structure.”
The urban areas which once were rich neighborhoods now are stipulated as the Refugee Districts where a ventilator is a must in order to survive. People in the General District get oxygen and supplies delivered to them but they live in identical rectangular housing built in rows. The Special Region is below ground level away from all the sand but lacks sunlight. The Core District has enough air for even plants to grow. The different environments per the different social classes.
The VFX of Black Knight
To bring this harsh world to reality, Korean VFX studio Westworld, behind the Netflix series Sweet Home, Squid Game, and All of Us Are Dead, was brought in to work on Black Knight. Over 180 artists in Westworld worked on 3,500 cuts for over 10 months.
Westworld Director Lee Byung-joo talked about what he really emphasized: “It was important to add haze and dust particles to make it look like the air has been severely polluted. We really poured our everything to depict a desolate Seoul after a comet collision.”
The texture of the atmosphere was created mostly with smog. To make sure that the smog doesn’t cover up everything, he split the actors from the background, especially for the outdoor scenes, and added a flow of haze in between. To depict a desolate Seoul, they also recreated the N Seoul Tower cut in half, a deserted Gwanghwamun area, and a Gangnam road with collapsed buildings.
In order to show the different textures of sand dunes in different regions, Lee says “source photography was taken from Bayanzak and Khongoryn Els of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia to cater to the different desert environments”.
An instance of this was that the Hangang River was replaced with sand dunes with very fine sand, while rough-textured soil was used to cover the Gangnam Road. A site as wide as 165,300 m2 was covered with sand to pull off indoor shoots and a 1 km long road was created with soil to shoot the car-chasing scene for the Black Knight auditions. The team leveraged VFX to create natural car movements and collision effects, completing and perfecting the scenes and presenting next-level realism.
Black Knight will be available to watch on Netflix on the 12th of May 2023.
Check out our interview with the director Cho Ui-seok for more information.
