Yoo Ah In raised the interest in the movie #ALIVE with his honest stories.
#ALIVE is a survival thriller about Jun Woo (Yoo Ah In) and Yoo Bin (Park Shin Hye), who are isolated in an apartment as data, Wi-Fi, text messages, and phones all cut off amid people with unknown symptoms begin to attack. In 2020, when data and Wi-Fi have become a must-have item, the movie stimulates differentiated fun and empathy with its novel setting of not only being physically isolated, but also being cut off from all digital-related items.
After #ALIVE received rave reviews after the premiere, Yoo Ah In humbly brought up his story, saying that people seemed to have magnified the merits of the movie even though there are pros and cons. He added, “I think the advantage of this work is that it has a slightly different power in unfolding the stories. I think you’ll feel fresh that it’s a genre film led by a small number of characters to the very last minute and that it goes deep into the characters’ innermost feelings,” expressing his confidence.
Since he had to solely lead the early parts of the movie, Yoo Ah In mentioned that he devoted more passion to acting than ever to play, and added that #ALIVE is the movie that he watched the most on-site cuts. “I don’t watch them this much, but I tried to balance my early character by watching them to the point where it was too much. But thankfully, people told me, ‘it showed high concentration level,’ so I was relieved,” said Yoo Ah In.
Later, he also showed his affection for Park Shin Hye, who he had worked with for the first time. “I tend to appeal strongly, but Park Shin Hye was not carried away by it, and she created her own acting with her own beliefs, even if they were opposing opinions. It’s not a matter of winning or losing. It was nice of her to show an attitude that didn’t waver easily to lead the scene. I was really grateful for that. It’s more pleasing to have people you can have discussions with,” he said, praising her attitude as an actor.
He also talked about how he felt about competing with Kang Dong Won’s K-Zombie blockbuster film Peninsula. Yoo Ah In jokingly said, “I expect #ALIVE to lead the scene for about a month.”
Right away, he added, “It’s hard for all movies to even confirm the release date nowadays. So I want Korean movies to go together. #ALIVE and Peninsula may be similar in the genre category, but it will be completely different stories. The audience will be able to feel different kinds of fun because the two have different key points. It would be nice if you could enjoy in various ways,” cheering for the entire Korean film industry.
