Kim Yoon-seok and Koo Kyo-hwan turned the production briefing for their new film “Heavy Snow” into a showcase of the very chemistry the movie depends on, trading affectionate jokes on stage in Seoul on October 30 ahead of the film’s November 18 theatrical release.
The briefing was held on the morning of October 30 at CGV Yongsan I’Park Mall in Seoul’s Yongsan district, with Kim, Koo and director Hong Eui-jeong in attendance, according to Star News. The film, whose Korean title is “íŹě„¤â€ť and which has also been billed in some English-language coverage as “White Blast,” is a mystery drama set at a rural train station cut off by heavy snow, where a mysterious body is discovered in front of two very different men.
Kim plays Gap-su, the stationmaster nearing retirement, while Koo plays Hyeon-taek, the newly arrived successor who takes over from him. The discovery of the body throws the retiring veteran and his replacement together, and the film’s tension grows out of how the two men, who approach the same incident from opposite directions, read each other and the case in front of them.
Kim said he was drawn to the project by Hong’s writing. Describing the director as strongly writerly, he said the script had a distinctive, dense quality and portrayed people with their feet firmly on the ground rather than stories floating in the air. He added that Hong pays close attention to details as small as props and costumes, and called working with such a director on such a project a rare and precious opportunity.
Koo said his reasons were simpler and more personal. He said he genuinely loves winter, and that after reading the script he wanted to perform this particular text. He also said he wanted to work with Kim again, noting that the two first met on “Mogadishu” and that he had learned a great deal from his senior colleague on that production, as well as enjoying plenty of good meals together.
That history shaped the briefing’s most quoted exchange. Kim described Koo as being like Peter Pan, saying that the moment Koo takes off his glasses, the comparison is obvious, and that he likes people, as actors and as people, who retain a childlike innocence. He said he sensed that innocence the moment he first met Koo in Morocco while filming “Mogadishu” in 2021, that the two became close quickly and without formality, and that even after years apart they felt as comfortable together as if they had met only yesterday.
Koo answered in kind, telling Kim that if he was Peter Pan, then Kim was Tinker Bell, or perhaps Wendy. The remark drew laughter from the room, and host Park Kyung-rim noted Kim’s changing expression at suddenly being cast as Tinker Bell. Kim laughed it off, joking that Koo was talking nonsense, before returning to the substance of their working relationship.
Koo said he believes Kim saw that same childlike quality in him because they recognised it in each other, and that working alongside Kim on “Heavy Snow” changed how he approaches a scene, how he reads a character’s intentions and how he enriches a work. He said he learned a great deal from Kim as an actor during the shoot, and that he hopes a third collaboration would teach him even more.
Director Hong, who previously directed “Voice of Silence” and co-directs “Heavy Snow” with emerging director Park Sun-woo, praised the pairing in similar terms. She described Kim and Koo as a genius-and-oddball combination, called working with them fun and a treat, and described Kim as a living film dictionary whose ideas, as well as his acting, are extraordinary.
The briefing matters because “Heavy Snow” is, at its core, a two-hander. With the station isolated by snow and a body at the centre of the story, there is nowhere for the two leads to hide from each other, and the film’s mystery will stand or fall on whether audiences believe in the push and pull between a man about to leave his post and the man arriving to replace him. Kim put it more plainly at the briefing, saying the film lays out a stage for the two actors to play freely together, and that their back-and-forth rhythm fits well.
“Heavy Snow” opens in theatres on November 18.
