Moby Dick (2011 film)

In winter 1994, an explosion occurs at the fictional Balam Bridge on the outskirts of Seoul and is attributed to terrorists. Social affairs reporter Lee Bang-woo (Hwang) begins to investigate the case when an old friend, Yoon-hyuk (Jin), hands him some secret documents and claims that the explosion was committed intentionally by the government. Lee teams up with fellow journalists Sung Hyo-kwan (Kim Min-hee) and Son Jin-ki (Kim Sang-ho) to pursue the truth. Their investigation reveals what seems to be a secret group that operates the government, and they begin to unravel a string of conspiracies that become far deadlier than they anticipated.^[2][3]

• Hwang Jung-min as Lee Bang-woo
• Jin Goo as Yoon-hyuk
• Kim Min-hee as Sung Hyo-kwan
• Kim Sang-ho as Son Jin-ki
• Han Soo-yeon as Seo Eun-sook
• Kim Min-Jae as Kim Yong-sung
• Lee Geung-young as Professor Jang
• Jung Man-sik as Nam Seon-soo
• Jo Hee-bong as Im Jik-sa
• Bae Seong-woo as President Maeng
• Ahn Gil-kang as Detective Ma
• Kim Bo-yeon as Director Jo

The film is the feature directing debut of Park In-je, grand prizewinner of the 2003 Mise-en-Scene Genre Film Festival.^[4] Park was working on a screenplay about a reporter when he came across an account of Private Yun Seok-yang, a soldier at the Defense Security Command of Korea's Armed Forces. In 1990 Yun deserted his camp, carrying a floppy disk that contained a list of national leaders, including former presidents, religious leaders, politicians, and social activists, that the DSC had been illegally investigating; he made a declaration of conscience and revealed the contents of the disk at a press conference.^[5] Moby Dick, loosely based on Yun's story, follows a journalist's attempts to investigate a secret organization that controls the government.^[6] The title Moby Dick alludes to Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick by conjuring up an overwhelming entity whose size makes it impossible to see all at once; Moby Dick was also the name of a café near Seoul University that was used by the DSC to investigate ordinary citizens.^[7] Starring actor Hwang Jung-min interviewed bureau-level reporters to help prepare for his role.^[8]

The film was shot during the coldest winter in South Korea in 30 years. Shooting began in mid-October 2010 and ended in February 2011, with the cast and crew enduring the cold for five months.^[9]

The film was released on June 9, 2011, to generally positive reviews for its 90s-era settings, moody cinematography, and cast performances.^{[10][11][unreliable source?][12]} It grossed around $3 million at the South Korean box office.^[13][14]