{"id":569135,"date":"2026-07-26T15:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T15:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569135\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T15:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T15:53:09","slug":"inside-colony-director-yeon-sang-ho-and-gianna-jun-on-their-thrilling-new-zombie-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/569135\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside ‘Colony’: Director Yeon Sang-ho and Gianna Jun on Their Thrilling New Zombie Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cTrain to Busan<\/a>\u201d proved that humans can\u2019t outrun the infected<\/a>. \u201cColony\u201d proves they can\u2019t outsmart them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDirector Yeon Sang-ho<\/a> returns to the zombie genre with his third live-action thriller, \u201cColony,\u201d expanding the \u201cYeoniverse,\u201d the cinematic universe he\u2019s built through his genre-defining horror films. The South Korean film marks Gianna Jun<\/a>\u2019s (aka Jun Ji-hyun<\/a>) long-awaited return to the big screen after 11 years alongside Koo Kyo-hwan and Ji Chang-wook.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cColony,\u201d which made its North American premiere as the opening night film of the 25th New York Asian Film Festival, and will arrive in U.S. theaters August 28 through Well Go USA, follows Kwon Se-jeong, played by Gianna, an unemployed biotech professor who becomes trapped inside a high-rise building after a rapidly mutating virus breaks out. The survivors must escape while the infected evolve into something smarter and more dangerous than you\u2019re run-of-the-mill zombies.<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, the zombies in \u201cColony\u201d are unlike anything audiences have seen from Yeon before. Rather than standard reanimated corpses, the infected are connected by a collective intelligence, allowing them to learn, adapt and coordinate as one. When one zombie evolves, the entire group evolves with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tYeon Sang-ho<\/a> and Gianna Jun attend the 2026 New York Asian Film Festival opening night premiere of \u201cColony\u201d at Walter Reade Theater on July 10, 2026, in New York City.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe hardest part,\u201d Yeon explains to Variety, \u201cwas figuring out how to visually express zombies that exist in the form of a colony with collective intelligence. To convey that intuitively to the audience, the movement of the zombies had to be unique.\u201d In \u201cTrain to Busan,\u201d he used breakdancers to choreograph the infected\u2019s movements. \u201cColony\u201d took a different approach: \u201cThis time, we hired modern dance teams who were more experienced in choreographing group movements in an effort to create movements that could place a stronger emphasis on their collective nature.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Yeon, the idea of a collective organism influenced his approach to the film. \u201cI found it very interesting how, in reality, actual collective or colony-based organisms always produce variants or mutations. The reason for this is that because they are a group made of the exact same properties, if a single weakness is discovered, the entire colony could die off all at once, so they constantly create variants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe driving force behind the film\u2019s antagonist, Seo Young-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan), is his belief that imperfect communication is the source of all tragedy. This belief causes him to orchestrate the film\u2019s bioterrorist attack. Yeon, however, doesn\u2019t agree with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think I\u2019ve explored the question of what it means to be \u2018human\u2019 through many of my previous films,\u201d he maintains. \u201cIn this work, I had the same concerns. What I consider to be \u2018humanism\u2019 in this film is individuality. In other words, I believe that humans have no choice but to possess individuality, and because we can\u2019t achieve perfect communication, we are actually all the more human.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile Young-chul sees individuality as humanity\u2019s greatest flaw, Se-jeong\u2019s character represents the strength of it. While developing Se-jeong, Yeon envisioned a character who was an outcast but not someone weakened by isolation. He wanted her to be someone who is assertive and confident enough to choose solitude for herself. \u201cKwon Se-jeong is a complex character. She has to be someone who is an outcast but also someone who is confident,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I thought about who could express that, I naturally thought of Gianna.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYeon\u2019s admiration for Gianna\u2019s ability to portray unconventional female characters goes back to the beginning of her career. \u201cEven in her debut film, \u2018My Sassy Girl,\u2019 her character was something that had never really been seen before in Korean cinema,\u201d he offers. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought of her as an actress who shifted the paradigm for female characters. Since then, she has continued to shift that paradigm multiple times through various roles and performances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film\u2019s ending scene hints that the battle against the infected may not be over. Yeon admits there are already plans for what comes next but not in the way fans expect. Rather than teasing another film, Yeon revealed that he is currently discussing the possibility of continuing the story of \u201cColony\u201d as a video game with Smilegate, the film\u2019s co-producer and game developer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA scene from \u201cColony.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWell Go USA<\/p>\n

\n\tAs far as the inspirations behind \u201cColony\u201d go, Yeon pointed to the 1978 sci-fi horror classic \u201cInvasion of the Body Snatchers\u201d as one of the biggest influences behind the film. Other recent works that inspired him were \u201c28 Years Later\u201d and \u201cThe Last of Us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Korean cinema continues to expand globally, Gianna was asked whether she hopes to pursue any Hollywood projects in the future. The short answer is no. \u201cI strongly feel that \u2018what is most Korean is what is most global,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cRather than seeking out work abroad, I think it\u2019s more meaningful to work with great directors and actors right here in Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYeon shared a similar sentiment when asked about a potential Hollywood remake of \u201cTrain to Busan.\u201d While acknowledging that there had been some efforts to remake the film in English, he said he has no desire to direct one himself: \u201cI feel I\u2019ve fully expressed everything I wanted to do through the original film \u2018Train to Busan.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNearly a decade after \u201cTrain to Busan\u201d changed the perception of Korean horror worldwide, \u201cColony\u201d suggests that the next evolution of onscreen zombies isn\u2019t one that is simply faster or stronger, but one that is smarter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTrain to Busan\u201d proved that humans can\u2019t outrun the infected. \u201cColony\u201d proves they can\u2019t outsmart them.\u00a0 Director Yeon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,240118,61,60,196057,270,541,175839,19577],"class_list":["post-569135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-gianna-jun","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jun-ji-hyun","tag-movies","tag-south-korea","tag-train-to-busan","tag-yeon-sang-ho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}