Ma Dong-seok’s ‘Holy Night: Demon Hunters’ Blends Action with Exorcism
Apr 02, 2025
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On the morning of the 2nd, a press conference was held at the entrance of Lotte Cinema Konkuk University in Jayang-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, on the production of the occult action film 'Holy Night: Demon Hunters' (hereinafter 'Holy Night', directed by Lee Yong-hee, and produced by Big Punch Pictures/Nova Film). The production briefing session was attended by Ma Dong-seok as the dark solver who is expelled with a fist, Seo-hyun as Sharon, an exorcist with special abilities, Lee Da-wit as Kim Gun, a multiplayer who finds the devil, Kyung Soo-jin as Jung Won, who commissioned the exorcism on a holy night, Jung Ji-so as Eun-seo, Jung Ji-won's younger brother who was taken away by the devil, and director Lee Yong-hee.
'Holy Night' is a story about a city confused by a group of worshiping evil, a dark fixer with special abilities, a holy night team who slay a group of evil. It is a new work in April that once again brought the genre of theater occult to the fore, following last year's theater occult wave 'Farmyo' (director Jang Jae-hyun) and this year's unexpected hit animation 'Farmo Rock' (director Kim Dong-chul).
In particular, 'Holy Night' is a crime sweep story that draws attention with Ma Dong-seok of 'The Crime City' adding occult to his proprietary 'Fist Action'. Earlier, Ma Dong-seok achieved his third 10 million mark with the 'Crime City' series only with 'Crime City' (directed by Heo Myung-haeng), which was released in April last year, but he was criticized for his increasingly regressive story, direction, and unfresh character reproduction. As the harsh criticism poured out, Ma Dong-seok, who declared the suspension of the series 'Crime City' to reorganize the series, drew keen attention by attempting to transform his image by bypassing it to 'Holy Night' which added occult instead of 'Crime City'.
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Director Lee Yong-hee, who even wrote a thesis on the occult genre, said "It is still not enough to be an expert. I analyzed several occult genre movies and wrote a thesis. "I didn't have a sense of reality because it was a hit movie, but Ma Dong-seok helped me a lot. I was very impressed and moved, and it was an honor to be with you."
I also felt concerns about the character. In the meantime, Ma Dong-seok had a dilemma about 'self-replication'. In response, Ma Dong-seok "Basically contains Ma Dong-seok's character, but it also has a fantasy aspect." He will act as a dark fixer. There is also a hidden secret" "There is a lot of wire action and there are special effects because of the boxing action and fantasy settings. There were also inevitable injuries. It's a team that plays with the `The Outlaws' series, but they tried to find a different part of the same fist action. It's a fantasy, but I tried to express it realistically."
On differentiation "It's been a long time since our movie was planned. Personally, I really enjoyed watching 'The Grave'. I think it is desirable to have a lot of other occult and horror works. There were no action-specialized works in Korean movies before making the `The Outlaws' series. There seems to be more action genres after 'The Outlaws'. I was also interested in exorcism, but I was very thirsty for a dark hero. I think that will be the core of this movie. I hoped that there would be a lot of movies mixed with genres," he replied.
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He "I played a spell based on ancient languages, and I had a lot of worries about how to express it. I thought about looking for another movie, but I wanted to make my own Sharon, so I tried to get used to it by listening to the voice on my earphones all day long. I tried to express my lines naturally."
In response, Ma Dong-seok said, "In the past, there were people who doubted Yoon Kye-sang's casting when he was in the movie 'The Outlaws' (17, directed by Kang Yoon-sung), but he was loved so much after the movie was released. Seo-hyun also said, "I think there must be such a point."
Jeong Ji-Soo likes the occult genre, horror, and action all the time. In foreign currency, I usually saw works with occult and action. In that sense, 'Holy Night' was very attractiveHe also did a lot of research to express a bizarre appearance like a choreographer. to play a lot of pitiful roles after being beaten up a lot in one's previous work It was the first time I took on a character that scared others in this work. So it was harder and I was exhausted, but Ma Dongseok was considerate of me in an invisible place."
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Seo-hyun, who worked with Ma Dong-seok for the first time, said "Not only me, but everyone fell in love with Ma Dong-seok. The ad-libs are really clever, too. I can't help but love everything. Even now, his eyes are 'Heart Ppyong', and Kyung Soo-jin also showed affection by 'Heart Ppyong'.
Lee Da-Wit said "There were so many ad-libs because Ma Dong-seok was full of ideas. My character in the movie was a desperate action, almost avoiding role. At one point, Ma Dong-seok taught me how to box. Although no action was used during the shooting, I had the opportunity to learn boxing from Ma Dong-seok outside the scene," he said.
'Holy Night: Demon Hunters' stars Ma Dong-seok, Seohyun, Lee Da-Wit, Kyung Soo-jin, and Jung Ji-Soo, and is director Lee's first feature-length directorial debut. It will be released on the 30th.
soulhn1220@sportschosun.com
