By Woo Jae-yeon
Director Lee Sang-min, a habitual user of road view services for brainstorming, was instantly captivated by a dead end he discovered.
“It triggered a chain of questions, like why did it stop there and what might have happened and so forth,” Lee said at a press conference on Wednesday for the film, his directorial feature debut, Salmokji: Whispering Water.
Salmokji: Whispering Water follows a film crew, led by Soo-in (Kim Hye-yoon), who travel to a remote location to complete a shoot under a tight deadline. However, they find themselves sinking deeper into an inescapable, swamp-like terror as time runs out.
The film’s titular location, Salmokji, is a real reservoir in Yesan County, South Chungcheong Province, known among anglers as a fishing spot. More notoriously, it has a reputation as a paranormal hotspot with a history of ghost sightings, gaining wider exposure after being featured on a TV program dedicated to unverified supernatural accounts.
The director stated he was captivated by Salmokji’s “eeriness” and the “blurring of boundaries where water and land dissolve into near-nothingness.”
“The blurring of boundaries was essential in portraying the characters’ spellbound state,” he explained.
“I kept asking myself why people are drawn to places like this, what compels them to go?” the director said. “When making a horror film, I believe it is crucial to ensure that the audience finds the characters’ actions convincing, so that they can continue to follow the fear as it unfolds.”
The film marks Kim Hye-yoon’s (“Lovely Runner”) return to the big screen after the 2022 romance film “Ditto,” and also represents her first foray into the horror genre.
“I had many scenes in which I had to convey expressions only through eyes and facial expression,” Kim Hye-yoon said, reflecting on the challenges of the role. “I tried to remove any hint of vanity and keep the performance restrained.”
Salmokji: Whispering Water is scheduled for release on April 8.
