Fast-paced action, an esteemed director and Jisoo of Blackpink: The upcoming fantasy film "Omniscient Reader," based on the hit web novel of the same name, has the makings of a blockbuster hit. Fans of its source material are more divided on that than one might expect.

Adaptations of popular web novels tend to come with high expectations from their pre-established fan bases — expectations that they will not only live up to the quality of their source material, but also depict it accurately.

Nevertheless, director Kim Byung-woo has already admitted that he believes changes to the source material will be "inevitable" in his film, which is one of the highest-budget projects hitting Korean theaters this year. He's confident that his high-profile cast, which also includes Lee Min-ho, Ahn Hyo-seop and Nana of Afterschool, will be enough to win over even the web novel's most cynical adherents. July 23, the film's release date, will reveal whether audiences feel the same way.

How is the "Omniscient Reader" movie different from the web novel?

While it's not unusual for web novel adaptations to draw backlash after release, the troubles for "Omniscient Reader" have already begun.

“I wanted to carry on the author’s original intention and its unique charm,” Kim said Tuesday during a press conference in Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul. “Still, some elements required adjustment or reinterpretation to suit the cinematic format.”

The primary source of fans' ire is Kim's alteration of the character Lee Ji-hye, portrayed by Jisoo in the film. Characters in the story form pacts with "constellations," or reincarnations of powerful figures from the past, which enhance those characters' abilities or help them advance. Ji-hye, in the source material, forms a pact with the constellation of real-life Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) Admiral Yi Sun-sin.

Under her partnership with Yi, Ji-hye yields a sword as her primary weapon in the web novel. In the film, however, she wields a gun — a change that has been unpopular among fans.

After a series of trailers was released on YouTube, beginning in February, which showed Jisoo holding a gun instead of a sword, angry fans flooded their comments sections.

“When did Ji-hye start fighting with guns?” one fan wrote.

“Please don’t destroy [the original], don't recreate it and don't interpret it arbitrarily," demanded another.

“Most of the characters originally used longswords," Kim said. "I felt that introducing more variety in their weapons would not only make the action visually more dynamic, but also help bring out each character's unique traits more effectively."

What else can we expect from the film?

Directed by Kim, who helmed “The Terror Live” (2013) and “Take Point” (2018), "Omniscient Reader" centers around an utterly ordinary office worker, Kim Dok-ja, whose reality suddenly mirrors a novel he has read. Dok-ja becomes the only person who knows how the world will end and embarks on a journey to change the course of the novel's story and save the world.

The eponymous web novel, first released in 2018, has accumulated more than 200 million views so far.

The story has earned acclaim not only for its action and fantastical elements, but also for its deeper emotional layer rooted in human connection.

“Even in a world on the brink of destruction, people still manage to draw strength and comfort from one another and ultimately journey through hardship together in the story,” Lee said. “These emotional threads are something our time deeply needs. That’s what drew me to the project; I believed it could truly resonate with today’s audiences.”

In portraying this fantasy-blended-reality, the cast and crew were determined to strike the right balance between reality and fantasy — a task that everyone on set thought deeply about.

Ahn, making his big screen debut in "Omniscient Reader" said he was drawn to the project's underlying “philosophy": the importance of living and working alongside others.

Kim was drawn the way in which the original story “seamlessly blends reality with fantasy.”

“If it were purely a fantasy film, it might feel heavy for the audience, and the film would carry the burden of having to explain a lot more through cinematic devices,” Kim said. “But in this story, fantasy elements are woven so naturally into the real world.”



BY KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]