Badland Hunters director Myeong-haeng Heo and its star Don Lee (aka Dong-seok Ma) want you to know that the movie is not a sequel to the 2023 disaster film Concrete Utopia, nor is it part of that universe. It is in its own post-apocalypse world.
They also want audiences to know, despite what is shown in the trailer, they’re not dealing with zombies. It’s more focused on the human condition rather than mythical monsters.
“We’re in [this] apocalyptic world [so] it’s a little bit different,” Lee explains to The Nerds of Color. “We can be more imaginative and add in some fantastical elements. We can show a new style of action, but still want to be grounded.”
In the film, Lee plays Nam-san, a wasteland hunter who protects his community, after a post-earthquake transformed Seoul into an apocalyptic wasteland. After visitors, who seem to be from a better community, recruit Nam-san’s friend and pseu-do daughter Suna (Jeong-eui Roh), promising clean water and an opportunity to thrive in this world. She accepts and leaves to the village run by Dr. Gi-su Yang (Hee-joon Lee), a scientist conducting science experiments on people in an attempt to evolve them for survival. After finding out the village’s nefarious plans, Nam-san and his trusted friend Ji-wan (Jun-young Lee) embark on their quest to rescue her. They receive help from Sergeant Eun-ho (Ji-hye An), a former soldier of Gi-su, who wants to rescue those being experimented on.
“I was very intrigued by the script because it was centered around Nam-san’s action,” Heo tells The Nerds of Color through an interpreter. “If Nam-san is this formidable power, then the villains must have some kind of fantastical elements to them in order to live up to his expectations as his rival. I liked how I could incorporate some fantastical elements to the evil guys. I knew that if we have these elements, we can have an even more intense level of sledgehammer action from Nam-san.”
It’s easy to call Badland Hunters a simple action film, especially since Heo’s background as a martial artist choreographer for many of Lee’s films, including The Roundup film series. But, for Heo, it’s more than that. He wants audiences to understand that there is a deeper context to the story of two people with the same circumstances and trauma can take different paths. Heo explains he wanted audiences to see the parallel between the two characters — Nam-san and Gi-su — in a world of chaos. For Gi-su, his love for his dying daughter is what motivates him to want to evolve the human species to survive in the most extreme situations. He believes he is the key to helping mankind, despite the extreme and dangerous circumstances. Then there is Nam-san, who lost his daughter when the earthquakes hit, and continues to live his life for her by being the protector of his community.
“Gi-su is a character who has his own convictions,” says Heo. “His goal is to have an upgraded kind of new human species to rule the world. In that process, people [have to be sacrificed [for what he perceives is the “greater good”]. Nam-san is the good guy who tries to stop people from being sacrificed from this wrong conviction.”
Like many wasteland, apocalyptic stories, it tells a tale all too familiar of the socioeconomic disparities in political mayhem with those who hold the necessary resources are the ones in power. People become desperate to survive with morality and kindness being the first casualty in social disorder. Nam-san, who has shown to be a strongman who easily defeats giant crocodiles — and let’s be real, Lee could probably do it — could easily be a ruthless leader in this world. But, for Lee and Heo, they wanted to showcase that even the most powerful of men could also be the kindest.
“Nam-san holds a sense of guilt because he wasn’t able to protect his daughter,” Lee explains. “Instead of becoming a boss like [ruthless gang leader] Tiger, he wants to hide out, living low key and just survive with good people. Nam-san represents the good in people, even in this dire situation. We see these kinds of people in society, both Nam-san and Gi-su. People who still keep their good heart [despite the disorder] and people who want to take advantage of others.”
Alongside the social meaning and symbolism, yes — Heo wanted the film to also be fun and action-packed. He and Lee had a well-deserved reputation to uphold when it came to the fight sequences. After all, they are best known for their stunt and action collaboration on The Roundup films. So you can expect to have a good time watching the fight choreography and action sequences.
“I have infinite trust for Director Heo because we’ve been working together for such a long time,” says Lee. “I knew that he’s going to do a good job. We have really good chemistry because we’ve been working together for such a long time.”
It was Lee who suggested Heo to direct this film. Though there was some hesitation on Heo’s end, Lee believed in him and that was enough for Heo to sign up as director. With the script, written by Bo-tong Kim and Jae-min Kwak, Lee and Heo dissected the story on an emotional level and took the action up a notch. Lee is proud of the end result and hope audiences will enjoy it like he enjoyed filming it.
“I’m always intrigued by the stories of people,” Lee explains. “The same for Train to Busan as well. It all boils down to the stories of the people trying to survive.”
When asked if he thinks he, personally, could survive this apocalypse like Nam-san?
He laughs, “It could be very difficult for me to survive. Maybe not.”
Badland Hunters premieres globally on January 26 on Netflix.