'Odyssey' Surpasses 1 Million Moviegoers Quickly… How to Watch It as Director Nolan Intended

[Anchor]

Director Christopher Nolan's film "Odyssey" has attracted over 1 million domestic moviegoers in just four days since its release. While the cinematic experience offered by IMAX is a hot topic, it is said that what Director Nolan calls the "completion of a film" lies elsewhere.

Reporter Lee Joo-hyoung reports on how best to watch the film to fully feel that intention.

[Reporter]

Director Christopher Nolan's astonishing cinematic experiences have amazed audiences worldwide over the past 20 years.

The film "Odyssey" takes us back to the ancient Greek world of 3,000 years ago.

At the core of the audiovisual experience is IMAX.

The visual scale provided by "Odyssey" is comparable to 20th-century classics like "Ben-Hur" or "Lawrence of Arabia."

"Lawrence of Arabia" was screened back in 1998 as a farewell exhibition on the 70mm screen at Daehan Theater, which was the largest in Korea at the time.

Although digital has become the mainstream, the film generally used for movie production is 35mm film.

A 70mm film has about three times the area of a 35mm film, and IMAX 70mm film is roughly the size of combining three general 70mm films.

Compared to standard screening rooms, this is the kind of difference made just in the aspect ratio.

IMAX and Director Nolan enjoy a symbiotic relationship.

Director Nolan began shooting with IMAX for the first time in a feature-length commercial film with "The Dark Knight" in 2008.

To the director of "Sinners," which won four Academy Awards this year, he even gave advice on IMAX filming. Practically acting as an IMAX ambassador, IMAX developed a camera sound blimp specifically for "Odyssey" for Nolan.

Weighing around 150 kilograms, IMAX cameras originally made this kind of noise,

[Clatter clatter clatter]

making simultaneous sound recording impossible.

[Christopher Nolan / Director : I went to IMAX and said, 'If we are going to shoot an entire movie in IMAX, this is the film to do it,' and asked if they could build a quiet camera for us.]

The only theater in Korea where you can watch the film closest to Director Nolan's intention is the Yongsan CGV IMAX theater, commonly known as "Yong-amax."

Being the largest among the 27 IMAX theaters in Korea, "Yong-amax" is the only theater that fully reflects the 1.43:1 aspect ratio shot by Director Nolan, while also featuring one of the largest screens, ranking third among IMAX theaters worldwide.

However, even Yong-amax is a 4K digital screening room, meaning it cannot display the up to 18K resolution of IMAX 70mm film screening rooms.

Theaters like that do not exist in Asia at all, with only 41 locations worldwide.

Therefore, there is no need to be too disappointed if you cannot watch it in an IMAX theater.

This is because a movie is watched with the eyes, but also felt with the heart.

[Christopher Nolan / Director : I make films for theater audiences. The audience completes the film on my behalf. They tell me what this movie is. Ultimately, the audience's reaction is everything, and that is when I feel like my odyssey is truly complete.]

(Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures | Video by Lee Sang-min | Design by Hwang Se-yeon)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.