[Anchor]

Director Christopher Nolan's film "Odyssey" has drawn more than 1 million domestic moviegoers in just four days since its release. While the cinematic experience provided by IMAX is a hot topic, it is said that the "completion of the film" as described by Director Nolan lies elsewhere.

Reporter Lee Joo-hyoung reports on how best to watch it 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" transports us to the ancient Greek world of 3,000 years ago.

At the core of the audiovisual experience is IMAX.

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

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

Although digital has become the mainstream, the film generally used in filmmaking is 35mm film.

70mm film has about three times the area of 35mm film, and IMAX 70mm film is the size of combining three regular 70mm films together.

Compared to standard theaters, this much of a difference exists just in the aspect ratio.

IMAX and Director Nolan enjoy a symbiotic relationship.

Beginning with "The Dark Knight" in 2008, Director Nolan became the first commercial feature filmmaker to shoot with IMAX.

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

Weighing around 150kg, IMAX cameras originally made sounds like this,

[Clatter-clatter-clatter]

which made simultaneous sound recording impossible.

[Christopher Nolan / Director : I went to IMAX and said, 'If there's ever a movie I'd want to shoot entirely in IMAX, it's this one,' and asked if they could build a quiet camera for us.]

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

As the largest among South Korea's 27 IMAX theaters, "Yong-a-max" is the only theater that fully reflects the 1.43:1 aspect ratio shot by Director Nolan, while also boasting a massive screen that ranks third among IMAX theaters worldwide.

However, even Yong-a-max is a 4K digital theater, meaning it cannot show the up to 18K resolution of IMAX 70mm film projection theaters.

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 movies are seen with the eyes, but also felt with the heart.

[Christopher Nolan / Director : I make films for theatrical audiences. The audience completes the film for me. They tell me what this movie is. Ultimately, the audience's reaction is everything, and only then do I feel like my Odyssey journey is complete.]

(Photo courtesy of: Universal Pictures | Video by: Lee Sang-min | Design by: Hwang Se-yeon)