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Straits Times
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy Review – Korean Fantasy Action Movie Disappoints
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy (NC16) 117 minutes, opens July 31 ★★☆☆☆ The story: Kim Dok-ja (Ahn Hyo-seop) is an underachiever at everything. The office worker takes refuge in the web novel Three Ways To Survive The Apocalypse, but its dwindling popularity turns him into its only reader. When he posts a criticism of the final chapter, the author replies, challenging him to write his own ending. On his way home from work, the novel's monster-filled dystopian setting comes to life. He meets the novel's hero, Yu Jung-hyeok (Lee Min-ho). Helped by his knowledge of what is to come, Dok-ja and his allies have to fight their way to safety. This is a movie with plenty of ideas, but little coheres into a story. It does not help that the screenplay portrays contradictory themes. Dok-ja is jolted out of his mundane reality by a message instructing him to 'write his own story' – a call for him to use his free will. But instead of breaking out of a narrative written for him – in the manner of The Truman Show (1998) – Dok-ja exercises his new-found autonomy by fighting monsters with tricks he has picked up from the novel, but modified to suit the situation. In Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy, this counts as freedom of thought. The world has been plunged into a dystopian science-fiction fantasy in which gods are spectators at sadistic human-versus-monster matches. This is Squid Game (2021 to 2025) on a planetary scale, but with the mechanics of live streaming laid over it. As humans fight for coins and loot, cosmic deities bestow treasure or special weapons on their favourite players – the way fans might drop gifts on a live streamer. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore MHA to support HSA's crackdown on Kpod abusers and help in treatment of offenders: Shanmugam Business S'pore's Q2 total employment rises, but infocomm and professional services sectors see more job cuts Singapore Fewer than 1 in 5 people noticed suspicious items during MHA's social experiments Asia Powerful 8.8-magnitude quake in Russia's far east causes tsunami; Japan, Hawaii order evacuations Singapore Migrant workers who gave kickbacks to renew work passes were conservancy workers at AMK Town Council Business Seatrium to pay $168m to Brazilian authorities, $73m to Singapore authorities to settle corruption case Singapore Man charged with having 320 vape pods and over 70 vapes meant for sale in car at Bugis mall Singapore Escape, discover, connect: Where new memories are made Plenty of world-building is needed to fully explain the goings-on, with much of it delivered through unwieldy blocks of dialogue. At one point, the story perks up when it subverts the Chosen One trope. It begins to say that classic sci-fi heroes like Jung-hyeo k are narcissists, but the thread is not satisfyingly pursued. This is a complicated landscape that blends the virtual, low-stakes language of video gaming with high-stakes survival action-horror. The herald of doom who explains the rules of the brutal new world is a cute Dokkaebi, or Korean goblin, an adorable sprite whose design might have been plucked from a Pixar movie. The sardonic comedy which sees survivors ripped apart for want of game coins, when juxtaposed against the grim battles waged by Dok-ja and his allies, is jarring. The goofiness of one undermines the life-or-death stakes of the other. The use of arcade-style game graphics – neon colours, floating buttons – makes everything feel weightless, a feeling reinforced by the digitally crafted monsters which never feel like they belong in the same world as Dok-ja and his allies. Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy stars (from left) Shin Seung-ho, Kwon Eun-seon, Ahn Hyo-seop, Chae Soo-bin and Nana. PHOTO: GOLDEN VILLAGE This band of fighters is each blessed with a game-changing talent. The enigmatic warrior Jeong Hee-won is played by Nana from the K-pop girl group After School, while Blackpink's Jisoo portrays sniper Lee Ji-hye. They are each given neatly packaged backstories that explain their skills and motivations. But like the movie itself, the teammates never quite come together in a believable way. Hot take: Flashy visuals and game mechanics cannot save Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy from muddled storytelling and hollow character dynamics.
Korea Herald
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Interview: Ahn Hyo-seop on playing everyone and no one
How do you strip away movie-star magnetism to become utterly unremarkable? For his film debut, the K-drama heartthrob had to figure it out Ahn Hyo-seop sits at the Samcheong-dong cafe looking every inch the K-pop idol he once trained to be — even in glasses and a casual sweater, he carries that unmistakable aura. The kind that makes heads turn. Which presents a problem, considering he's about to promote his role as Kim Dok-ja, the definitively unglamorous protagonist of the upcoming blockbuster "Omniscient Reader: The Prophet." The film, adapted from the wildly popular web novel and later web comic, follows Kim Dok-ja, an office drone whose decade-long obsession with an obscure web novel becomes his only advantage when fiction bleeds into reality. In a departure from the source material, director Kim Byung-woo deliberately crafted the character as a below-average everyman — a human participation trophy — who at first seems barely capable of making decisions, let alone saving the world. "But you can be good-looking and still be ordinary," Ahn insists, a line that draws laughter from everyone within earshot. "I mean, look around — handsome people, plain people, tall people, short people. Who decides what's ordinary?" His approach to the role involved some radical self-effacement. "I stopped looking in mirrors during filming. Completely. I had no idea how I appeared on camera." The makeup team used foundation to dull his skin tone. His hair stayed deliberately unkempt. The costume department provided three identical suits in progressively smaller sizes — baggy to fitted — to show Dok-ja's gradual transformation without making him look too heroic. "The question I asked most often was, 'Did I look too cool just now?'" He says. "Dok-ja isn't supposed to be cool. He's never held a sword, never jumped between buildings. For him, everything should feel awkward." The technical challenges went beyond suppressing his natural charisma. Most shootings took place against blue screens, demanding feats of imagination. Take the sea dragon sequence, where Dok-ja gets swallowed whole. "The detail was insane. Is the stomach lining squishy or firm? How deep does your foot sink? They mapped out every texture, every sensation." He explains. "I was told the belly felt like quicksand — your feet just keep sinking." Despite such attention to detail, the film faces an uphill battle. With Korean cinema struggling through its worst box office slump in years, even high-budget blockbusters aren't guaranteed success. Even Ahn seems aware of the challenges ahead. "We had to compress this massive story into two hours. The world-building may feel rushed. I get that." He pauses, choosing words carefully. "We tried to capture the essence, but you lose so much. I just hope audiences will be generous." What gives him confidence? The film's universally relatable themes. "It's about whether humanity deserves saving. Dok-ja keeps getting tested — should he help these people who've shown their worst sides? But he chooses hope anyway." These days, Ahn's riding high thanks to another unexpected hit. His voice work as Jinu, the charismatic leader of the demonic boy band Saja Boys in Netflix's "K-Pop Demon Hunters," has gone viral, and the dance for the group's track "Soda Pop" has spawned countless TikToks. Even at press events for "Omniscient Reader," reporters beg Ahn to perform the moves, though Andrew Choi provided Jinu's vocals on the track. "They say the title's the biggest turnoff," he laughs about "KPop Demon Hunters." "I only auditioned because the script was genuinely fun." Now, former JYP trainee Ahn watches actual K-pop groups cover "his" song with bemusement. "It's surreal. I don't think of it as mine — I'm just another fan." This success caps a decade of steady work since abandoning his idol dreams for acting. "I've walked my path quietly," he reflects. "Never gave less than everything, even when I wanted to. That's just not in my DNA." The conversation turns to Dok-ja's counterpart, the mythic hero Yoo Joong-hyuk, who gains power through endless time loops, reliving the apocalypse until he gets it right. If Ahn could reset his own timeline, would he change anything? The answer comes instantly, with absolute conviction. "Nothing. Every choice led me here. There are no good or bad decisions — just experiences that become part of you." He leans forward. "All of it matters. All of it's precious."
