Guillermo del Toro on Taking Inspiration from Korean Cinema as ‘Frankenstein’ Makes Imax Bow in Busan

Guillermo del Toro wowed the 30^th Busan International Film Festival Thursday night by sharing the Imax cut of his $120 million take on Frankenstein in all its gore and its glory. He followed up the next morning by winning over the hearts of anyone who had missed out on that experience here in South Korea by sharing his finely-tuned knowledge of the local cinema industry and its heroes.

There’s been a cinematic bond, the filmmaker said, that’s been forged shared by similarities between two cultures.

“I think Korea and Mexico have many things in common,” said Del Toro, on meeting the press Friday. “We are very repressed, very drunken, and we are attracted to chaos. I like that very much because when we tackle a genre, we tackle it through the prism of our culture.”

The Mexican filmmaker then name checked two of the biggest auteurs Korea has in directors Park Chan-wook — whose new thriller No Other Choice opened this year’s BIFF — and Oscar-winner Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), who credits the festival with first discovering his genius.

“They bring the chaos, the ridiculous, the sublime, the poetic, and the horrible all in the same room,” said Del Toro, who then name-checked Bong’s debut Memories of Murder (2023) as among his favorite movies.

“It is not an American procedural,” said Del Toro of the film, which follow a hapless cop (Song Kang-ho) as he bungles an ongoing case. “It’s an existential deep meditation and an imperfect investigation. It’s so beautiful to not have this Manichean idea of good and evil that American cinema [has]. [Bong] is the master of this science.

“The more you become familiar with Korean cinema, the more you feel the instinct, the manner, the culture. They make [films] unique to the way they do it. Every time I want to feel a little more alive, I watch a Korean movie.”

The more than 400 tickets to Thursday night’s debut of the Imax version of Frankenstein were snapped up in seconds, according to fans who missed out but still gathered outside Busan’s CGV Centum City cinema complex on Thursday in the hope of somehow sneaking in.

Del Toro later treated the faithful to 30 minutes of Q&A in which he shared the themes he had wanted to explore in his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel, which stars Jacob Elordi as the monster and Oscar Isaacas the not-so-good doctor. “I think the message that while there are tragedies in life, we still have to live is a message that really resonates with me and inspires me,” told the audience.

The lucky ones on Thursday also a received copy of a limited-edition Frankenstein poster designed by Del Toro’s longtime collaborator James Jean, while the filmmaker vowed to stay back until every autograph requested had been signed. The good news globally broke overnight that there would now soon be a limited release of the movie across a few Imax markets, Netflix is meanwhile rolling a small theatrical rollout from Oct. 17 before Frankenstein makes its streaming debut on Nov. 7.

Asked Friday why he thought audiences were so attracted to monsters, there was a little chuckle from the director, who revealed he had wanted to make this movie since he was a small boy.

“The monsters are almost like pagan saints of imperfection,” said the director. “They allow us to make peace with the darker sides of humanity.”