The Korean title of The Restless is made from two Chinese characters, one which means "middle" or "center" and one that signifies "sky" or "heaven". It refers to a place midway between the world of the living and the heavens, where deceased souls spend 49 days casting off their old memories and preparing for reincarnation.
The Restless focuses on an accomplished warrior named Yi-gwak (Jung Woo-sung) who boasts legendary swordsmanship skills and an unusual ability to see ghosts. When his beloved So-hwa (debut actress Kim Tae-hee) is killed in place of himself, he is driven nearly mad with grief. One day, he finds that he has somehow entered into this "middle heaven" and he comes across So-hwa. However, their reunion is nothing like what he expected, and at the same time he finds himself drawn into a vast struggle for control of heaven and earth.
Virtually all aspects of Korean culture have been influenced by neighboring China, from vocabulary and art to social systems and philosophy. Although Korean cinema has been more strongly shaped by Japan and the West, a long line of Korean films has sought (with variable success) to emulate the wuxiapian swordplay films of Chinese-language cinema. Recent examples include Bichunmoo (2000), Legend of the Evil Lake (2003), and Shadowless Sword (2005), all shot in China. Among these, Musa (2001) stands out as a particularly interesting effort. Although not a fantasy film like the others, this 14th-century historical epic proved to be groundbreaking in its technical accomplishments and overall style.
The Restless represents a partial reunion of the team that made Musa. It has the same producer (Cho Min-hwan) and the same lead actor. Director/screenwriter Cho Dong-oh served as assistant director and B-unit director on Musa. (Musa's director, Kim Sung-soo, serves as executive producer here) Among the crew, martial arts director Jung Doo-hong and Japanese composer Sagisu Shiro return for a second round. They are joined by costume designer Emi Wada (Hero, Ran) and props director Li Mingshan (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon).
This $10 million film represents a considerable collection of above-the-line talent which gathered in China for the 6-month shoot. However in some ways the real stars of the production have been a vast group of programmers sitting in front of their computers back in Seoul. Unlike The Host, which contracted San Francisco-based f/x house The Orphanage for much of its CG work, the imagery we see in The Restless was entirely produced in Korea, and thus stands as sort of a calling card for what the local industry is capable of.
On this level, The Restless is a very impressive film. A total of 12 f/x houses joined together over 8 months to produce the 750 cuts (40% of running time) of computer-generated imagery needed for the production. Significantly, this film also saw the debut of Korea's first-ever digital actor, which served as sort of a high-tech stunt double for Jung Woo-sung (and was thus affectionately dubbed "Jung Woo-sang"). The software and technology required to make such effects possible were developed as part of a three-year, $30 million project carried out by Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication and ETRI (the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute), and The Restless proved to be the first film to benefit from this investment.
Alas, the film ultimately fell somewhat short of expectations at the box office, with viewers criticizing that least technologically advanced aspect of the film: the story. Nonetheless there has never been a Korean film quite like The Restless, both in its visual sumptuousness and its technical sheen.