The beginnings of Byron Mann in Korean cinema has proven that the intercultural cast can be paid at the box office.
The new film by the actor “Big Deal” opened its doors to n ° 3 in South Korea, landing just behind “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” on a competitive market.
For Mann, whose credits extend from “The Big Short” by Adam McKay to “Altered Carbon” from Netflix and productions through Asia, including the romantic comedy of Hong Kong “The Modelizer”, the Korean film marked a unique experience which forced it to completely revise the dialogue of his character while sailing on a deceased production system.
“When they contacted me, I actually thought that they had made a mistake,” said Mann Variety. “I said to myself,” You know they know that I don’t speak Korean, right? ” I mean, they know that I am not Korean either, right? »»
The confusion was clarified once Mann and his manager read the script. His character in “Big Deal” is an investment banker from New York and Hong Kong in a loose story based on real events involving one of the biggest Korea Soju companies in 2003. The director had seen Mann’s work in “The Big Short” and said he was right for the role.
Mann’s first major contribution to production was a thorough script work. Having worked through Asia in Thailand, in continental China, Hong Kong and Indonesia, he recognized the common traps of the translated dialogue.
“Usually, when you translate like that, you lose a lot of meaning, you lose a lot of juice, and first of all, the dialogue does not sound well,” explains Mann. “I think I had to work for a month, like every day, to work with production, the director, the producer.”
The process consisted in understanding the intentions of the Korean team for each scene and line, then translating these concepts in the vernacular of natural English specific to the way in which an investment banker would speak. “Each line, each scene, I had to understand first what they thought. Then I had to translate it, spit it in English. ”
The effort has borne fruit. After seeing the film finished in Korea, Mann says that he is “very satisfied” with how the English dialogue flows naturally, adding that this will help the film resonate when he goes to English -speaking markets.
Working in the Korean production system has revealed fascinating differences against Hollywood practices. During his first night in Seoul, Mann received what he initially thought was a book of Japanese manga, but turned out to be detailed storyboards for the whole film.
“Halfway through filming, I realized that they literally turned according to the storyboard in the book, Frame by Frame”, recalls Mann. The practice, he learned, has become standard in Korean cinema in the last 8 to 10 years, studios now requiring storyboards for Greenlight approval.
In the meantime, Mann sees significant changes in the industry landscape, in particular in the way in which the platforms in streaming tackle content. “You can see the banners, especially Netflix, realize that the world is larger than America,” he observes. “I think they spend more resources for the rest of the world than in the United States.”
Post-country cost pressures following the strikes of writers and actors have made Asian productions increasingly attractive for studios that are looking for efficiency. “The cost of making a series will be much cheaper than what you do in the United States, and if you are able to tell an equally exciting story in Asia, this is probably the way to follow.”
This economic reality is aligned with Mann’s recent career focuses on what he calls “Hollywood films that take place in Asia”. He recently finished “The Modelizer”, a romantic comedy entirely shot in Hong Kong, and has several similar development projects.
Having worked with directors from Adam McKay to various Asian filmmakers, Mann observed distinct cultural approaches to performance and production. “Adam McKay is very loose and improvised,” he notes, while Asian directors often focus on action and “a little more posture”.
The Western directors, suggest Mann, tend to expect the actors to arrive entirely prepared with the completed duties for the entire project, while certain Asian productions allow greater flexibility and a star entrance during the shooting.
Mann is preparing to announce his next project. Meanwhile, his action thriller completed “Kill Him” until death “is post-production for an release later in 2025. The film presents Mann in seven different roles, which he describes as” very revolutionary “and” fun “.
Its current objective continues to focus on “telling stories that occur in Asia, or Asian stories, and by instilling them with Hollywood expertise”.
“Big Deal” is currently out of the United States, Canada and Korea.
