The Resident Evil franchise turned Milla Jovovich into that rare breed: a woman action star who has actually stuck around.
She’s been blown up, shot at, chased by zombies. She’s battled cosmic entities, mutant bio-weapons, apocalyptic viruses – pretty much every gonzo fever dream Hollywood could cook up.
But nothing has quite prepared her for the gut-punch of Protector, a rare Korean-Hollywood co-production which made its premiere at Busan Film Festival (BIFF) last month.
“I lost 20 pounds (9kg) making this movie,” she says at at press conference held at Busan Cinema Center.
It’s been eight years since the action star last touched down in Korea. This time, she’s in Busan with director Adrian Grunberg to unveil their latest project, which ditches the sci-fi spectacle for something raw and immediate.
Grunberg and writer Mun Bong-Seob have turned what could’ve been another revenge fantasy into something much darker.
Jovovich plays Nikki, an ex-special ops soldier whose daughter gets snatched into America’s trafficking underworld.
The setup might sound all too familiar – basically Taken with a mum instead of a dad (Jovovich gleefully embraces the comparison: “I’m the female Liam Neeson? I love that. He’s one of my favourite actors.”)
Forget wire-assisted acrobatics – the film is all about brutal, bone-crushing action.
“I don’t want to do it if I wouldn’t be able to do it in real life,” Jovovich says.
“It’s about controlling joints, pressure points. There are ways in the military where you can hurt anybody if you know where to grab, how to disarm.”
The personal dimension cuts deep as well.
Jovovich has three daughters, one who is the same age as her on-screen kid.
“Every parent’s worst nightmare,” she calls it.
“But also satisfying, because you get to see me annihilate the people who’d hurt our children.”
Then there’s the gruesome criminal underworld the actor claims is festering right under America’s nose.
“We’re dealing with such uncomfortable subject matter,” she says. “Human trafficking has been under the radar for so long because nobody really wants to make movies about it. It doesn’t feel commercial.”
“When we were writing and rewriting, we did a lot of research on cartels,” she explains.
“They dehumanise people – call them cattle, products. Anything to strip away humanity.”
“We want to stress that there’s a war happening at home in America that’s just as violent as any war abroad. Maybe more important – you’ve gotta clean up your own backyard before you can go anywhere else.”
Protector landed in BIFF’s Midnight Passion section, the festival’s playground for commercial films with mainstream pull.
They’re still fine-tuning the cut – more test screenings in Los Angeles, more tweaks to make based on audience feedback.
“We want people to relate to it, not just to parents but to all people and not just to Koreans or just to Americans,” Jovovich says.
“Without getting confused by silly artistic choices.” – By MOON KI-HOON/The Korea Herald/Asia News Network
