The World On arirang

‘Parasite,’ ‘The Host,’ ‘The Masquerade,’ ‘Ode to My Father,’ ‘Train to Busan,’ ‘A Taxi Driver,’ and ‘Along with the Gods’ are films that had massive commercial success, recording over 10 million admissions in Korea. These films share another commonality. There is a company that appears in the end credits of all these films. The firm, called Technical Art Studio Cell, is a special effects makeup company established by Hwang Hyo-kyun and Kwak Tae-yong. Hwang is one of the leading SFX makeup artists in Korea, who worked in some 200 films. He is the most sought-after expert by directors in his field. “We didn’t do our job right when audiences say, ‘Oh, that dummy looks like a real person.’ when watching a scene in the autopsy room. We feel most accomplished of our work when people say ‘was that really special effects?’”
We sit with SFX makeup artist Hwang, who strives to broaden the role of SFX makeup in cinema by maximizing characters’ personalities through makeup and implementing animatronics to make action sequences more animated and lively.