◇A 3,000-Year-Old Epic, Reimagined for the Modern Age
Released on the 5th, “The Odyssey” depicts the 10-year journey home of Odysseus (Matt Damon), the hero who led the Trojan War to victory, as he returns to his homeland of Ithaca. Odysseus’s adventures—in which he faces gods, monsters, and storms on his journey home—intertwine with the story of his son Telemachus (Tom Holland), who sets out to find his missing father, creating a grand epic over the course of the film’s 172-minute runtime.
Although the source material is Homer’s classic epic, Nolan does not simply adapt it for the screen. Having explored memory in *Memento*, dreams in *Inception*, and space-time in *Interstellar*, he once again reinterprets this 3,000-year-old epic in a modern context through a direction that freely traverses time. By interweaving the past and the present, war and homecoming, heroes and ordinary people, the narrative transforms a familiar myth into a blockbuster for contemporary audiences.
Above all, the highlight is the “experience.” Despite its 172-minute runtime, *The Odyssey* never leaves the audience bored. It goes beyond merely presenting spectacle to successfully drawing viewers right into the heart of the story. The vast oceans, cliffs, and massive battle scenes captured with IMAX film cameras go beyond mere visual spectacle; they expand the space itself into the audience seating area. This is precisely why Nolan shot the entire film with IMAX film cameras. He focused on maximizing the texture of real nature and the overwhelming sense of space to create an “experience only possible in a theater.”
The film’s message is also profound. Nolan focuses less on the mythical “victorious hero” and more on the broken man left in the wake of war. The film portrays his return home not as a mere adventure, but as a journey of atonement. Scenes where he confronts the ghosts of his comrades and moments when he reflects on the consequences of his choices highlight human wounds rather than the glamour of heroism. The final act of repentance and the soliloquy—“Man has betrayed man”—remind us that what war left behind was not victory but the collapse of community, convincingly demonstrating why a 3,000-year-old classic remains relevant today.
◇From ‘Interstellar’ Onward… The Foretold Nolan Syndrome
South Korea is a key box office market for director Christopher Nolan. Starting with *Interstellar* (10.38 million viewers), followed by *The Dark Knight Rises* (6.42 million), *Inception* (6.01 million), and *Dunkirk* (2.82 million), the cumulative domestic audience for his major works has surpassed 36 million. Notably, even “Oppenheimer”—with a runtime of nearly 180 minutes and an “Adults Only” rating—drew 3.23 million viewers, leading to the assessment that the name “Nolan” itself has established itself as a box office brand in Korea.
As the movie industry is currently shifting toward “immersive content,” *Odyssey*—filmed entirely with IMAX film cameras—is considered a highly anticipated box office hit. IMAX screenings sold out rapidly even before the film’s release, and on opening day, the film drew 290,000 viewers, boosted by the combined effect of Director Nolan’s first visit to Korea and the actors’ visit to the country. According to the Korean Film Council’s integrated computer network, “The Odyssey” drew 290,000 viewers on its opening day, the 5th. Of these, 35,998 were IMAX viewers, accounting for 12.3% of the total.
Pop culture critic Kim Heon-sik stated, “Nolan is now one of the few directors whose name carries more weight than the actors themselves,” adding, “Given that South Korea is a market with a high preference for IMAX and strong loyalty to the director’s brand, *Odyssey* has ample potential to continue the box office success of *Interstellar* and *Oppenheimer*.”
