The production company CJ Entertainment has finished shooting the movie ”Battleship Island” starring Hwang Jung-Min, So Ji-Sub and Song Joong-Ki. The movie is scheduled to release next year.
”Battleship Island” has finished its six-month long of filming as reported by MBC News. The filming began June in the set located in Cheongju. The movie follows the story of 400 Korean prisoners and forced labors in the Hashima island who tried to escape the fortress island.
Hwang, So and Song are starring the movie which has a background on the real-life forced labor island off-shore Japan. The movie reunites Hwang with director Ryoo Seung-Wan as reported by News PIM. They were working together in the 2015 box-office “Veteran,”
Hwang played as the employee in a hotel who was tricked to be taken to Hashima island when he tried to search for better life in Japan. While So is playing as one of the prisoner in the island. Song is the Korean freedom fighter who came to the island in disguise to rescue an important leader in independent movement who was imprisoned in the island.
The story of ”Battleship Island” takes place in the real condition in one of the island off-shore Nagasaki during the Japanese colonization. Beside its official name Hashima, the island also known in its other name Gunkanjima which means “Battleship island” in Japanese, while in Korean is called Goomhado (군함도).
Hashima island is now a deserted island after the coal mining activity was abandoned in the 1960’s. The island is known for its coal mining activity for more than 100 years in the island since 1887 during the Meiji era. In the Japanese colonial era thousand of Koreans and Chinese people were brought into the island to mine coal as forced labor.
It is estimated the death toll during the 1930’s to the end of World War 2 reached 1,300 people. In 2015, after a long dispute in the international diplomacy. Hashima island was approved as UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2015.
Watch the documentary about the Gunkanjima island from Sony Action Cam below
