The global trust in content led by Korean creators seems to be solidifying day by day. The Japanese original drama Gas Human (The Human Vapor), recently released on Netflix, is a work that perfectly stimulates both curiosity and anticipation. Despite being a highly intriguing and uniquely appealing drama just from its peculiar title and synopsis, its actual global box office performance is showing a somewhat different trend than expected. Although it garnered attention in the Asian region immediately after its release, its scorecard suggests a certain barrier to entry in completely captivating the universal tastes of global viewers, leading to various interesting analyses.
Usually, when a country's major content is first released on a massive global platform like Netflix, it is a common phenomenon for it to sweep the number one spot in its home country's rankings. This drama also immediately climbed to the top spot in Japan right after its release and has firmly maintained that ranking to this day, proving the passionate local response. On the other hand, in Korea, it is performing well by reaching a peak rank of 6th, but unfortunately, it has not yet made its name in the global top 10 rankings. One of the biggest driving forces behind achieving the meaningful rank of 6th in Korea is likely the fact that Director Yeon Sang-ho, famous for Hellbound and Train to Busan, and writer Ryu Yong-jae penned the script.
Director Yeon Sang-ho is a creator widely renowned in Korea for his unrivaled dystopian worldview and outstanding directing skills, so the fact that he personally wrote the main scenario for this Japanese drama naturally draws the attention of domestic viewers. Almost all of Director Yeon Sang-ho's works deal with unique and unconventional subjects such as zombies, creatures, and the occult, possessing a magical charm that naturally sparks curiosity just from the synopsis. The sheer fact that an outstanding Korean creator collaborated across borders to write the script for a Japanese original work makes one reflect once again on how tremendous the stature of Korean content creators has become. For reference, the original work of this bizarre series is the 1960 tokusatsu film of the same name, The Human Vapor (Gas Ningen Dai 1-go).
It is said that the original 1960 film was not a Hollywood-style blockbuster with massive capital invested, but rather a work deeply imbued with the sentiment of a so-called B-movie, actively utilizing the clunky special effects popular at the time. This old classic tokusatsu film has been reinterpreted with a modern sensibility and brilliantly resurrected as an 8-episode Netflix original drama in Japan. While watching the show, one cannot help but imagine with a tinge of regret: what if, based on this unique subject matter and excellent script, Korea had taken charge of the production and directing to make it a Korean original? This thought is especially reinforced when considering the current situation where major Korean webtoon-based content like Manager Kim and True Education are proudly ranked within the top 10 on Netflix's global chart, enjoying worldwide popularity.
Considering this overwhelming global impact of Korean content, even with the same script, if it had been infused with Korea's distinctively fast, stylish directing and the dynamic energy of its actors, the outcome might have been distinctly different. While one cannot say for certain, it leaves a reasonable lingering regret that if it had been entirely produced in Korea and released globally simultaneously, it might have seized the number one spot worldwide, rather than just remaining a hit in the Asian region. The main plot of the original 1960 film dealt with the events that unfold as an unidentified gas human ruthlessly robs banks, adopting a rather classic sci-fi setting where the protagonist volunteered for an astronaut selection experiment and transformed into a gas human due to a terrible side effect.
However, this newly rebooted Netflix drama seems to have cleverly borrowed only the most core framework from the original's various outdated settings: the concept of a 'gas human,' a person who turns into gas. The background of how the protagonist became a gas human has also shifted away from the absurd past setting of space experiment volunteering; it has been adapted into a tragic modern piece where, completely against his own will, he is swept up in a terrible accident or a massive conspiracy and turns into an uncontrollable, grotesque gas human. The drama places a highly shocking scene right at the beginning of the first episode that instantly captures the viewers' attention and immerses them. During a famously nationally broadcast talk show, a professor appearing as a guest suddenly commits a bizarre act of deeply inhaling an unidentified gas. The gas then exponentially expands inside his body, and he eventually pops and dies like a balloon—an unconventional opening sequence broadcast live nationwide.
Because this shocking and gory scene was not a safely refined video that went through pre-recording or CG editing, but a real-time live broadcast transmitted nationwide, not only the people in the studio but also the massive public watching TV were all taken by surprise without a moment to prepare, having that gruesome death aired in its entirety. To investigate this unprecedented live-broadcast death incident, 'Kenji', played by Japanese top star Shun Oguri, is assigned as the detective in charge, kicking off the full-scale pursuit to chase the culprit. An interesting point is that the main host who was sitting face-to-face conversing with the dead professor at the talk show—which was the gruesome crime scene—is a character named 'Kyoko', played by Yu Aoi. As the investigation gradually progresses, a hidden narrative slowly surfaces: Detective Kenji and broadcaster Kyoko actually knew each other very deeply in the past and were once in a serious relationship, even promising marriage.
The painful backstory of how their tender relationship met a thorough downfall also acts as a crucial conflict element heightening the tension of the play. Because Kyoko, driven by a journalist's ambition for a scoop, exclusively leaked the highly sensitive information that a president with a Yakuza background was secretly under police investigation, the cornered president eventually ended his life by suicide. During this terrible process, it was discovered that Kyoko had illegally used the internal police information network. Kenji, who was fatally suspected of leaking the key information to her, received disciplinary action and suspension, and eventually, even their romantic relationship was shattered to pieces. What is surprising is that the role of this terrifying Yakuza president in the flashback scenes was played by Yutaka Takenouchi, a handsome actor who possesses a massive fandom in Korea from the past Japanese melodrama Between Calm and Passion. Because he wore makeup depicting a menacing scar and a rough appearance so completely different from his usual soft and dandy image, he showed a radical acting transformation to the extent that one couldn't recognize him at all until the ending credits rolled.
Meanwhile, the gas human, who acquired this unprecedented and terrible ability, makes a chilling public announcement through an exclusive interview with Kyoko that he will carry out a ruthless and bloody revenge against the massive forces that turned him into such a monster. The main backbone of the play consists of the fierce confrontation and battle of wits between the police organization trying to stop this uncontrollable revenge play and protect citizens' safety, and a giant broadcasting station frantic to secure a global scoop, both striving to find the whereabouts of the gas human first. Surprisingly, rookie actor Uta Uchida, who plays the role of the gas human—the core of the play shrouded in a thick veil—is reportedly making his very first acting debut with this blockbuster drama. The production team revealed that to maximize the grotesqueness and mysterious aura exuded by this unprecedented character off-screen, they took the unconventional step of casting a rookie with a raw charm, whose face has never been known to the public and who has never formally acted in media.
It is said that in the past classic tokusatsu universe of Toho, the Japanese film studio that serves as the root of this drama, there exist endless series dealing with extraordinary mutant humans besides this gas human, such as The H-Man (Beauty and the Liquid Man) and The Secret of the Telegian (The Teleporting Human). Add to this a bizarre cult work dealing with a mushroom fungus monster called Matango, which loosely shares the universe with them. If this Gas Human succeeds in long-term global box office, one becomes very curious if a massive mutant human universe will continue to expand and appear as Netflix original series. In the case of the original movie, thanks to its export to Western countries like the US in the past and recording quite a decent box office hit, there is also an interesting hidden behind-the-scenes story that a crossover battle script between Hollywood's famous monster, Frankenstein, and the gas human was seriously planned. Although it may not have achieved the grand feat of reaching number one globally on Netflix at this point, as a newly born work fully utilizing writer Yeon Sang-ho's signature solid, dystopian script and vastly advanced modern, flashy VFX (Visual Effects) technology, it is a well-made drama that viewers who prefer creature features and dark suspense genres can thoroughly enjoy without realizing how fast time passes.
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