Chapter 20: Dark Horse
The doors to the Grand Theater closed.
Moon Taeseok was guided to a seat near the back.
Even after sitting down, the audience member from the Small Theater remained in his mind.
The person who had canceled a Low Ceiling ticket but still refused to leave a line where there might not even be a seat.
Moon Taeseok unbuttoned his jacket and leaned back.
What an idiot. Why the hell would you go watch that movie?
The theater lights slowly dimmed.
At the same time, entry into the Small Theater was almost complete.
People still remained in the cancellation line.
A staff member repeatedly checked the list and the empty seats.
"One seat has opened."
A small cheer came from the front of the line.
The first person waiting was called.
After receiving the ticket, they hurried inside.
Meanwhile, a festival staff member approached Geonwoo's team.
"You can enter now. Please give a short greeting before the screening."
Geonwoo, Taejun, and Yura followed the staff member inside.
Applause filled the entire theater.
The three stood side by side in front of the screen.
A staff member handed Geonwoo a microphone and stepped aside.
Geonwoo looked across the audience.
"The first screening had quite a lot of empty seats."
Laughter came from several places.
Geonwoo looked all the way toward the back.
"But thankfully, today's theater is full."
Applause broke out again.
Geonwoo smiled.
"Thank you for choosing our movie. I hope you enjoy it."
Taejun and Yura also gave short greetings.
Applause followed once more.
The three bowed and left the theater.
Just before the door closed, Geonwoo looked back at the audience one more time.
Hyunsoo asked,
"Hyung, feels good, right?"
Geonwoo stared at the closed door and nodded.
"Of course."
Soon the sound of the movie beginning could be heard faintly from inside.
Geonwoo checked his watch.
3:30 p.m.
The first additional screening of Before the Light Reaches had begun.
Ten minutes earlier, the lights in the Grand Theater had dimmed for Low Ceiling.
A small light shook in the center of the black screen.
Then lamps attached to miners' helmets appeared one by one.
The miners walked through a narrow shaft where their shoulders nearly scraped the rock walls.
The ceiling was too low for anyone to fully straighten their back.
Each time a helmet brushed stone, a dull sound echoed.
Their work boots sank into wet mud.
The man leading the group was the film's protagonist, Yoon Seokjin.
Top star Seo Jiwan played the mining crew leader.
When Seokjin raised his hand, the miners behind him stopped.
His helmet lamp illuminated a section of the wall.
A red mark that did not appear on the work plans had been painted there.
Below it, a thin crack stretched across the rock.
Seokjin removed his glove.
"Who touched this?"
A miner behind him shook his head.
"We didn't blast today."
Seokjin pressed his fingers against the crack.
Black water stained his fingertips.
One drop fell to the floor.
A miner looked up.
"Foreman."
A rolling stone echoed from somewhere in the distance.
Seokjin turned.
"Everyone out."
Before he could finish, the image shook violently.
The lights flickered.
Dust poured from the ceiling.
The miners began running toward the exit.
Someone slipped.
Seokjin grabbed his work clothes and pulled him up.
A steel support groaned behind them.
Creeeeak.
Seokjin looked up.
The rock collapsed.
The screen went black with a deafening crash.
Only screams and the sound of metal scraping the ground remained.
After the collapse, the film alternated between the miners trapped underground and the people above deciding whether to rescue them.
Eight miners, including Seokjin, waited inside the collapsed tunnel.
However, the plans provided by the company did not even show the section where the accident had occurred.
The company had secretly continued mining in a restricted area.
If the illegal operation was exposed, the company faced suspension and a massive investigation.
Executives tried to stop rescuers from entering that section.
They even attempted to dismiss survival signals from below as equipment errors.
Underground, oxygen levels dropped while water slowly rose.
Seokjin had to choose between waiting for rescue and attempting to escape through an abandoned old tunnel.
As time passed, more miners were injured.
Their oxygen tanks ran out.
Low Ceiling was technically an independent film.
But the scale shown on screen was larger than that of many commercial films.
Taesung Group had rented part of an actual abandoned mine.
Sections too dangerous for people to enter were recreated inside large studios.
The main tunnel where the miners were trapped, collapsed passages, and flooded restricted sections were all constructed as sets.
The cave-in sequence used both special effects teams and computer graphics.
Part of the set had reportedly been rebuilt just to film water surging into the tunnel.
Not only Seo Jiwan, but also the company executives and rescue commander were played by recognizable veteran actors.
It was difficult to imagine this production budget belonging to an independent film.
But it wasn't simply a movie that had spent a lot of money.
Kwon Taeoh chose not to emphasize the scale.
Instead, he pushed the characters' bodies into tight frames.
The miners bent their backs to avoid hitting their heads on the low ceiling.
Company executives lowered their heads over paperwork to avoid responsibility.
Employees kept silent to survive inside the company.
Managers pretended not to know about illegal mining.
People afraid of losing their jobs couldn't speak the truth.
An invisible ceiling pressed down on all of them.
Watching the film, Critic Cha Myunghoon was impressed by the quality.
I thought this might just be a movie built on money and a top star's name, but his directing is actually good.
At first, he had wondered if the youngest son of Taesung Group had simply thrown himself into filmmaking using his family.
But Kwon Taeoh's directing was more solid than expected.
The cross-cutting between underground and aboveground scenes was fast without becoming messy.
Even during the big sequences, the miners' expressions were never lost.
Especially during the scene where only one oxygen tank remained, the tension reached its peak.
Seokjin handed the final tank to the youngest miner.
The miners who escaped through the old route survived.
But Seokjin, who remained behind to the end, never returned.
In the final scene, a surviving miner sat inside a press conference arranged by the company.
The moment the film ended, applause began even before the credits fully appeared.
A few claps spread across the entire Grand Theater.
Moon Taeseok applauded with satisfaction.
"The movie came out well."
Kwon Taeoh, sitting beside him, kept looking at the screen.
"I made it with the intention of winning an award."
"Sounds like you're confident."
"You saw the possibilities yourself, didn't you?"
Moon Taeseok smiled instead of answering.
After the screening, a GV with Kwon Taeoh and Seo Jiwan began.
Cha Myunghoon asked why both the underground miners and employees aboveground were repeatedly shown lowering their heads.
Kwon Taeoh lifted his microphone.
"In the mine, if you raise your head, you get hurt. In the company, if you raise your head, you get fired."
