Black Panther is an American superhero film produced by Marvel Studios and included in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). In the movie, Black Panther is described as a King of the nation called “Wakanda”. Vibranium is a unique material that is produced from Wakanda and as a King of Wakanda, he heads to Busanin South Korea to stop the villains from abusing weapons made of vibranium. During the movie, there are about 20 minutes of chasing and fighting scenes, all of which take place in a city called Busan.
Jagalchi Market in the Black Panther Movie
Reality of Jagalchi Market
The first place I visited was called “Jagalchi Market”, where a secret underground casino was placed in the movie. It is one of the most representative places in Busan, and is famous for being the largest fishery market in South Korea. As it is famous for its scale, a lot of fishery stalls and markets were located in high density. Similar box-shaped sushi restaurants and stalls are listed in a row and this structure gives people a friendly feeling. Also, Jagalchi Market islocated in large alleys among large buildings. The high buildings built in modern style and the low box-shape of Jagalchi Market, which existed since decades ago, are contrasted. I think it can be regarded as coexistence between the past and the present. However, the movie’s scene wasn’t enough to show those points since the audience could only see a few signboards and stalls. After I done some research, I found out that the scene wasn’t actually taken in Jagalchi Market, it was a set in Atlanta that was produced separately for filming. In addition, several years have already passed since the film was filmed, so many changes have been seen in the Jagalchi market. One thing that stands out is that merchants were not wholesale on the street with parasols open (just like the movie), but now they were wholesale in stalls that looked really neat like modern shopping facilities.
Gwangan Bridge in the movie Black Panther
Gwangain Bridge in reality
The second place I visited was called “Gwangan Bridge”, which is a landmark of Busan. In the movie, there are scenes of Black Panther chasing the vehicles of villains, and the backgrounds of these scenes are Gwangan Bridge. The night view of the bridge were shown with various colors of lights and the huge size of the bridge could also be seen. All of the buildings near Gwangan Bridge are recently built and are high-rise buildings, which are famous for their high price. During the scene, many lights from those buildings could be seen and this made the night view of Busan extremely beautiful, giving aesthetic satisfaction to the audience. All of these huge architectures are enough to show Busan as a developed and bustling city and I believe this was a main purpose of the scene, kind of global-advertisement for the film’s audiences. There were no huge difference between the scene and the reality when I been there. Since the action scene took place at night, there had to be a great night view and I believe that the film crew also wanted to show a traditional side of the region such as Jagalchi Market.
Minwoo Kang, UID: 3035729904
Your research effort is appreciated. It is interesting that Jagalchi Market is a set. Why do you think the director uses a set instead of the real site? The photos you took during your visit are hugely different from the still from Black Panther. What does this tell about the director’s use/ alteration of the site? Compared to reality, Gwangain Bridge in the movie is lit with strongly saturated neon colors. Why did the director decide to augment the colors and lighting? In fact, you could discuss the above with the concepts of contrast. Lastly, it would be nice if you could elaborate on your point about ‘global advertisement’. What is films’ role in publicizing cities? You may want to adopt points from Benjamin’s piece to understand films’ impact nowadays.