After Lee Isaac Chung earned an Oscar nomination for his quietly devastating semi-autobiographical film Minari, all eyes were on the 45-year-old director. Would he carve out a niche as a director of profound immigrant dramas? Would he become the next cinematic shepherd of the Asian-American experience?
“I think many people assumed that that's what I was wanting to do next,” Chung tells Inverse.
But instead of accepting the many scripts he received “solely centered on an Asian-American or Korean-American experience,” Chung did the unexpected: he went to Star Wars. Chung’s next project was as director of an episode of The Mandalorian, the Season 3 episode The Convert, a political thriller-inspired hour centered on a minor character, Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi).
Being a bit of a departure from the adventures of series protagonists Din Djarin and Grogu, Chung viewed this first foray into a galaxy far, far away as a valuable training ground for his next phase in blockbuster filmmaking.
“[Mandalorian] was a very big learning experience for me,” Chung says. That project is so VFX-heavy, and also those episodes are built upon action beats, and I had never really made a project in which the story is told through action beats, where you kind of structure your story and even your schedule around the set pieces that you're going to have to film.”
His episode of The Mandalorian, and the tools he would learn in its VFX-heavy production, would set the stage for Chung taking on his next feature film: Twisters. The sequel to Jan de Bont’s 1996 blockbuster Twister, Twisters follows a new cast of storm chasers, led by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell, as they try to manufacture a technology that could change the impact of tornadoes forever. It’s the kind of blockbuster spectacle that seems miles away from the intimate drama of Minari. But Chung, who immediately fell in love with the script, saw a kinship between his Oscar-nominated drama and the lega-sequel.
“I just really was excited to go back to that part of the country and to make a film in that area where I grew up, amongst people who I grew up with,” Chung says. “I don't think there are many filmmakers working today who grew up in rural America. I do think it is a perspective that is missing often.”
It’s this grounded quality that makes Chung’s Twisters more than a cash-grab sequel or a cynical attempt to revive an old piece of IP. But Chung still made sure to put those Star Wars VFX lessons to use with the effects for Twisters — paying homage to the original film by trying to lean on as many practical effects as possible.
“One of the earliest discussions I would have with the actors when they first came on board was talking to them about what they're comfortable with in terms of what I was going to pelt them with in this production,” Chung says. “That original film was, it was very difficult on the actors, what they had to go through. This movie was no different.”
Just like the original, Twisters had a jet engine on set and pelted various objects at the actors who “were entirely game for it,” Chung says.
“We just felt like it was the only way to make the film feel real and to keep it honest in many ways,” the director continues. Because we knew, everybody knows, that the VFX of a tornado are going to be a lot better now than they were back then, but what Jan [de Bont] was able to accomplish with limited VFX back then was remarkable, and it speaks to his artistic craft and it's his ability to use practical effects. And I came into it soberly feeling like we have to try to at least honor that and do the same.”
It’s clear that Chung has developed a taste for VFX-forward, big-budget spectacle, and doesn’t plan on leaving that world any time soon. In fact, he’ll be back in the Star Wars arena for an episode of the upcoming Disney+ series Skeleton Crew, another experience he credits with helping him make Twisters.
“I only directed one of the episodes but I fell in love with those kids,” Chung says. “They're great actors and human beings. And I worked with Jude Law a lot in my episode, and all of them got along together so well. I can't wait for people to see these actors. They're really great.”
Skeleton Crew is a “coming-of-age adventure” centered around four children lost in the galaxy trying to find their way home. Created by Jon Watts (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and his long-time collaborator Christopher Ford, the series has been compared to pulpy Amblin stories like The Goonies. It’s certainly a new corner of the universe that Star Wars hasn’t been able to explore, and Chung teases that it will live up to the buzz.
“Jon Watts and Chris Ford, as creators and writers, they are so good at telling stories about young people and young people who are growing up, and also young people who are allowed to have fun and be kids and to be who they are,” Chung says. “That the show is very much in the vein of something they would make and thrive at.”
“That the show is very much in the vein of something they would make and thrive at.”
“I can't wait for it to come out,” he adds. “I'm really proud of what I was able to do on that and also what all of us as a team were able to do, especially for Jon and Chris and what they were setting out to do.”
In the meantime, Chung is content to let the wind take him where it will — even if the winds are as forceful and dangerous as the ones in Twisters.
“I do sense a vacuum of movies like this,” Chung says, “And that is a strong motivation for me to put stuff out there.”
