80,000 Copies Bestseller 'The Long Long Night' Heads to Toronto Film Festival, a Breakthrough After 13 Years of Silence

The evolution of Korean animation, a breakthrough at North America's biggest film festival after 13 years of silence

'The Long Long Night', which has left a major mark on Korea's children's literature scene after surpassing cumulative sales of 800,000 copies, is writing a new chapter on the screen. On the 6th, distributor TheContentsOn announced that the work, remade as a 3D animation, has received an official invitation to the '51st Toronto International Film Festival' (TIFF) Centerpiece category, opening next month. It is a landmark achievement in that it marks the first time in 13 years since director Yeon Sang-ho's 'Sibai' in 2013 for a Korean feature-length animation to reach the largest film festival in North America.

The TIFF Centerpiece category is regarded as a key section that draws attention from the global film industry. On-screen, 'The Long Long Night' highlights the noble journey of a white rhinoceros horn that remains the only one left on Earth, along with a young penguin that hatches from a discarded egg, as it heads toward the sea. 'Giovanna Fulvi', a programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival, said, "We wove together a world where wonder of nature and threats brought by humans coexist, in an overpowering and vividly alive visual," and added that it is a "masterpiece that warmly proves the 'power of solidarity' that sustains us, by weaving together the pain of loss and humor," explaining the backdrop for the invitation.

The original book, 'Ruri', shares its name with the same-title fairy tale authored by its creator, which previously won the top prize at the 21st 'Munhakdongne Children's Literature Award' and demonstrated the completeness of its narrative. The story, already reshaped across various genres such as musicals and pansori music dramas, is now meeting the precision and technical prowess of 3D animation. Director 'Yeom Gyu-bok', who honed his craft for about 20 years as a commercial film director, projects his stylish visual sensibility without holding back onto his first feature-length debut, delivering a visual catharsis that reaches beyond the text.