Priest (2011): the film versus the manhwa of inspiration

A Korean gothic western transformed into an American post-apocalyptic dystopia: Priest illustrates what remains of a work when we only take its poster. Source-by-source decryption.

As in each article in this series, only verified information (creators, distribution, dates, publishers) is stated; the comparative analysis is ours, without reproducing dialogue or protected images.

Priest (1998): a Korean gothic western

Priest is a manhwa - Korean comic book - created by Hyung Min-woo from 1998. The term deserves clarification, because it is not a manga: manhwa has its own story, its own publishers, and is traditionally read from left to right, in the West, unlike Japanese manga. This difference in reading direction has also facilitated its export to Europe and America, where the manhwa experienced a wave of translations at the beginning of the 2000s, of which Priest was one of the spearheads.

The work itself is unique. Hyung Min-woo places most of his story in the 19th century American West.^ecentury, mixing western codes with a dark Christian mythology: Ivan Isaacs, a priest who renounced his order, hunts down fallen angels incarnated on Earth, having himself made a pact with one of them to obtain the necessary strength. The drawing is striking - angular, contrasting, with theatrical compositions and a management of black which owes as much to engraving as to comic strips. The tone is serious, the theology omnipresent, and the violence serves a purpose about damnation, revenge and lost faith. The story alternates eras, going back to the origins of the conflict, in an ambitious structure deployed over numerous volumes.

What the film didn't keep: almost everything

It must be said clearly: among all the adaptations examined in this series, Priest is one of those which retains the least of its source. The film abandons the 19th century western^ecentury for a post-apocalyptic dystopia where humanity survives in hive cities controlled by a theocratic Church, after centuries of war against vampires. Ivan Isaacs does not exist: the protagonist is an unnamed "Priest", an elite warrior discarded after the official end of the war. The fallen angels, the theological heart of the work, are replaced by teeming animal creatures which no longer have anything spiritual.

What remains is a silhouette: a man of the Church in a cassock, marked with a cross, armed, who fights the supernatural on the fringes of his institution. It's a strong image - undoubtedly what the studio really bought - but it no longer carries the point. The manhwa spoke of consented damnation and faith turned against itself; the film tells of a chase through the desert to rescue a kidnapped young girl. The structure alternating periods disappears, the theology evaporates, and Hyung Min-woo's formal ambition has no equivalent on screen. The reception was harsh, the film failing to establish itself commercially or critically, in a period when studios were increasing their attempts at 3D dystopias.

The manhwa, a blind spot for adaptations

The Priest case sheds light on a broader phenomenon. Japanese manga has had, with varying success, a series of Hollywood adaptations that we have examined —Ghost in the Shell,Alita,Old Boy. Korean manhwa, despite abundant production and major works, has almost never reached this milestone. Priest was an exception, and the result did not encourage those who followed.

Several reasons explain this rarity. Korean comics have long been disseminated internationally through paper translation and then, more recently and massively, through the vertical digital format designed for reading on telephones - a format whose audiovisual adaptations have been made in Korea itself, with considerable success, rather than in Hollywood. The manhwa has therefore found its screens, but they are those of Korean series, not American studios. For the French reader, this story has a practical consequence: Priest's translations date from the wave of the early 2000s, and the work has not benefited from the continued visibility that great manga enjoy. It remains, for this reason, one of the little-known treasures of translated Asian comics.

The characters, from paper to screen

• Ivan Isaacs— The fallen priest from the manhwa, absent from the film.
• The Priest— Nameless Warrior, creation of the feature film.
• The fallen angels— Theological heart of the manhwa, replaced by vampires.
• The Church— Authoritarian institution, present in both versions.
• The frame— 19th century American West^ecentury versus futuristic dystopia.

Hyung Min-woo and the art of black

A word about the author, because his work explains why the departure from the film is so striking. Hyung Min-woo practices drawing with high graphic density: dramatic compositions, elongated and angular characters, massive use of black, theatrical framing which sometimes evokes prints or woodcuts. This style creates an atmosphere of the misguided sacredness, perfectly suited to the subject - one reads Priest as one would look at a desecrated Stations of the Cross.

The film, shot in a digital aesthetic of gray and brown dystopia, keeps none of this. This is not a lack of consideration: as we saw with the line of Michael Avon Oeming or the flat areas of Víctor Santos, a graphic style is simply not transposable to real shots. But in Priest's case, this style carried an essential part of the meaning — the solemnity, the sacred, the damnation. Without him, and without the theology he served, only the silhouette remained. For the reader, this is an additional reason to return to paper: Hyung Min-woo's volumes offer a visual experience of which the film does not give the slightest idea, and which constitutes the essential part of their value.

Where to start reading

To discover the source, the volumes of Priest by Hyung Min-woo, translated into French during the manhwa wave of the early 2000s, can be found second-hand. Reading requires a little attention – the structure alternates periods – but the drawing alone justifies the detour. Nothing in the film prepares us for what we discover: it is a gothic and theological western, not a vampire dystopia.

Timeline to know

• 1998— Hyung Min-woo launches Priest in Korea.
• Early 2000s— Wave of translations of manhwa in the West.
• 2011— American film abandons the western for the dystopia.

Collection side: what to aim for after the film

Priest obeys the logic of the bound volume, like the manga. THE first volume, in the original Korean edition or first French translation, is the reference piece — the translations dating from the wave of the early 2000s, they are no longer republished and are sought second-hand, which creates a relative rarity. The complete series in French constitutes a coherent collection objective for those interested in translated Asian comics. The market is confidential, without speculation, and prices remain modest despite the difficulty in collecting all the volumes. As always, condition determines value; relying on real recent sales is strongly recommended.

Its place in the saga and for the collector

Priest will remain as the adaptation which only retained one image. This is not a case of betrayal in the usual sense — the film does not distort the work, it ignores it, keeping a title, a silhouette and an authoritarian Church setting. In doing so, he paradoxically did the manhwa a service: he made its existence known to an audience who otherwise would never have heard of it. For the collector, the work opens onto a little-known segment, that of the manhwa translated in the 2000s, which is difficult to bring together today. For the reader, the discovery is worth the detour: few comics so powerfully combine the western, engraving and theology.

The verdict: a preserved silhouette, an ignored work

• Loyalty: the warrior priest breaking with his Church, the silhouette in an armed cassock, the authoritarian institution and the diverted religious imagery come from the manhwa.
• Freedoms: the 19th century western^ecentury becomes a futuristic dystopia, the fallen angels are replaced by vampires, Ivan Isaacs disappears, theology is evacuated and the story becomes a chase.
• To collect: the first volume of Priest, in the original edition or first French translation.

Priest only keeps the title and the silhouette of Hyung Min-woo's manhwa: the 19th century gothic western^ecentury becomes a dystopia of vampires, and the theology which supported the work disappears entirely. The first manhwa in this series of articles, it is also the most extreme departure. For the reader as for the collector, it is an invitation to discover a work that the film does not allow us to guess.

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