The South Korean filmmakers set out to make a statement, an allegorical poem on film to warn about destruction of the environment -- but 825 nude actors have stolen the show.

The producers of the art film "Mago", which will debut across South Korea this month, are both cringing at and revelling in the publicity their film has received because of its depiction of frolicking nude bodies that get covered with mud and pollution.

Nude actors appear in an undated promotional picture from the South Korean film 'Mago'. Eight hundred and twenty-five nude amateur actors performed in this movie.

The film, with a sombre and strident soundtrack, is anything but erotic as it draws on a Korean creation myth to depict man's fall from paradise to corrupted modern life.

But the use of 825 nude amateur actors -- including 100 young women recruited from Seoul college campuses -- has drawn all the headlines in the run-up to the low-budget movie's May 24 debut in a country where film nudity is relatively rare.

"825 college co-eds and others all nude: shocking ... shocking", screamed a giant headline in yellow type in the tabloid-style Sport Chosun daily.

The bodies do most of the talking in an 80-minute film with only several lines of dialogue amid its poetic monologues, but the makers say the media have missed the point.

"This story compares life in the paradise in Korea's mythical version of Genesis with the destruction-orientated modern life," said Mago's scriptwriter, 41-year-old poet Jang Kyung-ki.

"The goal was to describe the pure life in paradise in the beginning of the world with pure bodies," he said in a recent interview.

TOUGH SELL TO CENSORS, PARENTS
 

"To show life in the beginning of the world, they acted in the nude, not with any commercial purpose. I would not have produced this movie just to capitalise on the nudity," he said.

It took a lot of persuasion before the 2.7 billion won movie won censorship approval, he said.

"The authorities normally ban a movie with lots of nude scenes, but they allowed us to run our movie, with the rating of 'over 18', after many meetings and previews," Kang said.

Actress Choi Young-hee, a college student, said it took similar efforts at persuasion to win over her parents and friends on the idea of appearing nude on screen.

"My parents and friends were surprised and did not like it," said the 22-year-old Choi. "After learning the theme of the movie they came to understand the situation," she said.

Director Kang Hyun-il, 46, said the complex multimedia project used six cameras: a 35mm film camera, three digital cameras to make a DVD, a three-dimensional camera, and a still camera.

"Actors had to perform the same scene again and again to make all cameramen happy," said Kang, who is not related to the producer Kang Byung-soo.

"Is the movie obscenity or art? It depends on the artist's conscience," the director said of the notoriety.

"I am not worried. Movie-goers will be drawn to the movie out of curiosity, but they will understand the movie is real art."