Korean moviegoers have seen Richard Parker, the stunning CG tiger in Ang Lee’s 2012 3-D adventure drama “Life of Pi.” On screen, the CG animal looked nothing less than a flesh-and-blood Bengal tiger.

Just about a year later, moviegoers are being introduced to Ling Ling, a CG gorilla created using local technology. Director Kim Yong-hwa’s (“Take Off,” “200 Pounds Beauty”) ambitious and expensive 3-D project, titled “Mr. Go,” was unveiled to the press on Monday, ahead of its scheduled opening on July 17. The 23 billion won film ($20.7 million) boasted the very latest in Korea’s computer graphics technology, as well as a heartwarming and entertaining story.

The movie tells the story of a young Chinese girl named Weiwei (played by Chinese actress Xu Jiao) who moves to Korea with her gorilla after her grandfather ― the only family she had ― passes away.

Her late grandfather owned a circus troupe, and her gorilla named Ling Ling was trained to play baseball the way human batters do.

Weiwei and Ling Ling are soon discovered by a shallow, money-driven Korean agent (played by Korean actor Sung Dong-il), who debuts Ling Ling in Korea’s professional baseball league. The gorilla soon becomes a superstar, but things start to get ugly as he becomes weary of fame and the new lifestyle. The movie is loosely based on manhwa artist Huh Young-man’s 1985 baseball flick “The 7th Team.”

The CG-animated gorilla seems all too real, making it hard to believe he does not exist in real life. It took four years of research and development, one year of post-production and some 400 staff members to create the digital animal who “weighs 285 kg” and is “20 times stronger” than human beings.

One of the biggest challenges for the film’s visual effects artists was to create the gorilla’s hair. They created some 80,000 strands of the animal’s hair, as well as special effects for their movement according to each scene’s wind condition, humidity and lights. Creating him cost its producer, Showbox/Mediaplex, some 12 billion won, which is about one-third of the whole production cost.

Popular Japanese actor Odagiri Joe, Korean actress Kim Jung-eun and top baseball players ― Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin and Cincinnati Reds outfielder Choo Shin-soo ― make brief appearances in the movie, which give a good laugh.

After its Korean release on July 17, the film will also hit some 5,000 theaters across China on July 18. It is also slated to be released in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, India and Mongolia. Major Chinese film studio Huayi Brothers invested about one-quarter of the production costs.

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)