Certain contemporary filmmakers, like a Quentin Tarantino or an Edgar Wright, use immaculately researched and cited film references to weave their own cinematic tapestries. That's not necessarily the case with first time feature filmmaker Simon McQuoid, whose adaptation of Mortal Kombat hits theaters and HBO Max this April. During a roundtable interview with McQuoid, myself, and many other journalists, McQuoid stated that he doesn't "really cite specific films to use, so I've never said during the process of making this film, 'I want it to be like this film or this film or this film.' I watch a lot of films, obviously, and I'm inspired and influenced from different films. But I don't cite specific things... But there's certainly inspiration that, over the years, has just been housed inside my brain and my gut as far as the things I respond to and the things I like."

Among these filmic points of inspiration that hit his brain and gut are "anything that feels authentic within a certain world they're creating, and that can be things that are set historically, it can be fantasy, it can be science fiction. But ultimately, the thing that I'm really drawn to is whether they do it in such a way that I believe it." In clarifying further, McQuoid mentioned one cinematic scene that I myself love, and definitely see in the footage of Mortal Kombat I've witnessed so far: The new wave of South Korean cinema.

"I've always been very impressed with a lot of Korean films, the way they seem to have this great balance of brutality and horror and violence, but they're always generally beautifully done. Beautifully crafted. They're always on a fundamental set of really smart, elegant decisions. I really wanted to have those [elements]. Whilst I wasn't citing any particular film out of that country, I'm often really impressed."

RELATED: If You Liked 'Parasite', Check Out These 20 Other Great South Korean Films

mortal-kombat-2021-movie
Image via WB

I love the artful South Korean thrillers McQuoid is referring to here, whether they're directed by luminaries like Bong Joon Ho (Parasite), Park Chan-wook (Oldboy), Kim Jee-woon (I Saw the Devil), or so many other of the excellent filmmakers in the country. I agree in his examination that these films are full of contrasting ideas of brutal violence and sparse beauty, and I see a lot of this type of duality in the first 13 minutes of the film given to us to watch. And for a blockbuster video game adaptation to have these subconscious, lofty, and unforced cinematic influences on the brain gives me lots of hope for how the film will play from here on out.

McQuoid went on to name check a director from another part of the globe, France's Jacques Audiard (The Sisters Brothers), as a collection of influences he's sponged up along his directing journey: "There's a lot of French films, a lot of Jacques Audiard's films I love because they are authentic worlds and they happen to be present day, but he's uncompromising in the authenticity of how you feel from the characters within there. So [Mortal Kombat's] just really made up of lots of different things." From South Korea to France to its shooting location of Australia to the different countries of origin from the cast and crew – it sure sounds like Mortal Kombat will be one eclectic stew of a film.

Mortal Kombat comes to theaters and HBO Max April 16, 2021.

KEEP READING: 27 Things We Learned About 'Mortal Kombat' From Our Set Visit