‘The Blue Road’ Director Han Jun-hee On Taking Risks With Stories

Korean writer-director Han Jun-hee talked strategies for getting audiences to respond to risky or unfamiliar material in a masterclass at Netflix’s Creative Asia day at Busan International Film Festival.

“There has to be risk for something to be interesting. Only if you take risks can you tell an interesting story. Trying to play it safe all the time, especially in Korea, is a risk in itself,” said Han, who is involved in two series premiering in Busan’s On Screen section – The Blue Road, which he wrote and directed, and Dead-End Job, which he created.

In a talk moderated by Netflix Korea content manager Kim Kijae, Han explained how he approached his breakout hit series D.P. (2021), about Korean military police on a mission to catch deserters, and Weak Hero Class (2022), about bullying and high school violence. Han wrote and directed D.P. while he served as creative director on Weak Hero Class.

“When it comes to army stories, some people think only guys can relate; but for female audience, they all have fathers or brothers who might have been in the army. If you think outside of the box, it could be an interesting story,” Han said.

In the case of Weak Hero Class, which revolved around a group of male friends and features a lot of fighting, Han said: “In Korea, the perception is that this genre can only be made into a film with a small budget. And again, the story looks like it might only appeal to guys. But we all went through high school; met friends there, got jealous of someone, wanted to be someone; these are universal feelings. Then we also added action to the story.”

Half joking, Han also said that casting a trio of hot, young actors – Park Ji-hoon, Choi Hyun-wook and Hong Kyung – was a conscious decision to draw in female audiences. But he also noted that all three have gone on to prove themselves as talented actors and big stars. Park starred in The King’s Warden, released earlier this year, which has become the highest-grossing Korean film of all time.

Han also talked about the importance of working with new directors as he stepped back from the directing role for Weak Hero Class: “We have so many new talents emerging, so we can help them make something great, and by bringing in an emerging director, I knew Weak Hero Class would really shine.”

Moving on to 2024 feature Pilot, Han described how he used genre, in this case comedy, to convey a message to the audience. Directed by Kim Han-gyul, the film is an adaptation of 2012 Swedish film Cockpit about a pilot who pretends to be his own younger sister after being fired from his job.

“When we gave the script to the main actor [Jo Jung-suk], he responded in just three days. He said he wanted to try different things in comedy and felt this part could go deeper than being a superficial comedy role,” Han recalled.

“With all the writers and directors I work with, if we take on something we’re not familiar with, we have to show that we understand it,” he added. “We can’t be prejudiced or biased. Whatever the story, I don’t think there’s a topic we can’t cover in a series or film. I don’t think you can say, ‘This isn’t commercial enough.’ If you have a message you want to convey to the audience, what is it you want to say? That is the most important part of filmmaking.”

He took a similar approach when creating Dead-End Job, directed by Kim Da-min, which deals with a serious subject, the vagaries of the labor market, but also uses genre to convey a message: “When the scriptwriters first brought this to me, Netflix said it’s either going to be a short film or not work out at all. The story needed to be told in a familiar way to resonate with people, so that’s why we thought a fantasy element would be interesting.”

Han also talked about The Blue Road, his return to directing, based on a manhwa about two detectives from Korea and Japan who form an alliance to track down a serial killer staging high-profile murders in both countries. While the two detectives have to navigate different working styles and jurisdictional hurdles, Han said the crews in the two countries also found they had to overcome cultural differences.

“Korean crews are very fast and flexible, while Japanese teams are meticulous and prepare everything very carefully. Neither way is better or worse; just different,” Han said.

“Japanese crew members all have unique roles to play and focus on getting everything perfect, while in Korean teams, we all help out on everything and do it quickly. If it doesn’t work out, we just try it again. At first, there were lots of misunderstandings, but we found we had a lot to learn from each other and eventually found a way to make it all work.”

The Blue Road is streaming on Netflix from November 20, while Dead-End Job is scheduled for October 30. The third series premiering in Busan’s On Screen section, Disney+’s The Remarried Empress, is streaming from November 4.