[HanCinema's News] Film Directors Increasingly Lured to Streaming Projects With Mixed Results

June 9th saw the premiere of "Bloodhounds" on Netflix. In its first three days on the streaming platform, "Bloodhounds" earned over twenty seven million viewed hours worldwide. The high profile webtoon adaptation is the latest from writer/director Kim Joo-hwan, and his first serial drama. The shift for the filmmaker is noteworthy, and the man behind the big 2017 hit "Midnight Runners" isn't the only one to be lured away from movie projects.

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Director Hwang Dong-hyuk of "Squid Game" has been the most notable example of trend, having a strong record of films as varied as the social drama "The Silenced" to the comedically themed "Miss Granny" to the historical epic "The Fortress" throughout the 2010's. Hwang Dong-hyuk is known to have told an anecdote about the difficulty of this work, that it caused him to lose six teeth due to stress.

However, the success of "Squid Game" has not been reached by any other project. "Black Knight" came from director Cho Ui-seok of such films as "Cold Eyes" and "Master" which were both crime dramas. "Black Knight" earned around eighty million hours viewed in its first three weeks of availability back in May, or thirty one million in its first three days. Choi Ui-seok claimed to have greater respect for television drama directors having tried episodic filming himself.

But cinematic style with television style pacing has been a dubious experience for many fans, causing many such series to underperform relative to their budgets. Many such projects seem destined to be forgotten. "Somebody" from director Jeong Ji-woo of "Tune in for Love" lacked much presence on Netflix. So did "Yonder" from director Lee Joon-ik of "The Book of Fish" on TVING. "Big Bet" on Disney+ from Kang Yoon-sung of "The Outlaws" likewise seems obscure despite its two seasons.

South Korean media critics have suggested that a failure to appreciate the fine technical differences between films and series is what's causing such dubious results. One important point is that while directors tend to be the dominant figures in film, screenwriters are the dominant figures in television dramas. The sheer quantity of work required for a series is such that it may not be wise for any single person to take on both directing and screenwriting roles in that context.

Written by William Schwartz