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Lee Joon-ik, Heo Jin-ho and More Leaving the Film Industry for a While

Big directors of Chungmuro, the symbol of South Korean film industry including Lee Joon-ik, Han Jae-rim and Heo Jin-ho, will leave the big screen and challenge a new platform. They are masters of film who will leave the film industry for a while and meet viewers in different forms.

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The first to open the door is" Coin Locker Girl" Han Jun-hee. He was invited to the 68th Cannes International Film Festival Critics' Week for his film "Coin Locker Girl" which was released in 2014, and won the Rookie of the Year Award at the Baeksang Arts Awards and the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

Director Han Jun-hee was in charge of directing the Netflix series "D.P" which was co-written with writer Kim Bo-tong. "D.P" is a novel subject of the Army Military Police Departure Arrest Group D.P (Deserter Pursuit) drawing the harsh behavior and human rights issues within the military, and is based on a webtoon by writer Kim Bo-tong, which has more than 10 million views. It incorporates Han Jun-hee's unique cold and dark atmosphere, and has emerged as the best production right after its release. "D.P" is boasting great popularity, ranking first not only in Korea but also in Thailand.

The movie "Forbidden Dream", "The Last Princess", "One Fine Spring Day" and "Christmas in August" director Heo Jin-ho, challenges dramas as well. Director Heo Jin-ho stood in front of viewers as a drama director through JTBC's new drama "Lost" which first aired on the 4th. Through the production presentation held earlier, director Heo Jin-ho also expressed his hard work, saying that directing dramas was more difficult than movies.

Director Lee Joon-ik chose to advance to OTT. The master of periodical films, which marked a big milestone in Korean films with "The Book of Fish", "DongJu, The Portrait of A Poet" and "The King and the Clown" is creating OTT series. TVING Original "Yonder" which will be released next year, is a story that takes place when a man who receives a message from his dead wife is invited to an unknown space called 'yonder'. Through human clusters facing the world, 'yonder' created by advances in science and technology, questions are asked about life, death and eternal happiness. Fans are paying keen attention to what kind of worldview director Lee Joon-ik's 2032 near-future background film will have.

Director Han Jae-rim, who directed "The King", "The Face Reader" and "Emergency Declaration", is recently preparing a drama based on the webtoon "Delusion". The film industry is paying keen attention to whether the work will be Han Jae-rim's next film, after the upcoming "Emergency Declaration" which is set to be released in the Cannes International Film Festival. The original webtoon, "Delusion" is the story of an artist who is asked to draw a portrait of a fascinating woman and discovers the identity of the woman over time but has been dazzled by her.

In addition, news of director Park Chan-wook's BBC Drama "The Little Drummer Girl" and director Yoon Jong-bin's Netflix Original Series "Narco-Saints" is being heard about.

As such, more and more film directors are leaving the screen for a while. As the boundaries between movies and dramas are broken down, the drama work of film directors leads to another viewing point of the work at a time when a wider spectrum of directing power is required.

Film directors' multi-faceted work is actually due to the theater situation caused by COVID-19. As the number of audiences in the theater decreased, the slump in the film industry prolonged and directors naturally turned to drama. In particular, the content platform market seems to be trying to introduce more complete 'K-content' by recruiting master directors with rapid growth.

Now, directors will leave the film version for a while and show their capabilities on the new platform. Viewers also cheer curiously for the directors' challenges. As the spectacular scale of directors, which had only been seen in movies, has been moved to the small screen, high completeness is naturally expected. There is also a prediction that the choices of these Chungmuro masters will not be temporary.

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