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| ▲ This photo of South Korean film director Yeon Sang-ho of film "The Ugly" is provided by Plus M Entertainment. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
SEOUL, Sept. 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korean film director Yeon Sang-ho, known for hits such as “Train to Busan,” is back with a new project: the low-budget mystery film “The Ugly.”
From the start, the movie drew attention for its unusual production method. Made with a net production cost of just over 200 million won (about US$145,000), it fell short of the average budget for independent and art-house films in Korea last year, which stood at about 300 million won. Filming was completed in only three weeks with a crew of around 20 people.
Yeon, who both wrote and directed the film, said the experiment was born out of a sense of crisis.
“My daughter, who is in elementary school, watches a lot of YouTube, so I watch with her,” Yeon said during an interview with reporters in Seoul on Monday. “The production values seemed lower than the children’s dramas I used to watch, but for her, quality didn’t matter—only whether it was fun. That gave me a sense of crisis and made me rethink what makes a movie entertaining.”
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| ▲ This still of film "The Ugly" directed by Yeon Sang-ho is provided by Plus M Entertainment. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
Based on a 2018 comic Yeon created himself, “The Ugly” tells the story of Im Dong-hwan (played by Park Jung-min), the son of a visually impaired seal-engraving master (Kwon Hae-hyo), who investigates the mysterious death of his mother Jung Young-hee (Shin Hyun-bin), whose remains resurface 40 years later.
The film was first conceived as a screenplay but struggled to attract investors and was initially released as a comic. Yeon later found inspiration to revisit the project while watching SBS’s investigative program “Unanswered Questions” with his wife.
“It had a similar theme and was so engaging that I was immersed for an hour despite its low budget,” Yeon recalled. “It wasn’t about the money.”
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| ▲ This still of film "The Ugly" directed by Yeon Sang-ho is provided by Plus M Entertainment. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
Encouraged by his wife’s challenge—“Why don’t you make it with your own money?”—Yeon pressed ahead, drawing courage from legendary Asian filmmakers like Edward Yang and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who had produced masterpieces on modest budgets.
Actors and staff who agreed with Yeon’s approach joined the project, keeping production lean by reducing shooting days and cast fees, though staff wages were maintained at commercial industry levels.
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| ▲ This photo of South Korean film director Yeon Sang-ho (R) of film "The Ugly" is provided by Plus M Entertainment. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
The adaptation emphasized thematic focus, cutting down on subplots and background settings while highlighting Jung Young-hee’s agency as a character. A pivotal choice was to reveal her face only in the film’s conclusion.
“I thought being able to talk about what her face represents was important—that would spark debate,” Yeon said. “I asked the CGI team for a face that wasn’t anyone’s in particular but still felt like it existed somewhere.”
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| ▲ This still of film "The Ugly" directed by Yeon Sang-ho is provided by Plus M Entertainment. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
Despite financial constraints, Yeon expressed satisfaction with the agile production environment.
“I often said during filming, ‘I might get addicted to this way of working,’” he recalled. “It felt like being in a film club, brainstorming with actors and staff and reaching decisions together. It was fun.”
Yeon voiced concerns that conventional commercial filmmaking was producing increasingly uniform results.
“Investors and distributors suggest removing anything audiences might dislike. But that makes films less interesting,” he said. “Movies need their rough edges to resonate. If you keep sanding them down, they all start to look alike.”
Looking ahead, Yeon predicted a rise in sharp-edged films that attract passionate fan bases.
“I think fandom-driven films will become a trend, but that brings risks. To manage them, costs must come down,” he said, pointing to Japan’s “J-horror” boom as an example. “Film development can come in many forms.”
Yeon advised fellow creators facing uncertainty in the Korean film industry to keep making work in any form. He is currently executive producing and co-writing the Netflix Japan original series “The Gas Human” and recently co-authored the novel “Black Inferno” with writer Oh Sung-eun.
“Writing a script for a Japanese project with Japanese actors was a big challenge,” he said of “The Gas Human.” “I’m curious to see how audiences in Japan will respond.”
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