Becoming a Star

chapter 2

- Death Hill’s director and writer modified the sequence. It seems both of them liked working with you last time. They added a few more scenes for your character, which is why I called.

Death Hill’s director, Moon Seung-Kwon, was known for making sudden changes to the script while filming was still ongoing. As such, casting directors often complained since they had to often call up actors on the day before the supposed shoot. That also meant that just like Woo-Jin, there were also many who got to grab these unexpected opportunities.

Woo-Jin hung up after Kim Sang-Jin told him about the schedule and location, and cheered as he ran around the sidewalk. At this moment, he was extremely elated, even though people were slowly avoiding eye contact with him as if he were a madman. Even recalling all 999 of his past lives could not compare to a golden opportunity like this.

***

The female protagonist in Death Hill greatly suffered due to her father’s debt, and her life became even more difficult after she became a suspect upon witnessing a murder. As she was being chased by the police, the killer, and various loan sharks, the only person who believed her was the male protagonist, a journalist. The movie followed the two protagonists as they experienced adversity and adventure to reach a happy ending, while Woo-Jin played the role of ‘Loan Shark A’ in this storyline.

It was such a minor role that the character did not even have a name. He was the antagonist responsible for the female lead’s initial misfortune, which started when her father borrowed money from loan sharks to pay off his gambling debt. To be more precise, he was one of the youngsters who worked for the boss of the loan shark company, whose duty was to collect money.

However, he secretly liked the female lead. He initially approached her intending to collect her father’s debt; in the process, though, he threatened her by breaking things and sexually harassed her, insisting that she sleep with him in place of the interest. That clingy slimeball even told her that after they sold her as a prostitute, he would tell his coworkers that he called dibs on her first.

“They liked the dirty look in your eyes,” the assistant director explained to Chae Woo-Jin. While elaborating on the full content of the modified sequence, he also emphasized that there was a slight change in Woo-Jin's role. “Originally, the female lead was chased and caught by the loan sharks, but she was rescued by the male lead before they turned her into a corpse with no organs. Now, instead of the male lead, A intervenes and rescues her. Previously, A was simply a pervert who sexually harasses the female lead, but now, we’re adding a little madness and pure love to his character. Okay?”

“So, the key is to portray him as a pervert?” Woo-Jin asked.

“And a spoonful of madness, and two spoonfuls of pure love,” the assistant director said as he handed over the script of the changed sequence with a mischievous look on his face. He had worked with Director Moon on more than a dozen films over the years, and he seemed to be fine with the modifications.

In the eyes of the public, Director Moon Seung-Kwon was known for improvising and changing the script right before filming to change things up; but in truth, that was not the case. This always happened whenever he disliked the leads chosen by the investors. That was the truth behind the partially modified scenes that reduced the screen time of the leads. He made his changes spontaneous in order to avoid giving the investors or actors a chance to react. In truth, it was Director Moon’s ‘eccentricity’ that required the cast to be fully prepared after only a few days of discussion with the main staff.

That being said, the changes often made things better, allowing their movies to be more positively received by the public. Thus, even though the investors might grumble, they ultimately did not say much. It was similar to how an honor student's bad behavior would be overlooked to a certain extent, as long as they kept up their good grades. Regardless of what anybody said, Director Moon was one of the most popular movie directors in Korea.