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Director Hyun Hae Ri commented on the efforts Song Jae Rim put into the K-movie Death Business.
Set to premiere on January 15, the K-movie Death Business is a crime drama inspired by the 2022 Luna Coin Crash that shook the world and led to the disappearance of 50 trillion won. Hyun Hae Ri, who wrote the screenplay and directed the film, is a former PD known for directing numerous current affairs and educational programs and receiving acclaim at the Canneseries Festival for The Woman Who Worked Nine Contract Jobs (literal title).
The work is inspired by the real-life event of the massive 2022 Luna Coin Crash, which resulted in a staggering 280,000 victims in South Korea alone. When director Hyun Hae Ri first planned the project, Death Business was supposed to be a six-episode web drama.
The initial idea was to depict, in each episode, the protagonist heading to failure in a black comedy tone. However, as the research into real-life figures involved in the incident deepened, the weight of the story was felt, making structural changes essential. To explore the societal repercussions of the cryptocurrency market crash and the resulting tragedies suffered by the people more deeply, it was absolutely necessary to reconstruct the work as a feature film.
The project was revamped, supported by more thorough preliminary research and legal case studies, with detailed review and legal consultation.
Death Business's storyline captures the utter failure and downfall of the character Yang Do Hyun (Song Jae Rim), focusing on the theme of massive collapse brought about by the get-rich-quick mentality.
Director Hyun Hae Ri shared, "Actor Song Jae Rim approached [the film with] professionalism, paying meticulous attention to detail as he brought to screen a real-life incident and people related to it. Before each shoot, he would thoroughly check the latest news articles related to the case, even suggesting, 'I saw this interview come out yesterday,' or 'Should we tweak this part of the script a little?'"
Death Business is set to premiere on January 15, 2025.
