The Face Genius Actor

Episode 108

I wanted to choose the fifth director right away.

But I wasn’t sure if I should.

I couldn’t help it.

The reason I decided to challenge myself with an independent film was because I wasn’t sure if it was right to deprive someone of the opportunity to rightfully pursue their dream.

But soon my thoughts changed.

The fifth director was in a situation where they needed to receive an opportunity from someone.

It was clear that my appearing in another of Director Kim Pil-sung’s works would deprive someone else of an opportunity.

Everyone would want to work with Director Kim Pil-sung, who had become a star director through “Escape”.

The same was true for other directors who had given me casting offers.

They could cast someone else if not me.

So it was okay if I didn’t choose this work.

However, the fifth director didn’t have as many options as other directors.

Or rather, it wouldn’t be wrong to say they had none at all.

The fact that they weren’t even mentioned, being overshadowed by other directors even at this moment, was proof of that.

‘Perhaps this director becoming famous is something that happens four years from now?’

Until then, this director was set to wander for quite a while without getting any notable opportunities.

It was natural since even film directors were looking for experienced people.

‘Since I’ve decided to make an independent film anyway, it would be good to set the direction towards discovering talented newcomers.’

With these thoughts, I raised my head to speak.

And at that moment, my eyes met with CEO Jung Yoon-seok’s.

CEO Jung Yoon-seok smiled as if he had sensed something.

Then he swayed the crowd with one sentence.

“Now, before we continue, it seems that Actor Lee Si-joon, the writer and main lead of ‘I Am Not a Villain’, has something to say.”

So everyone’s attention turned to me.

It was a bit of a burdensome gaze, but I had already finished organizing my thoughts.

Because of that, I could easily start talking.

“Personally, I’d like to work with the fifth director, Director Choi Seo-young.”

As soon as I finished speaking, silence fell.

Soon, opposing opinions poured out.

* * *

Even after checking the video submitted by Director Choi Seo-young, public opinion was still leaning towards the fourth director.

It wasn’t because Director Choi Seo-young’s video was lacking.

Rather, Director Choi Seo-young’s video was excellent.

The problem was that the fourth director’s video was just as excellent as Director Choi Seo-young’s.

‘Moreover, they both submitted short videos emphasizing mise-en-scène.’

Perhaps because I was drawn to Director Choi Seo-young.

To my eyes, this video’s mise-en-scène was subtly better.

But to other experts’ eyes, they seemed similar.

For this reason, almost everyone present preferred the fourth director.

It was natural since this one was overwhelmingly ahead in terms of experience.

If the conversation continued like this, Director Choi Seo-young would inevitably be eliminated.

Unexpectedly, CEO Jung Yoon-seok took my side.

“I think it’s appropriate to follow Actor Lee Si-joon’s opinion since he is the screenplay writer of ‘I Am Not a Villain’. Honestly, has there ever been a failure when we did as Actor Lee Si-joon suggested? But if you all still oppose, let’s watch Director Choi Seo-young’s graduation work together and discuss again.”

Because CEO Jung Yoon-seok spoke so firmly, no one could say anything more.

In the end, we decided to disperse and watch Director Choi Seo-young’s Daeye-jong graduation work and then talk again.

The title of Director Choi Seo-young’s graduation work was “Night of Dance”.

The content of “Night of Dance” was a bit difficult to understand.

Because the film was composed in a form where when a man who seemed unemployed filmed the alleys of Itaewon with a camera, the place suddenly turned into a stage,

And people of various races held a dance party.

But anyone could easily grasp the theme of “Night of Dance” after watching the film to the end.

“Night of Dance” dealt with the perception of foreigners, which remains a dark aspect of our society.

‘The way of composing scenes and revealing the theme is excellent.’

But there were clearly disappointing points as well.

It was the fact that all scenes of “Night of Dance” were composed too beautifully.

As “Night of Dance” revealed the dark side of our society through the medium of dance, it wasn’t good to beautify the scenes too much.

Rather, their dance should have looked like a desperate struggle in contrast to the exciting music.

At the end, they seemed to be conscious of this and composed the scene accordingly, but it felt a bit late.

‘It seems that Director Choi Seo-young still has an obsession that making films means capturing scenes beautifully…’

But this wasn’t necessarily all bad.

As explained earlier, this was exactly the kind of director I wanted.

It had to be a director who valued the color tone and mise-en-scène of the screen.

Only then could the story contained in “I Am Not a Villain” be expressed more explicitly.

For this reason, I liked Director Choi Seo-young a bit more after watching “Night of Dance”.

I felt that Director Choi Seo-young was the only one who could direct “I Am Not a Villain”.

So the next day.

It seemed I wasn’t the only one who thought this way.

The evidence was that there were far fewer opposing opinions compared to yesterday.

Although there were still people who couldn’t let go of their attachment to the fourth director with outstanding experience.

Finally, Choi Seo-young was decided as the director for “I Am Not a Villain”.

For me, it was a moment of working with another world-class master.

* * *

Some time later.

I was finally able to meet Director Choi Seo-young.

When I arrived at Festa Entertainment’s building, Director Choi Seo-young was waiting for me in a neat suit.

It made me laugh because she looked like a new employee, but I ignored it and opened the conference room door.

“Hello. I’m Choi Seo-young, who will be directing ‘I Am Not a Villain’… Ah!”

Choi Seo-young looked at my face and couldn’t continue speaking, wearing a blank expression.

It was a familiar reaction for me, so I greeted her naturally.

“Hello, Director Choi Seo-young. I’m Lee Si-joon, the actor and writer of ‘I Am Not a Villain’. Nice to meet you.”

I bowed almost 90 degrees as I greeted her.

Only then did Choi Seo-young come to her senses and bowed back.

“N-nice to meet you!”

She seemed flustered, but I didn’t mind much.

Rather, I tried to treat Director Choi Seo-young respectfully.

Literally, Director Choi Seo-young was the director of my work from today.

However, Yeo Kyung-chan tilted his head as if puzzled by Director Choi Seo-young’s attitude.

He couldn’t help it.

Her character was quite different from the directors Yeo Kyung-chan had met while following me around until now.

Nevertheless, Yeo Kyung-chan didn’t show it and sincerely introduced himself.

After Yeo Kyung-chan’s self-introduction, I opened my mouth towards Director Choi Seo-young.

“Shall we sit down and talk first?”

“Y-yes, yes.”

“I’ll go get something to drink. What would you like me to prepare? Actor?”

“Ah. Just a glass of water, please. Director, do you need anything else?”

“I’m fine.”

Director Choi Seo-young answered, showing her water bottle.

A moment later, Yeo Kyung-chan brought drinks and the conversation began in earnest.

“First of all, thank you for choosing ‘I Am Not a Villain’.”

“Not at all. I’m really grateful for the opportunity.”

“I see you graduated from school not long ago. Did you apply for directing ‘I Am Not a Villain’ right away?”

I wanted to talk about the work right away.

But I couldn’t because Director Choi Seo-young looked too nervous.

I knew better than anyone that good ideas couldn’t come out in this atmosphere.

The reason I could create good synergy with Ji Jung-hyun and Director Kim Pil-sung in “Escape” was simple.

It was because we could say everything we wanted to say in a comfortable atmosphere.

For that reason, most of the good ideas for our movie came out at dinner gatherings.

However, I couldn’t suddenly ask someone I met for the first time today to drink.

To begin with, I didn’t know if Director Choi Seo-young enjoyed drinking like Ji Jung-hyun or Director Kim Pil-sung.

If I forcibly dragged someone who didn’t enjoy drinking to a dinner gathering, the atmosphere would surely become more awkward.

So I tried to make the atmosphere comfortable in my own way.

Fortunately, Director Choi Seo-young seemed to relax more as we talked.

It helped that Yeo Kyung-chan appropriately joined the conversation, talking about this and that.

It wasn’t for nothing that I had Yeo Kyung-chan join this meeting instead of everyone else.

So we continued to exchange really trivial talk, from Director Choi Seo-young’s school life stories that had nothing to do with movies,

To how Yeo Kyung-chan, whose dream was to play soccer in the army, ended up being exempted from military service.

After about two hours like this, I felt like the atmosphere had completely loosened up.

It seemed okay to start talking about “I Am Not a Villain” now.

“By the way, how did you come to think about directing ‘I Am Not a Villain’?”

“Ah… To be honest, I didn’t think much at first. I desperately wanted to make a film, so after graduation, I worked hard doing part-time jobs with my friends to save money, but some guy ran off with it.”

“Oh my. Yes, I’ve heard of such cases.”

“Yes. I was unlucky. So I was lying on my bed, having lost both money and motivation, when I saw Festa Entertainment’s announcement. It said something about being able to use Actor Lee Si-joon as the lead if I participated in this film. So I quickly filled out an application.”

“Ah, I see. So that’s how you came across ‘I Am Not a Villain’.”

Festa Entertainment didn’t just use connections to find a director for “I Am Not a Villain”.

They tried to find new faces by posting the news on their website or posting job announcements at various universities.

It seemed Director Choi Seo-young was a case of applying this way.

“That’s right. After passing the document screening, I received the screenplay of ‘I Am Not a Villain’ from Festa Entertainment and was very surprised.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. The quality was higher than I thought. I wondered if this was the world of professionals. I was amazed. But to my surprise, the person who wrote the screenplay was you, Actor Lee Si-joon?”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“I was so surprised when I confirmed the name at the end… But the reason I firmly decided that I must make this film was for a different reason.”

As she finished speaking, for the first time, a determined expression appeared on Director Choi Seo-young’s face.

Because of that, I couldn’t help but ask like this.

“What was the reason?”

“Se-rang, the protagonist of ‘I Am Not a Villain’.”

“Yes. Our work’s protagonist is named Yoon Se-rang.”

“I thought I must participate in this film and save Se-rang with my own hands. Because…”

“Because?”

“I was a student like Se-rang during my school days.”