Gu Kyo-hwan's Resurrection Action Film Buhwallnam: The Red Opens September 30

Gu Kyo-hwan's latest film hands its protagonist an unusual advantage: he cannot die for long. Buhwallnam: The Red, adapted from the webtoon Buhwallnam, centers on Seokhwan, an unemployed young man with no notable qualifications beyond unearned confidence, who discovers after his death that he resurrects within 72 hours, and that someone is already hunting him for it. The film opens September 30.

A press screening was held at Lotte Cinema World Tower on the 16th, attended by director Baek, along with cast members Gu Kyo-hwan, Shin Seung-ho, Kang Ki-young, and Kim Si-a.

A premise the title gives away

Director Baek, whose credits include Beauty Inside (2015) and Believer 2 (2023), was candid about the film's structural transparency. "The title says everything," he told press at the showcase. "Because the audience already knows he resurrects, the hero's fate is spelled out in three characters before the movie starts."

That constraint shaped his approach to the action sequences. "So I spent a great deal of time thinking about the pacing, specifically, how to make each resurrection feel earned," he said. "I analyzed how other action films have handled similar problems and tried to find ways for Seokhwan to stand apart from them."

Baek added that the VFX post-production work was extensive, a significant part of making those sequences land. It is a telling admission: resurrection films live or die on whether audiences feel the physical cost of dying, and pure choreography can only carry that so far.

The cast and their characters

Seokhwan, as Gu Kyo-hwan describes him, begins as someone you might cross in a hallway and forget. "My first impression of Seokhwan was of a young man who could live next door," the actor said. "Watching that kind of person grow was genuinely enjoyable." The character's bluntness keeps losing him job interviews, but his optimism survives each rejection, and each resurrection strengthens him physically, compounding his abilities over the course of the film.

Gu Kyo-hwan was deliberate about underplaying the action. "I didn't want to look cool for the sake of it. Seokhwan has enormous physical power, so there's no need to make large, showy movements. In truth, my action scenes were shaped by the actors working opposite me."

Shin Seung-ho plays Black, the antagonist tracking Seokhwan after learning of his ability. Black can manipulate others and bend them to his will, and Shin described the character as caught between two registers: "He wants to seem human, but he also wants to seem like a monster." Shin said he focused on the character's physical presence, the sounds Black makes, and an underlying protectiveness toward a younger sibling that mirrors Seokhwan's own relationships.

Kang Ki-young takes the role of Yeongha, Seokhwan's only close friend and a seasoned office worker, while Kim Si-a plays Yerin, Seokhwan's younger sister. Kim, who is among the younger members of the cast, said the direction she received was to anchor the film emotionally. "I was told to hold the weight of the drama," she said. "Yerin is young, but she's the most adult-minded of them, and I tried to make sure that sense of responsibility showed."

What Baek wants audiences to take from it

For a film built around mortality, Buhwallnam: The Red is not aiming for weight. "There's nothing heavy here, nothing difficult," Baek said. "It's bright, straightforward, a film that just runs wherever it goes."

He pointed to a single line as the one that holds the whole thing together: Seokhwan telling someone around him, "Don't worry. I won't die." "That line captures who Seokhwan is," Baek said, "and it's also the message we're putting to anyone who comes to see it."

Buhwallnam: The Red opens in Korean theaters on September 30.