Director of Miss Baek Returns After 8 Years With a Family Noir Starring Ryu Seung-ryong and Ha Ji-won

Eight years is a long time between films, but director Lee Ji-won is making the wait count. The filmmaker behind the 2018 drama Miss Baek unveiled her new feature Bigwang at a press screening held at Megabox COEX in Seoul's Gangnam district on the 24th, with stars Ryu Seung-ryong, Ha Ji-won, and Kim Si-won in attendance.

The film centers on Jung-gu and Nam-mi, a top celebrity couple whose marriage falls apart after Jung-gu's estranged daughter Dong-ju suddenly reappears. Eight years later, Dong-ju is implicated in a shocking incident, the death of a close friend, and named as a suspect, leaving her backed into a corner. Her two parents, now long divorced, find themselves pulling in the same direction to uncover the truth and protect her.

A goStop card becomes a title

Lee Ji-won traced the title back to a childhood memory. "I always wanted to make a family film," she told press at the screening. "When I was young, watching relatives play go-stop during the holidays, the bigwang tile caught my eye, it was unusual and interesting. But whenever someone played it, the family didn't seem happy about it." As she grew older and learned more about the card's associations, it is considered an unlucky tile, often disruptive to the game, the image stuck. When she started developing a story about family, the title came naturally.

She describes Bigwang not as a human drama in the conventional Korean cinema sense, but as something she calls a "family noir." "Most people assume a Korean film about family will be a humanist drama," she said. "Our film goes through a noir-like process: thriller elements, the need for deduction, characters doing extreme things for the sake of rescuing their family."

The cast on who these people are

Ryu Seung-ryong plays Jung-gu, once the best baseball player in the country, whose career collapses the moment Dong-ju enters his life. Yet when she is in danger, he does not hesitate. "There's a small person desperately trying to survive," Ryu said of the dynamic between his character and Dong-ju. "You can't look away from that. Those emotions build into a kind of resolve, and when the crisis hits, he acts on it."

Ha Ji-won plays Nam-mi, a former top star whose career has quietly shrunk to survival-level work since the divorce. She described the role as an opportunity to rethink her own relationships. "Looking at things from a wider perspective, I felt so many emotions, like riding a roller coaster. I thought a lot about the people closest to me, starting with my mother, the first relationship I ever had."

Kim Si-won, who last worked with Lee Ji-won on Miss Baek, reunites with the director here as Dong-ju. When asked what sets Bigwang apart, her answer was immediately personal: "The first thing I felt after watching the finished film was that I wanted to call my parents. It's a warm film, one where you feel a lot."

Ryu called it "a dense, classical film." Ha Ji-won said it is "a film you watch with your heart." For Lee Ji-won's part, those descriptions probably land exactly where she intended.

Bigwang opens in Korean theaters on September 2.