While Tae-ha focused on writing the script, *Killer X Killer* finally reached its fifth week of release. It surpassed the long-awaited ten million viewer mark. To be precise, it reached 10.08 million.
Ten million viewers for a film debut. It was a number that was hard to believe even while seeing it with his own eyes.
The *Killer X Killer* team, which had taken a break from stage greetings for a while, scheduled more events. This time, the stage greeting included Director Jeong Myeong-hwan and Writer Sim Yeong-seon. The two rarely participated in stage greetings, but since it was a celebration of breaking ten million viewers, they decided to join. They even planned to hold a GV afterward to express their gratitude.
GV, short for Guest Visit, refers to a time after a film ends when the director, writer, and actors engage in a conversation with the audience. Though it was a commonly used term in Korea, it wasn’t actually an standard English expression.
The stage greeting to thank the ten million viewers began. Many people had come to see the movie, and among them were a fair number of reporters and critics. Technically, it was safe to assume that almost no one coming to today’s stage greeting was seeing *Killer X Killer* for the first time. For a movie to surpass ten million viewers, that was always the case. There had to be people who watched it a second, third, or even fourth time.
A great deal of them, in fact.
The people who came to see the stage greeting today were exactly like that, and that was the reason the GV event had been arranged. The goal was to share stories that couldn’t be known just by watching the film with those who had watched *Killer X Killer* deeply and had firm impressions of it.
Starting with Tae-ha and ending with Sim Yeong-seon, everyone finished their stage greetings. They were greetings filled with gratitude toward the viewers who had loved *Killer X Killer* enough to take it to ten million.
Then, the GV began. In this setting, Jeong Myeong-hwan brought up an unexpected story.
“At some point, I felt distant from the number ten million, but the reason I was able to receive this much love again through *Killer X Killer* is all thanks to actor Lee Seok-hyun, who is here today.”
From Jeong Myeong-hwan’s mouth flowed an explanation of how he had omitted the story to focus on action scenes and the friction he had with Lee Seok-hyun because of it.
Tae-ha couldn’t help but be surprised that such facts were coming out of Jeong Myeong-hwan’s mouth. He never imagined that Jeong Myeong-hwan would publicly reveal a story that could be considered his own flaw.
It wasn’t just Tae-ha. Lee Seok-hyun, Kyung Juncheol, Go Dong-pal, and Sim Yeong-seon all showed clear signs of surprise. That was because the reason Tae-ha and the others hadn’t revealed this story until now, despite having opportunities, was out of respect for Jeong Myeong-hwan. They had wanted to protect the honor of Jeong Myeong-hwan, who had long faced criticism regarding his storytelling.
If today’s story was miscommunicated, Jeong Myeong-hwan’s reputation as a director could be severely damaged. Yet, he was revealing it himself.
Tae-ha wondered, ‘Was this just a mistake made in the process of speaking?’
That was also why many directors did not hold GVs. They worried that they might inadvertently make statements that would tarnish their reputation. However, after finishing his explanation, Jeong Myeong-hwan did not look flustered at all. On the contrary, he wore a faint smile as if satisfied with his own remarks.
That meant Jeong Myeong-hwan’s statement was planned in advance. If so, there was only one reason he would make such a plan: to publicly thank Lee Seok-hyun for helping *Killer X Killer* from straying in the wrong direction. He wanted to express that gratitude.
Lee Seok-hyun, with his wealth of experience, also seemed to grasp Jeong Myeong-hwan’s intention and spoke up with a look that hadn’t entirely lost its bewilderment.
“I never imagined the director would bring up such a story today, so I’m quite flustered. However, since the topic has been raised, I’ll add a bit more to prevent any misunderstandings. All I did was raise the issue. The credit should actually go to the actor here, Kang Tae-ha. He mediated what could have been a pointless emotional battle with an appropriate suggestion.”
Lee Seok-hyun then shared the story of how Tae-ha had suggested filming both an action-oriented edit and a story-oriented edit up to the one-third mark to compare them.
The moment Lee Seok-hyun finished his story, exclamations erupted from the audience. They seemed to have had no idea such a behind-the-scenes story existed.
In the section where reporters were gathered, the sound of busy typing could be heard. It was the movement of people rushing to turn this story into an article. Since they might be able to get titles like “Exclusive” or “Breaking News,” it was only natural that the reporters’ hands grew hurried.
Then, one person in the audience raised their hand and asked a question.
“So, was the current version of *Killer X Killer* born thanks to that vote? If so, does that mean the story-oriented edit won?”
It was a question that couldn’t be ignored. If left as is, it could lead to misunderstandings. Because of that, Tae-ha waited for Jeong Myeong-hwan and Lee Seok-hyun to explain.
But unexpectedly, the eyes of both men were fixed on him. It meant they wanted him to explain the rest of the story. Since it was Tae-ha who had suggested the vote back then, it wasn’t strange for him to be the one to explain it.
Taking the microphone, Tae-ha began to speak.
“Although it was only by one vote, the version that won was actually the action-oriented edit. The final product you see now is solely the result of the director’s credit for skillfully blending the two after much deliberation. In the end, the choice was the director’s responsibility.”
As Tae-ha finished his story, the reporters’ hands grew even faster. The fact that the direction of the editing wasn’t determined simply by the vote results, but rather by Jeong Myeong-hwan’s choice, was a very interesting story.
Afterward, various questions and answers were shared during the GV, but the most impactful moment was definitely Jeong Myeong-hwan’s bombshell revelation. Unsurprisingly, various social media platforms and communities caught fire once again.
Most of the praise was directed toward Jeong Myeong-hwan for recognizing the problem and increasing the importance of the story in the work even though the action-oriented edit had received support. Next came plenty of praise for Lee Seok-hyun, who had initially raised the issue.
Finally, there was no small amount of praise for Tae-ha, who had mediated the conflict by suggesting a wise solution.
***
*Killer X Killer*, which held its place in theaters for a total of ten weeks, finally concluded its run with a record of 11.27 million viewers. Since the viewer count in the ninth week was 11.22 million, taking the movie down at this point was the right choice.
In the end, *Killer X Killer* ranked twenty-fourth in the all-time movie audience rankings. Furthermore, Jeong Myeong-hwan became the ninth director to have directed two or more movies with ten million viewers.
For Tae-ha, it was a staggering record that he had only imagined being a part of. It was no exaggeration to say that a page had been written in the history of the Republic of Korea’s cinema. In fact, the possibility of *Killer X Killer* being pushed out of the top thirty all-time movie rankings was not very high. It was likely to hold its ground for at least ten years.
One could tell just by looking at the fact that *Silmido* and *Taegukgi*, released in 2003 and 2004 respectively, were still ranked in the top thirty. In the case of *Silmido*, its rank was even lower than that of *Killer X Killer*.
However, he couldn’t just stay intoxicated by this success forever. For five weeks following the stage greeting and GV held to celebrate breaking ten million viewers until the movie was taken down, Tae-ha devoted himself to writing *Your Brilliant Sparkle*.
As a result, he was able to complete the script for *Your Brilliant Sparkle* up to episode three. After checking the script, CEO Choi of Salamander Studio suggested they begin casting. CEO Choi’s idea was to secure a broadcasting slot as soon as the script for episode four was out.
Tae-ha also didn’t mind the work moving quickly, so he accepted CEO Choi’s suggestion. Now that he had finished all schedules related to *Killer X Killer*, it was time to focus on *Your Brilliant Sparkle*.
CEO Choi spoke.
“First of all, I’m relieved that Writer Kang has agreed to personally take on the role of the male lead, which could be considered the biggest hurdle of this project.”
It was certainly a relief for CEO Choi. Casting the role of a younger man was traditionally the hardest among all actors. This was even more true for the protagonist of a campus youth drama. The reason was simple: there weren’t many male actors who were young, handsome, and talented.
The cause of this phenomenon was unknown. Some suggested that the kids who should have become aspiring actors were instead being funneled into idol traineeships. It was a hypothesis that held some merit. Even Tae-ha, who had suddenly become the most noticed actor in his early twenties due to the success of *Killer X Killer*, was a former idol trainee. He had even debuted.
The irony, however, was that a similar story was circulating within the idol industry. Casting managers were constantly complaining that there weren’t many young, handsome, and talented male singers. It was truly a strange phenomenon.
But it wasn’t Tae-ha or CEO Choi’s job to uncover the cause of this mystery. What mattered was the fact itself. Even in this market situation, *Your Brilliant Sparkle* had succeeded in casting a suitable actor as the male lead. This alone gave *Your Brilliant Sparkle* a distinctiveness that couldn’t be found in other works.
‘Actually, until not long ago, most of the casting offers I received were for high school or college students. Even if they weren’t specifically a younger man role.’
Of course, at some point, those offers had abruptly stopped. The reason was clear. Rumors had spread in the industry that Tae-ha was preparing a campus youth drama as his next project.
The male lead casting for *Your Brilliant Sparkle* was settled with Tae-ha. Therefore, the important thing was the casting of the female lead. However, casting the female lead wasn’t as easy as one might think. In the meantime, as Tae-ha’s name value rose, they were in a situation where they couldn’t just cast any actor.
Furthermore, the female lead of *Your Brilliant Sparkle* was just as important as Tae-ha. This was especially true considering that the story unfolded through the female lead’s perspective. Perhaps it was a role even more significant than Tae-ha’s.
‘So I have to find an actress who feels appropriately older than me but acts well and suits the role of a college student… but that’s not easy.’
There were many talented actresses. However, there weren’t as many actresses who were young yet had a higher level of recognition than Tae-ha as one might think.
As the concern over the female lead’s casting deepened, CEO Choi mentioned a name.
“How about Shin So-hee?”