Director LEE JAE KYU, who directed Netflix’s “지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)” answered a few questions when asked about the burden of pursuing the box office success of previous Netflix Korean works.
“지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)” (by director LEE JAE KYU), which was released a day before the Lunar New Year holiday on January 28, is the first original series to be introduced among the 25 new series Korean songs recently released by Netflix. As “Squid game“, which swept the world in 2021, was unveiled before the Chuseok holiday last year, viewers at home and abroad pay great attention to “지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)“, which was unveiled alongside New Year’s Day, another Korean holiday.
This interest has paid off. “지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)” swept the world No. 1 spot from Netflix a day after its release. According to Flix Patrol, an online content service ranking website on January 30, “지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)” ranked No. 1 in the world’s top 10 Netflix TV shows on January 29. By country, it ranked first in 25 countries, including Korea, Germany, France, Turkey, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia, and second in 20 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic and India. As a result, “지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)” became the fourth Korean series to reach the top of the global chart after “Squid game”, “Hellbound” and “Arcane”.
Director LEE JAE KYU told The Daily on January 30:
“I can’t believe and appreciate receiving such love from many countries around the world”,
adding, “I think it will be a great comfort to the cast and staff who have been dedicated to the job for two years.”
In a phone interview with media outlet EDaily, director LEE JAE KYU honestly confessed the burden of attractiveness and box office success of other series and viewers’ wishes, which are similar to the original. When asked what he thought about introducing “지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)” as his first Korean Netflix series in 2022, director LEE JAE KYU said:
“I hope I won’t be one of the next or previous films that have been successful on Netflix, since July of last year. As Netflix decided to release it before the Lunar New Year holidays, I respect and follow the judgment”.
“지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)” tells the story of people who are isolated in a high school where a zombie virus has spread and those people who tried to save them by going through an extreme situation. It depicts the process of students who are isolated in the school and waiting for help holding hands to survive. the drama is based on Naver webtoon of the same name, written by writer JOO DONG GEUN, which was very popular in 2009. In addition to that, director LEE JAE KYU, who produced box office hits such as the dramas “Damo”, “Beethoven Virus“, and the film “Intimate strangers” and the writer CHEON SUNG IL, who wrote the drama “Chuno”, and the films “7th grade civil servant” and “The pirates“, have joined forces. Young newcomers such as Park Ji-hoo, Yoon Chan-young, Joy-hyun, Romon, Yoo In-soo, Lee Yoo-mi and Lim Jae-hyuk, who have become rising stars in Chungmuro, have attracted the Warning.
Viewers who discovered “지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)” in advance through online news or watched “지금 우리 학교는 (ALL OF US ARE DEAD)” immediately after its release replied that they seemed to have encountered another work with a unique personality, compared to the original series, while following the atmosphere or storyline of the existing original.
In response, director LEE JAE KYU said:
“The flow of the basic stories or what I want to talk about in the drama is similar to the results of the original work. The flow of the story doesn’t deviate much from the original.”
He then added, “There will be parts where you will feel differences from the original by watching certain events that happen to the children and what each character’s character is like.”
He also pointed out that the goal was to allow readers, who would see the original work, to feel the charm of it, and viewers who would discover it for the first time to feel empathy and pleasure.
Journalist: Shawn
Translator: Shawn
Source: Netflix, interview edaily
