The film Shin-ui Akdan, set to be released on Dec. 31, combines a solid story by writer Kim Hwang-seong of Miracle in Cell No.7, which captivated 12.8 million viewers, forecasting the birth of a well-made human drama that will heat up theaters this winter.
The film Shin-ui Akdan (director Kim Hyeong-hyeop, distributor CJ CGV Co., production Studio Target Co.) is a work that depicts what happens when a fake praise troupe is formed in North Korea to earn foreign currency. This work has signaled strong narrative completeness from the production stage not only because of its unique subject matter but also because it brings together one of Chungmuro's best storytellers and an actual North Korea expert.
First, writer Kim Hwang-seong, who participated in the screenplay, is the driving force behind the box office success that left a significant mark on the Korean film industry by moving the hearts of 12.8 million viewers with the film Miracle in Cell No.7. In Miracle in Cell No.7, he set the bleak, isolated space of a prison as the backdrop and depicted the pure paternal love and warm humanity that bloom there, stirring tears in audiences across generations and eliciting explosive empathy.
Writer Kim Hwang-seong fully displays his strengths again in Shin-ui Akdan. Set in North Korea, one of the most closed and restrictive places on earth, he unravels the desperate yet ironic situations of people who must pretend to be 'fake' to survive with his characteristic pathos-laden humanity and weighty emotion. The moving story of people on the brink relying on each other creates expectations for another "national human drama" following Miracle in Cell No.7.
At the production briefing held on the 8th, director Kim Hyeong-hyeop said that what writer Kim Hwang-seong focused on most was not simple laughter but the "people" and "humanism" that run through it, and he emphasized the power of the story, saying he hoped this story, based on a true-motif, would offer audiences warm consolation and healing.
Adding credibility to the project, writer Baek Gyeong-yun joined as adaptor and consultant. Baek Gyeong-yun is a veteran who has provided consultation and adaptation for major North Korea-related works such as the film series Confidential Assignment, Hunt, Mogadishu, 6/45, and the drama Crash Landing on You. He even personally provided one-on-one North Korean dialect coaching tailored to the character personalities of actors such as Park Si-hoo and Jung Jin-woon to maximize the drama's immersion.
On the outlandish premise of a "fake praise troupe" combined with the heavy resonance of writer Kim Hwang-seong, the film Shin-ui Akdan will offer audiences a miraculous emotional experience at theaters nationwide on Dec. 31, the last day of 2025.
[Photo] Studio Target Co.
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