From jobless writer to hitmaker: Director Lee’s “Pretty Crazy”

Director Lee Sang-geun, who nearly hit the 10-million mark with the surprise box-office success of “Exit” in the summer of 2019, has returned with his new film “Pretty Crazy” Actress Im Yoon-a, the lead of “Exit,” stars once again—this time as a charming devil. Lee described his latest work as “a film that feels like a glass of milk after a refreshing bath.” /Park Sung-won

A director’s debut film is released after turning 40-years-old. “A comedy disaster film? How does that work? Even the poster looks strange.” When Director Lee Sang-geun, 47, took on his first feature film, Exit (2019), most were doubtful. A change only occurred when the film was finally released. Drawing in 9.42 million viewers, nearly reaching the 10 million milestone, the film catapulted Lee, once an unemployed writer, into a hit director. Without time to bask in the success, he began his second feature, Pretty Crazy, a self-written and directed film. Released on Aug. 13, Pretty Crazy is the only Korean film with an original screenplay to rank within the box office top 10. In a recent interview with The Chosun Ilbo, Lee added, “I was actually glad my debut didn’t surpass 10 million. Falling just short of that goal pushed me to work even harder on my new film.

In the film Pretty Crazy, an unemployed young man, Gil-gu (Ahn Bo-hyun), helps his downstairs landlord Jeong Jang-su (Sung Dong-il), who is carrying the devil (Im Yoon-a) on his back. /CJ ENM

Lee’s new film Pretty Crazy was actually written before Exit. At one point, Lee was an unemployed young man. In his late 20s, he joined production company Filmmaker R&K, working as part of Director Ryoo Seung-wan’s team. After completing a master’s degree at the Korea National University of Arts, he entered the industry, but a debut as director was still a long way off. Though his dream was cinema, his main work became side jobs such as wedding videos and music video shoots. “When I reached my mid-30s, it really scared me. I had been lazy. I was too caught up daydreaming, postponing the moment when I would finally face the audience’s judgment,” he recalled. Determined to make one last attempt, he committed himself to finishing a screenplay, holed up in a study cafe. Living on delivery food, he wrote up to 18 hours a day. That effort churned out Pretty Crazy—a story of a woman who transforms into a devil at 2 a.m. every night, and a man who goes on secret dates with her.

However, writing a screenplay didn’t guarantee an open path forward. Lee still needed a production company. “Fortunately, the CEO of R&K, Kang Hye-jung, saw the script’s potential.” Less added, “Even now, I feel like I could lift her up on my shoulders out of gratitude.” Elements of Lee’s life are woven into Pretty Crazy. During his unemployed years, he became hooked on late-night walks that always seemed to end in front of claw machines. In the film, the male lead (played by Ahn Bo-hyun), also portrayed as jobless, clings desperately to a claw machine, trying to win a doll that seems just out of reach. The doll, with its faint smile, serves as the link between the protagonist and the devil—while also symbolizing Lee’s own dream of cinema, a passion he refused to give up.

Despite it being a romance drama, the film also blended an element of occult and horror, keeping the comedy alive. Lee’s style of comedy is long term—humor that slowly draws one in before landing with impact at the end. “Comedy is the fastest and most precise of emotions, so I try to bring it into any work,” Lee said. “My goal is a kind of comedy that reveals the human condition in the spaces between the laughs.”

The theater landscape today is very different from six years ago: even a rookie director could draw nearly 10 million viewers. When asked whether he worries about box office success, Lee replied, “Blaming external factors feels like making excuses for myself. I believe that if the creator makes something well, the audience will recognize it.” He added, “It’s like the feeling you get after a refreshing bath followed by a glass of milk. That’s the kind of feeling I want to give audiences. When they’re in need of gentle comfort, or weary from seeing the harsher side of the world, I hope they can experience something pure and moving at the cinema.”