'Ballerina' by Lee Chung-hyun exposes dark societal themes

Lee Chung-hyun's latest film "Ballerina" on Netflix explores dark societal themes, centering around a female protagonist seeking revenge on a sex offender. The director aims to shed light on sexual exploitation against women.

New Netflix original film ″Ballerina″ stars Jeon Jong-seo as Ok-ju, an ex-bodyguard who seeks revenge for the death of her best friend against the head of a sex trafficking ring. [NETFLIX]

Director Lee Chung-hyun's latest film "Ballerina" on Netflix once again has a female narrative. But as Lee's fans would have likely guessed, "Ballerina" is far from a romantic tale featuring girls in dainty tutus.

Rather, it centers around Ok-ju, played by Lee's girlfriend Jeon Jong-seo, who sets out to take revenge on a sex offender who pushed her best friend over the edge, ultimately leading her to take her own life.

“When I think of new stories and synopses for my next films, I want them to be told from the point of view of a woman,” Lee said. “That lends to more twists and elements that I can show within the film. I am not saying that I am against male characters or male narratives, but I do prefer female ones.”

Director Lee Chung-hyun [NETFLIX]

Lee is one of the hottest new directors in the Korean film scene at the moment, having debuted with the highly acclaimed short film “Bargain” in 2015 and making an equally popular feature debut with 2020’s “Call.” Both works have a female protagonist and boast a female-centered narrative — something that has come naturally to him, according to Lee.

Lee also said that while he was thinking about his next project, a series of crimes in Korea related to sexual exploitation against women had recently taken place, and he wanted to shed light on the issue as well.

"As there's no real case, however, that actually speaks out about this issue so bluntly, I thought why not do it through my film," Lee said.

So where do the ballerinas come into play?

A scene from the Netflix film ″Ballerina″ [NETFLIX]

In the film, Jeon is a former bodyguard and her best friend, who ultimately takes her own life after being sexually abused, was a ballerina. For Lee, ballerinas represent femininity. However, at the same time, he believes that ballerinas have one of the toughest professions.

"They have to appear elegant, but the techniques they pull off are very difficult and intense," Lee said, explaining that the ambivalence attracted him to the profession.

“I wanted the story of the film to be like a cruel children’s tale. The action and level of violence is quite high, but there is an element of femininity and beauty about it,” Lee said.

“Ballerina” climbed to No. 1 on Netflix just three days after its release, and also landed in the top 10 charts in 62 countries worldwide, reaching third in the non-English language films list on the streaming service. Lee said he has been reading a lot of comments and reviews from foreign viewers, and noted that he also saw creative freedom in working with Netflix.

Actor Kim Ji-hoon plays the main antagonist of ″Ballerina,″ a ruthless criminal named Choi Pro who caused the death of Ok-ju's best friend Min-hee. [NETFLIX]

“I think ‘Ballerina’ divides audiences in Korea. Some say they love it, while others hate it. But when I read the reviews, the foreign viewers have been generally positive — which is really interesting to me," Lee said. “And working with Netflix gave me a lot of leeway in choosing certain scenes and the way the violent action scenes are shot. They really respect directors’ creative needs.”

Singer and producer Gray, who has never scored music for a film before, is the music director for “Ballerina." The creative collaboration was an idea by Netflix, Lee said, which he is now "really grateful for."

"The scores came out very stylish for the film," he said. "I wanted to try out new things with ‘Ballerina,’ and the music score for the film is a part of that.”

When asked about a sequel for “Ballerina,” Lee said that it was not something he had thought of until recently, but that many people had commented on it.

Min-hee, Okju's best friend, is played by Park Yu-rim, in ″Ballerina″ [NETFLIX]

“A sequel wasn’t in our scope of consideration when we were making ‘Ballerina,’ but I see why people have thought of the possibility,” Lee said. “If it does happen, I would have to think of where the story would lead, but at the moment there is nothing planned.”

“Ballerina” was screened during the 28th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), which kicked off on Oct. 3, and the director said that having his work shown at a theater and meeting directly with the audience was meaningful to him.

“'Ballerina’ was made directly for Netflix, and it’s still fun to watch it on a television or small screens, but to have it shown at the BIFF was significant because it was the first and last time it would be shown on a large screen, and I also got to talk with the audience,” Lee said. “I know that the film industry is facing a lot of difficulties lately, and a lot of us are turning to streaming services, but I still think that there is something special about watching films at the cinema.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]