'Office' Director Hong Won Chan Reflects On The Creative Process Behind His Directorial Debut [EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW]

Hong Won Chan is the brilliant auteur and screenwriter behind the Hitchcockian thriller, "Office." In his directorial debut, Hong leads viewers on a chilling journey through the seemingly mundane cubicles and corridors of a Korean office building, which is plagued by the looming presence of Manager Kim (Bae Seung Woo), a mid-level salesman who slaughters his entire family, after he is abruptly fired. Go Ah Sung (Snowpiercer, The Beauty Inside) is Lee Mi Rae, a simpering intern who embarks from the brink of a nervous breakdown to extract chilling revenge against the full-time employees who mock her while cruelly blocking her path of advancement. KDramaStars sat down with Hong Won Chan to discuss the creative process of "Office" and to explore the juxtaposition of Korean filmmaking with the K-Drama screenwriting. 

KDramaStars: “Office” marks your directorial debut, following your work as a screenwriter on works that were based on real-life events like “The Chaser.” Did your previous work on dramatizations help or hinder the creation of “Office?”

Hong Won Chan: My writing background was a big help. After “The Chaser,” I worked on around four projects and I think I learned the important components of filmmaking, during that process. I was lucky to work with filmmakers who were either beginning or just debuting. It was important to watch them grow and work by their side. With “Office,” when I was doing rewrites, my writing background was obviously helpful. I feel like if I didn’t have my background in screenwriting, I wouldn’t have been able to debut [as a director], with “Office.”

 KDramaStars: What was your casting process? What did you provide as the motivation for their characters?  

Hong Won Chan:   Go Ah Sung is the intern, she was one of my first [casting] choices. She was quickly attached to the film. With the rest of the cast, we actually put a lot of effort into finding the right cast members. One of the biggest things I wanted was a realistic tone of acting because this deals with Korean organizational structure and realistic subjects. So, we tried to cast those types of actors.

As for directing the actors on-set, most of them had a lot of experience under their belts. Even without giving specific direction, a lot of them already knew the intentions of the scene. I didn’t have to mollycoddle them. It was my directorial debut project, so I tried to listen to what the actors had to say, regarding the characters.

KDramaStars: The scariest aspects of the movie is its raw portrayal of office culture, particularly the cut-throat culture of sales, within a large corporate building. What inspired the selection of the particular setting and the use of everyday office mainstays like staircases and staplers?’  

Hong Won Chan: In regards to the stapler, because “Office” takes place in the workplace, I wanted to show how everyday office supplies can become something threatening. They can transform into murder weapons. We were on-set and I was looking at these office supplies. I thought, “Wow, it is going to hurt a lot if I get hit by a stapler.” That’s how I decided to use the stapler [the way it is used].

KDramaStars: I really like that the tone of the film was similar to the bullying and office climate was portrayed in “Misaeng.” But unlike “Misaeng,” the people who are bullied, retaliate.
Was “Office” influenced by “Misaeng?” Did “Misaeng” inspire the progression of the certain scenes? 

 Hong Won Chan “Misaeng” was on-air while I was filming “Office,” so I practically didn’t have time to see it. I was able to see one episode, but I didn’t get to see more. But I’m a huge fan of the original web comic that “Misaeng” is based on. So, I remember giving Go Ah Sung the entire collection of the original comic strip because she hasn’t been in a workplace. To help her get a sense of what it’s like to be in the workplace, I gave that to her. Essentially, I feel like they’re both situated in an office, but they’re entirely different genres. I wouldn’t say that there is a specific influence for “Office.”

 KDramaStars: The film plays like a crime procedural, in addition to a horror tale. Did researching real-life crimes for dramatization influence your portrayal of the murder investigation in “Office?”  

Hong Won Chan:  “Office” starts out as a crime story, in the beginning, with the detectives. But as you keep watching, they slowly fade away, into the background, as the focus shifts to the story of the individuals inside the workplace. It was kind of an intention of mine. I wanted the audience to start out wondering about the identity of the murder to being more interested in why this murder happened.

Referring to real-life events, I think before I started working on this project, there have been actual incidents where a salaryman would kill his entire family, then committed suicide. Or he might attempt to commit suicide, but didn’t succeed and ended up going to jail. There was also a case where an office worker stabbed his colleagues, in the workplace. These types of things have happened, in the past, and are still happening, now. I just feel like looking at these events, it’s a problem. It shows the dysfunctional side of Korean organizational culture, how corrosive and violent it can be.

What distinguishes a film screenwriter from a Korean drama writer? Would you consider writing for television, in the future?

 Hong Won Chan:  Basically, they’re different mediums. I think the biggest thing that stands out is with dramas you are telling a story over the course of multiple episodes, whether it is a 40 or 60-minute series. In film, because you have to tell your story in two hours or less, it’s a much more condensed medium. It takes more thinking to get the pieces right where you want them to be and much more subtlety.

In Korea, the biggest issue in the drama environment is that there is not enough of a budget for a well-thought out story. A lot of the time, the writers are under pressure to create something quickly. It’s harder for them to get a quality script. Also, there’s not that much variety, in subject matter, when it comes to drama. Because you have to think of your main target audience, which is different than here [in the U.S.]. The main target audience in Korea is Korean women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s. So, that’s also something that is hindering drama. In Korea film, you have more leverage in what type of story you want to tell. I feel like there is more leeway, in terms of subject matter.