CHAPTER 047: A Mismatch Between Expectation and Experience
CHAPTER 047: A Mismatch Between Expectation and Experience
The executives at the distributor Playty were briefly bewildered, but then, one by one, they stood and bowed ninety degrees to Han Seungwoo.
“Ah, h-hello. Division Head.”
“Yeah, yeah. Everyone, welcome.”
Technically, Han Seungwoo was the one who came here, but he treated Taeseong Group affiliates like his own living room.
“S-so what brings you here…?”
“I’m doing a home visit. Our Content Trinity is the parent company, right?”
Han Seungwoo gave a wink.
“I’ve been listening this whole time. You were saying you’d promote it as some kind of comedy movie, blah blah?”
Cold sweat trickled down from the half-bald head of the film marketing team leader.
“You haven’t watched comedy movies, have you? How is this a comedy? If you go in thinking it’s a comedy and then people start exploding and that kind of stuff happens, do you think viewers won’t curse? If it were me, I’d get fucking pissed and go around telling my friends to never watch it.”
“……”
Han Seungwoo continued.
“If Parasite had family elements and comedy elements, and you released it as a family comedy, would it have done better? People expect a certain flavor from each genre—if you force-feed them something else, are they going to throw up or not?”
“……They’ll throw up.”
Han Seungwoo paced around the conference room, spitting out his words.
“See? It’s irresponsible as hell. If marketing fucks it up, do you think people will go, ‘Ah, the distributor did some bullshit’? No. They’ll curse the movie. They’ll curse the actors and the director, trash the content, and flip them off saying they wasted their money and time.”
“……”
“And then inside the company, they’ll rip me to shreds for choosing this movie. Saying I’ve got shit hands, whatever.”
“……I’m sorry.”
The film marketing team leader went mute, like he’d swallowed honey.
Then one executive seized the chance to dump all the blame on him.
“Even I can tell this makes no sense. Team Leader Lee! You’re supposed to bring a proper plan—how can you work like this!”
While he spoke, the executives stealing glances at Han Seungwoo were running complicated thoughts through their heads.
‘Why is he acting like this all of a sudden? If it were the old him, he’d be the first to get hyped and agree to this kind of noisy marketing, so what wind blew in…’
‘They said he was sick for a while—did he really change? I’m seeing a bit of Chairman Han Taejun in him. Blood doesn’t lie, is that it?’
Whether he knew their thoughts or not, Han Seungwoo flicked his finger and smiled leisurely.
Most of the key inspiration behind the sharp words he’d just thrown out came from Ryu Sunho.
A few days ago—after he asked Ryu Sunho to judge the contest scripts—the conversation they had at the hideout replayed vividly in Han Seungwoo’s mind.
—From what I heard in passing from the director, there’s someone saying we should wrap this movie up as a “comedy” and promote it. But if you stray from the essence of the genre, the positioning is wrong from the start…
What Han Seungwoo had thought would be baseless talk from Ryu Sunho was surprisingly logical and sharp.
Because Playty was doing exactly the kind of idiotic digging-in-the-wrong-place Ryu Sunho had worried about.
‘That bastard Ryu Sunho nailed the core. A mismatch between expectation and experience. The root of every marketing failure.’
People get more furious than they do over food that’s simply bad when what comes out tastes different from what they expected—because of the sense of betrayal.
Same with a movie: the moment you package it as a comedy, the audience walks in ready to laugh—so what if the movie suddenly clubs them in the back of the head?
‘Artistry, whatever—it all gets buried, it gets branded as a bait-and-switch movie, and it turns into the worst kind of viral.’
Han Seungwoo admired Ryu Sunho’s insight again.
‘A kid who’s only twenty-one has pretty solid insight. He doesn’t just act—he can see the whole picture.’
Just as Han Seungwoo’s mouth curled upward,
an executive looked at him and spoke.
“Then, as you said, Division Head, we’ll exclude the comedy element and rewrite the plan in the direction of emphasizing the original script’s concept—dark atmosphere and the genre’s boldness.”
“Okay. And from now on, I’ll be the one approving this film’s marketing strategy. I’m the direct stakeholder in this movie.”
Han Seungwoo thought he should meet Ryu Sunho again soon and talk more.
‘The more I learn, the more interesting he is.’
Back at the film set in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province.
The Youth Blue actors had planned to watch only briefly, but they lost themselves in Ryu Sunho’s intense acting and stayed all the way to the end.
It was acting you couldn’t possibly walk away from.
“Cut… okay! We’ll move to the next shot!”
Ryu Sunho silently nodded.
After taking a moment to catch his breath, there was no trace of the desperation from a moment ago on his face.
Seeing that, the Youth Blue actors each clicked their tongues inwardly.
‘…What was that just now? He’s basically flipping an emotion switch off and on.’
‘His skill really is on another level. He didn’t get big on luck… If someone told me to do that role, I’d have run ages ago.’
Since Youth Blue was a youth film, most of its actors were young, and their acting careers weren’t long.
So what they felt toward Ryu Sunho was half admiration, half jealousy.
But after seeing Ryu Sunho’s acting, the jealousy vanished.
Because they had no confidence they could pull it off even if they were given the same opportunity.
And finally, the last shot.
With the same focus as before—no, even more—Ryu Sunho once again expressed Jeong Dogyun’s despair.
This time, Ryu Sunho didn’t collapse from the start.
Instead, as he stared at the professor’s glasses lying emptily on the floor, his shoulders trembled slightly.
“Ghk….”
Not anger, not sadness—an expression where everything had gone hollow.
Then the scream that burst out at the end.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
That scream was sharper and more desperate than before.
With every take, the people watching suffered as they swallowed back nauseating awe.
“Cut! Okay!”
“Great work, Sunho!”
At last, the okay sign fell on the final cut, and as if on cue, everyone approached Ryu Sunho, patting his back and encouraging him, saying he’d worked hard.
Especially the Vacuum State staff—they wore expressions mixed with pride and satisfaction.
In front of the Youth Blue team, Ryu Sunho had firmly shown the level of this film.
It was as if he’d raised the status of everyone participating in the production.
Director Yoon Gyeonghwan watched the scene with interest.
It wasn’t just encouragement for an actor who acted well.
In the staff’s eyes was deep trust and respect for an ace who had led the set with overwhelming energy.
‘A rookie who debuted less than a year ago has become the center of the set—the team’s heart. Just looking at how the staff are acting, I can tell what he’s been like on set without even seeing it.’
That only made Director Yoon Gyeonghwan want him more.
Because he could imagine the synergy that would explode if they worked together.
‘The reason he didn’t choose my project… is because it was too safe. The movie was too obvious for him to show his full ability.’
Lost in that thought, Director Yoon Gyeonghwan looked at Director Ji Seongwoo with a complex expression.
“Seongwoo, you were right.”
“Huh?”
“You only see the wider world once you cross the line. I was scared, so I stayed inside the line where it was safe…”
“……”
“This script… this was the right call. The stubbornness was mine.”
It was the moment Director Yoon Gyeonghwan broke his hardened self-certainty and made a new leap.
Meanwhile, Lee Yuna kept rubbing her arms.
Because the insane acting Ryu Sunho showed had made goosebumps rise all over her body.
‘So this… is what acting is.’
It was completely different from a singer’s emotional expression.
With singing, to convey emotion, you actually had to keep a bit of distance.
If the singer cries, the listener doesn’t cry.
‘But acting… you have to become that person completely.’
To be honest, before she saw Ryu Sunho’s acting, she’d been a little full of herself.
When she filmed a cameo for Youth Blue, Director Yoon Gyeonghwan had praised her, and the other actors said she was pretty good too.
So she thought she might have talent for acting, and she got interested, but…
After seeing Ryu Sunho’s acting just now, she felt a huge wall.
‘Could I even dare to act like that…?’
Lee Yuna’s heart started beating busily again.
Only now did she feel like she understood the reason for the pounding clearly.
It was awe.
A massive dignity and pressure toward an existence that had surpassed a certain level.
Thinking back, there had been exactly one time she’d felt this before.
In Madrid, when she went to her first live football match.
When Ronaldo singlehandedly beat all the defenders and scored.
Not on a screen—right in front of her eyes, a performance that felt beyond human limits.
The thrill from the day she decided to become a Ronaldo fan and the sensation right now were exactly the same.
‘Wait… Ryu Sunho…? Ryu Sunhooo…?’
From his name, she sensed a familiar scent.
The scent of a GOAT.
Lee Yuna gained a new realization.
‘Your heart really does work pretty accurately…!’
It was the moment a new object of worship was born.
MBS Broadcasting Station, 7th-floor main conference room.
Under a banner reading “Acting Awards TF Team,” variety PDs and drama PDs, PR staff, and marketing staff sat gathered.
A meeting to decide the concept of the awards ceremony coming up soon. The air was tense from the start.
“This year, let’s go with more class. A glamorous vibe. You know actors prefer a serious atmosphere.”
Before he could even finish, a young variety PD pushed back.
“What era are we living in that we’re still talking about ‘class’? Viewers find that boring these days. We need visuals that can get chopped into YouTube clips and turned into memes. It’s an era where buzz is everything.”
The marketing team leader chimed in as well.
“I’m with the variety department. Buzz directly translates into ad revenue. Sponsors don’t like it if it ends quietly like last year.”
In the end, the Acting Awards concept settled into a festival everyone could enjoy—meaning it leaned toward buzz and entertainment.
Then the real work of selecting nominees began.
A list of dramas and actors that aired on MBS this year appeared organized on the monitor.
“First of all, the biggest buzzworthy drama this year is unquestionably Possessed Investigation.”
“Agreed. Even across the three major broadcasters, there wasn’t a drama with buzz like this.”
“Getting 20% ratings in this era, too. I don’t think anyone would object even if Possessed Investigation is in every award category.”
Everyone nodded.
Then a variety PD asked playfully.
“The Best Couple Award is likely Park Juwon–Seo Yunha, but… for fun, should we add other couples too?”
“Who?”
“Did Possessed Investigation have a sub-couple?”
“Ryu Sunho and Actress Park Dusim. Those two were in the scene with the highest ratings and the most buzz in Possessed Investigation. People said it was a ‘love-hate relationship’ goldmine, too.”
Laughter burst out in the conference room.
No one knew whether they’d seriously add them as Best Couple nominees, but once the mood loosened, the meeting moved smoothly.
The variety PD brought up the next agenda item.
“Alright, then who should we get for the mid-ceremony congratulatory performance? If we want to pull ratings, we should bring in a singer with big buzz.”
“If we’re talking the hottest idol group right now… isn’t it Luckily?”
“Can we even book them? Their schedule is brutal, and they’re probably busy preparing for the year-end music festival too.”
“Let’s contact them first. If it doesn’t work, we’ll line up several other idol candidates.”
Everyone nodded.
And with that, even the special stage casting was wrapped up.
A veteran CP from the drama department concluded the meeting.
“Good. Then we’ll end the meeting here. Organize the plan and send it up for approval immediately. And PR team—start sending official nominee invitations to each agency today.”
“Yes. Understood.”
As soon as the meeting ended, keyboard sounds in the PR office became frantic.
Official emails were sent out to dozens of agencies.
[This is MBS Broadcasting Station. Congratulations on your agency’s actor being selected as an MBS Acting Awards nominee…]
At that time, in the Flash Entertainment office.
Team Leader Jo Sehun rotated his stiff neck while processing overdue paperwork.
Then an email notification popped up on one side of his monitor.
【[MBS Broadcasting Station] Official Invitation for Acting Awards Nominee】
Jo Sehun sat up straighter.
So it’s finally here.
He opened the email smoothly and clicked the attachment.
A flashy invitation bearing the MBS logo appeared on-screen.
‘Let’s see… as expected, Park Juwon. He’s up for the Top Excellence Award. Of course.’
He nodded in satisfaction and scrolled down.
‘Seo Yunha too, obviously. Wait, no? Seo Yunha even made it into the Grand Prize nominees? Well, her role was the harder one. And the two of them are Best Couple nominees too. Good.’
Jo Sehun felt pleased that the company’s two pillars had delivered exactly as expected.
Then he quickly scanned down the list.
Because what he was really curious about was someone else.
Ryu Sunho.
‘He showed good acting right away in his first drama after debut, so wouldn’t he at least be nominated for a Popularity Award?’
As he searched for Ryu Sunho’s name with the heart of a parent checking a youngest son’s report card, Jo Sehun’s finger suddenly paused.
His eyes, scrolling down, locked onto one spot.
“…What?”
Without realizing it, Jo Sehun rubbed his eyes.
At the same time, an incredulous smile formed at the corner of his mouth.
“…Just how many awards is he nominated for…?”