The Trailer Begins with a Sinister Voice
The video opens with a chilling voice.
"I've been telling you over and over, sir."
Over a pitch-black Seoul shrouded in deep darkness—even at midnight, the skyscrapers blaze with lights. Sweeping across the skies above the towering buildings. From above the clouds. Like a god gazing down, the rooftops slowly come into view. Then, at some point, the voice returns.
"That money."
Soon, the gaze plummets to the ground. An extreme long shot drawing slowly closer from afar to the vast forest of buildings in Seoul, the viewpoint rapidly falling. Past windows, signs, villas, and walls. When the gaze plunging straight to the pavement finally lifts its head, the owner of that mad voice finally reveals himself.
"···········I'll win it for you, didn't I say?"
A bizarre man. The guy spouting gambler lingo wears a twisted grin and eyes that look just a bit unhinged. Mad attire. Mad expression. Mad glint in his eyes. As tension-building sounds swell and a big close-up starts to capture that face—
Blackout. Pitch darkness. Silence. Then, the ticking of a clock. Tick—tock—tick—tock— Half the black screen. On the left side first, a man in a suit materializes.
"Why are you doing this to me?"
On the right, the mad gambler appears.
"Reason? You want a reason?"
Two men in stark contrast on either side of the screen. A suited office worker versus a gambler dressed in a mismatched mess from head to toe, their faces poles apart. Voiceover. Like a real showdown, their lines cut back and forth faster and faster from their respective situations.
"Is there any better reason than money in this world?"
"The section chief told me himself! You promised me!"
"Nothing's more meaningless than words~"
"If you keep this up, I'll go all the way too."
"What game?"
"Why are you doing this to me, of all people!"
"I don't get it."
"A man's dead here—there has to be a reason!"
"Once you bet, it's one of two things."
As the conversation continues, the right side with the gambler starts pushing out the left. Then—
"Win..."
In an instant, the gambler shoves the suited man's side off-screen entirely, claiming the whole frame. With his loaded line—
"··········or lose."
The screen shatters. BOOM! Explosive EDM beats burst with the sound of smashing glass. Screens flash by in seconds. A tattooed guy falls through a breaking window. Dozens of bats smash a car. A brawl in an underground parking lot. A fire hydrant spraying water. An explosion ripping through an old building. A dozen luxury cars wrecked on a half-collapsed road. As the beats tighten like a noose, faster and faster, the flashing scenes end with— a helicopter exploding. At the peak of the EDM blast, massive flames from the detonated chopper give way to the main cutscenes.
"I'm telling you I'll win it for you—why can't you get it through your thick skull, siiir!"
Eyes bulging, swinging a knife—the gambler.
"Even if you sell an eyeball, it's barely 100 million—why make such a fuss~?"
A creepy grin from the gambler.
"Baccarat, baduk, poker, blackjack, go-stop, Texas hold'em, hula—I'm confident in 'em all! Trust me, damn it!"
Slipping on jjajangmyeon broth on the stairs of a rundown building, yet desperately pleading without stopping—the gambler.
"Woof! Woof woof woof woof!"
Scrambling on all fours over the groaning bodies of thugs on the floor—the gambler.
Gambler, gambler, gambler... The scenes keep rolling. Suddenly— all music cuts out. Then the final scene.
"Look."
Bleeding red through bandages wrapped all over his body, the gambler staggers forward. Thud... thud... Chuckling with bloody hands clasped over his face, he slowly lifts it. Eyes wild with madness, mouth torn into a huge grin—that moment!
"I said... I'd win, right?"
Ending with a whispery, crystal-clear voice—
BOOM!
A massive subtitle slams onto the screen.
The initial reactions were dry. After all, a random account posting at a random time wouldn't immediately hook its target audience.
But once views hit 100, a comment drops.
Someone spotting the suited office worker who briefly appeared on the left with the gambler before vanishing. Han Joo-hyuk. The moment a comment names the pretty famous star actor to the 20-30 crowd—
Click.
DK Entertainment's Planning Team 2 springs into action.
Normally, no major agency skips having an in-house team for view manipulation—or contracts one out.
1,000 views. Right at that exact number, using IP-switching software, they copy the video's URL.
And blast it into Korea's third-biggest online community by reach.
Viral stunts die the second they're exposed. Pushing to 1,000 views first minimizes suspicion that the uploader faked spreading it themselves on communities.
Instant reaction. Riding the hook of "Han Joo-hyuk" in comments and post titles, upvotes surge.
People start piecing it together.
The blurry title. Letters glitching here and there, no air date, frames overlapping with glitches in between, overall a bit rough on post-production.
Context cleared. Now time for content interest.
Topic shifts instantly. Ji Cheol-geun poured his soul into that footage, and the gambler's addiction-fueled madness grips hearts.
Focus locks in. Monster City and the gambler. Luckily, the community's interest zeros in on Tae-gyu's identity over the drama.
Next, casually drop it in the online hub for theater, musical, drama, and film otakus.
Immediate reaction.
They get the context, but it sparks [SBC vs MBS] or [Ji Kyung-ho vs Han Joo-hyuk] wars. Doesn't matter. As long as some focus on the video.
The desired reaction hits.
Centered on fans of national little bro Cheon Yoo-seong, whose fandom dwarfs Han Joo-hyuk's.
The second fire roars to life.
People love acting like they know stuff once they spot something familiar. Cheon Yoo-seong fans' fingers fly.
They dig up Cheon Yoo-seong's SNS, find the tagged "My Bro."
They start reposting Cheon Yoo-seong's SNS uploads everywhere.
Full-on video appreciation time restarts.
Just like before, sprinkle fake info. Snowballing interest rolls. First spark via Han Joo-hyuk, second via Cheon Yoo-seong fans, exploding the Monster City teaser on YouTube into a blaze.
One day passes. 2,000... 3,000... 4,000... 10,000... 20,000... 30,000... 100,000... Views skyrocket.
·····262,582
That momentum catapults it into YouTube's trending videos, exposing it further.
Industry starts paying attention.
"··················What the."
Overnight stardom's commonplace these days, especially now. Big MCNs track metrics for content with legs to become memes or catchphrases amid endless uploads.
Right now, the Monster City teaser with Tae-gyu has crossed that threshold.
"You see this?"
"Yeah, earlier."
"Acting was wild."
"Han Joo-hyuk?"
"Nah!"
Among content checkers, Lee Tae-gyu steals the spotlight from Han Joo-hyuk.
"Gambler here, Lee Tae-gyu."
Rumors spread from industry chats, via net, back to industry, fleshing out.
"Heard this guy made Kim Hwan quit acting?"
"Idol Kim Hwan?"
"Yeah. He started YouTube recently. Lost an acting showdown to Lee Tae-gyu, lost the will—"
"No way."
"Swear."
Rumors creep back into the industry—spreading wider. Day one. Two. Three. Flooding broadcast world and net.
Especially folks killing time on net from boring jobs, buzzing with unsolved curios about Lee Tae-gyu.
[Acting showdown beast who matched Seol A-yoon, made 10M director Gu Jeong-hwan glitch out, Cheon Yoo-seong's "bro" next superstar, genius actor who retired Kim Hwan, DK's secret weapon······]
Near-facts and—
[Scam gambler from Gangwon discovered for acting talent human scum, Korean-American who came to Korea to play go-stop in Hollywood······]
Movie-plot rumors swirl around entertainment's mystery: Lee Tae-gyu!
And that Lee Tae-gyu is·········
'············Why's he in front of me.'
The prison guard blinks. He'd been chuckling at YouTube comments till this "[Monster genius human scum acting secret weapon]" shows up for real to visit "that guy."
"You're really Lee Tae-gyu?"
"Yes."
"If it's okay, maybe a pic together when you leave—"
"Pardon?"
"Ahem. Uh, no. Anyway, the visit purpose... as stated?"
"Yes."
Dokkaebi fire for tomorrow's audition. Lee Tae-gyu, here at prison for "that guy," answers flatly.
"·········An interview."