Director Bong Joon Ho, you did a great job..Director Han Jin-won, running mate over Parasite (Roundup)

By Jiyoun, Moon

Jun 24, 2025

Director Bong Joon Ho, you did a great job..Director Han Jin-won, running mate over Parasite (Roundup)
Photo courtesy=티빙



Director Han Jin-won drew attention just because he was a writer who worked with director Bong Joon-ho on the screenplay for the movie 「Parasite」. He made his debut as a director by writing and directing the script of 'Learning Mate'.

The original TVing series 'Learning Mate' (played by Han Jin-won, Hong Ji-soo, Oh Do-gun, directed by Han Jin-won) is a high-teen cheerful political drama in which Roh Se-hoon (Yoon Hyun-soo), who was teased by all students due to an unexpected incident, is nominated as a vice president of the student council's election, and runs toward the election through all kinds of tricks. Since it was released on TVing on the 19th, it has been said to be a period of political growth for teenagers. Director Han is trying not to react. I'm afraid of being judged. 'Neutopia' or'Parasite' had a separate director, and since it contributed as much as a small piece to the whole big memorial, I was nervous about the creative work I took the lead in getting to the verification table. So I can't hang up the Internet at all, and I deleted all the portal site apps."

Director Han was famous for his work with director Bong Joon-ho on 'Parasite'. Starting as a film staff member of director Bong Joon-ho, he was named a co-writer of 'Parasite', and received numerous awards. Director Han said "Bong Joon-ho said, "Of course, director Bong Joon-ho is a person who says good things, so he said he enjoyed it." He said he had a harder time working on the ensemble than anything else."




'Learning Mate' was planned by director Han 10 years ago and is a script that has been worked on for a long time. In the beginning, he only participated in the script work, but gradually became greedy for directing. Director Han said, `At first, I didn't sign a contract to direct, but as I wrote it, I got greedy and told the CEO that I wanted to direct it. Rather than a delivery scenario, this was a scenario with a directorial format. They also marked the camera walking. So I had affection, and when the writing I wrote more than a decade ago was developed, I became greedy (for directing)."

Director Bong Joon Ho, you did a great job..Director Han Jin-won, running mate over Parasite (Roundup)
Photo courtesy=티빙
In addition to the evaluation that it reflected the politics of modern society, 'learning mate' was also evaluated as reflecting the reality of students' participation in politics. In response to this, director Han said, "'School is a miniature version of the real world in the narration, but in fact, doesn't power arise even if two or more people come together. There are people who are a little louder and there are people who follow, and I wanted to set the story of power and power relations in the schoolIt reflects the appearance of Korea that I have seen in my life. So, while doing research, I also looked into the atmosphere of student council elections that are drawn on YouTube these days. Some schools only vote formally, while others are fiercely competing. We've brought some places where we're passionate about elections. Some of my friends are campaigning like 'Sports, not 'Movements'. We also thought it would be good to put a sports drama when we draw an election campaign. I wanted to express the exchange of speeches in the fourth part and so on like a rocker-room conversation in the movie `Perfect Game.'

Director Bong Joon Ho, you did a great job..Director Han Jin-won, running mate over Parasite (Roundup)
Photo courtesy=티빙
Regarding the use of a stark contrast of colors between blue and red, some netizens expressed a view that "Isn't it satirizing the real politics?" Regarding the view that political views were reflected in the drama, director Han said, `Red and Blue are reminiscent of our traditional games such as tea games while filming campaign scenes. If you look at traditional games, all the color contrast is made up of red and blue. Honestly, it's weird to have purple and green as opposed to each other. Red and blue are representative colors, and they are visually the same as complementary colors. I thought those things would inspire sensitivity. In fact, people think that they can only see as much as they see. When you start looking at political codes like that, it's natural to look at them like that. Rather than reflecting on it for a certain purpose, he said, `I think I thought naturally, 'Shouldn't this be the way it should be?'"




Director Han, who is growing up after being praised by director Bong Joon-ho, plans to work on his work in the future with the desire to learn everything about him. Director Han said, `I want to learn everything about director Bong. The director I've seen is the most sincere person I've ever seen. He is a person who has greater concentration or affection for his job. What I was trying to learn was everything (from the director), which is sincerity in the work and sincerity in people. He memorizes all the names of all the actors and staff who are filming. `Oh, he was such a director. I did it.'

Director Han also said, `I now want to be a director with a second work and a director who is curious about the next work. If possible, I want to try my original work, and if I get a suggestion for a work that suits me, I want to try it positively. But I don't want to live as a full-time writer. Rather than just writing and being on the side, my experience is completely different from directing and my brand work coming out."





lunamoon@sportschosun.com