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A teenager delivery boy reports a crime scene to the police, where a taxi driver is brutally murdered. However, this boy is instead charged with the murder and sentenced to serve 10 years in prison. In addition, he is further charged to pay back the money that the government has paid to the remaining family of the dead taxi driver, in the name of indemnity. In a most desperate situation, he meets a lawyer, which leads to a retrial of this famous "Yakcheon murder case". 

This true story has been turned into the movie New Trial generating a huge reaction from the audience. The director of New Trial is none other than KIM Tae-yun, the director of Another Family (2014), a film on the industrial victims of Samsung Electronics. KoBiz met KIM to ask him what he really meant to tell us through this set of films that reveal the hidden shadow of Korean society. 

A lot of people think that I am seeking what is called social justice in my works. But that is not the case. I just thought they were interesting stories to turn into a film. I have this story while I was writing film scripts for quite a while (KIM has written scenarios for Educating Kidnappers (2006), Insadong Scandal (2009) and Perfect Number (2012)). If you begin the story with the theme of confrontation with the government and huge companies, you are likely to end up with a not-so-interesting scenario. However, if you just aim at writing an interesting story, it gives you a meaning in return. When I began Another Family, I kept thinking about the father who lost his daughter. How would he feel, and what would he do, and so on. And since the story involved Samsung, there was the risk of getting attacked if you put too much of imagination in depicting the company. So I wrote the story based on the statement of the real people, and I did a lot of research. That is why there is hardly any company scene in the film.

There are many people who have been wrongly charged with a crime that they did not commit. However, in addition, the government exercised the right to indemnity to this guy who has wrongly served 10 years in prison! This guy has totally lost his 20s, and is now in debt of USD 90,000 that he is not even responsible for. To me, this was the whole point, because it led this guy to meet a lawyer and finally get rid of the wrong charges. This is not the kind of story that a scenario writer can ever imagine. Another thing that got me interested was the character of the lawyer. I met PARK Joon-young, the lawyer, in person, and found him very interesting. He was in a track suit when I first met him, and had a very coarse manner. He told me that he was a college drop out and passed the bar exam by pure luck after he studied with a friend that he met in the army. Because he was not fluent in Chinese letters used in law books, he chose to memorize the entire books. He graduated the law institution at the last place. I became worried because The Attorney (2013) was released when I was in the middle of writing my scenario. The frame was kind of similar, and their actor was SONG Kang-ho, depicting the late President ROH Moo-hyun, and their theme was the first act of the Constitutional Law! I thought I had no chance to win. (laughs) And at that time the Yakcheon murder case did not even reach the new trial. So I ended up making a character oriented drama that it is. 

No, not really. (laughs) It was rather the opposite. A lot of people thought New Trial was inspired by I Want to Know That. And some viewers criticized my film, pointing out that it was not as thriller like as I Want to Know That. (laughs) Of course others liked mine more as it was different from the TV show. I guess each has their own advantages and disadvantages. 

I would say Another Family shows how the father ‘grows up.’ You may call it a court drama but I think the way that an ordinary man turns into an activist is more important. New Trial is also a film to depict how the lawyer ‘grows up’ through struggling with himself. I wanted to show it at the ending of the film, which was very hard to write in the scenario. It took me a long time to understand that PARK was ultimately fighting with himself, rather than the government or what not. PARK does not necessarily win the case, or catch the police who did wrong to the victim. The very essence of the film is when he realizes that innocent people are turned into victims because of people like PARK himself. 

I was extremely tired of commercial aspect of making a film, the success formulae and so on. Then I thought I would just go ahead and make the film that I wanted to make, to tell the story that I wanted to tell, however hard it may be. That is how I made Another Famlily. So many producers turned down the project, and once I finally got it made, even the press would ignore it. I went through the very hard times. I am so grateful that New Trial worked out commercially. The leads, JUNG Woo and KANG Ha-neul were also desperately wanting a successful film as leading actors. For me, it was the first film that really got me thinking deeply about directing. As I began my film career as a scenario writer, I did not think really a lot about film directing. With this film, I began to seriously think about becoming a good director. Being a director is fun, you know, just like being the coach of a national soccer team. As everyone has their own idea of a good coach, he is bound to get criticized whatever he does. It is exactly the same with a film director. I think now I can accept whatever criticism the audience may have. (laughs)