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Director HA Jung-woo | Starring JUNG Kyung-ho, KIM Sung-kyun, KIM Byoung-ok, KIM Jae-hwa | Release Date 2013

Rollercoaster (working title) is popular actor HA Jung-woo’s directorial debut. This fact alone means that people have high expectations for it. HA, who is already recognized as a versatile actor, chose the cabin of a passenger airplane as the setting of his first film as director. The film depicts people who kick up a ruckus while facing an approaching typhoon. How will director HA express a crowd of people who are like candles in the wind?

 

The story goes like this. At Haneda Airport in Japan, MA Jun-kyu, a Korean wave star hurriedly gets aboard an airplane for Gimpo Airport near Seoul. This is because MA’s longtime girlfriend said goodbye to him due to a scandal exposed in Japan. But that is only the beginning of MA's woes who suffers from paranoia, nervous breakdowns and aerophobia. A typhoon hits the airliner. The airplane hovers in the sky, runs out of fuel and instills panic in all those aboard.

 

HA got an idea about this film from a true story of an actor he knows. The first scenario was completed as a short script. The current long version was finished after more contents were added to the first. What is the fun of Rollercoaster about a commotion in a confined space? “Definitely, that is the unique humor of HA Jung-woo,” producer KWON Nam-jin said. “Many people were concerned about the commercial success of this film. ‘Will this movie be funny?’ some people even asked me. But they said, ‘I am sorry' after watching an edited version of the movie.” (Laughs)

 

A comedy which fully contains the characteristics of HA, found more quality through the addition of the strong performances of the cast. JUNG Kyung-ho, who plays the part of MA Jun-kyu worked for the film with great enthusiasm since Rollercoaster is his first work after being discharged from the military.

 

HA’s casting condition was to read the screenplay every day with all of the actors and actresses participating for two months at a specific location. JUNG and the other actors and actresses met and read the screenplay every day as if they were preparing for a play. HA thought that this system was effective as he did not have a long time to prepare for the film and Rollercoaster is a character-oriented project.

 

“HA makes quick and rational decisions,” producer KWON said about HA as a director. “So, HA could finish 20 shooting days without any major difficulties in less than a month. Besides, he knows how to make the atmosphere of a shooting site bright and funny.” HA also gave the actors and actresses a lot of advice on acting, too. Rollercoaster will be quite an extraordinary film as director HA created a congenial atmosphere among the actors, actresses and staff.