Chapter 171. A New Challenge
Thanks to Choi Gyu-sik's introduction, I was able to meet Director Park Chan-deok immediately after returning to Korea.
At Choi Gyu-sik's studio.
The first time I saw Park Chan-deok, he was wearing an old military-style jacket with his hair tied up in a short ponytail.
Maybe because of how he was dressed, combined with the image I'd already formed from his filmography, the tied-up hair almost looked like a traditional topknot.
"Ah, so you're the one from Universe... Hello. I'm Park Chan-deok."
"Do Jun-hyeok."
We exchanged a light handshake.
Today, he was going to offer Serin a role.
My job was to carefully redirect that offer toward Youngchae.
Dae-hun had told me that Woosung Pharmaceutical's marketing manager said they had secured the Mayway fight advertisement with Youngchae herself as one of the conditions.
In other words, if Youngchae participated in another advertisement with the same budget, we might be able to secure the same slot.
And wasn't Park Chan-deok's next project supposed to be an advertising film for Sriver?
If it was good enough to win at the Academy Awards, then surely it would also succeed in the Sriver contest.
Of course, Sriver wasn't guaranteed yet.
But I could make that outcome almost certain.
As long as Park Chan-deok won the Sriver contest, all the production costs would automatically be covered.
They were even offering a running royalty.
Surely they'd support him that much.
"I'm still reluctant to give Serin up before I've even taken her to the Academy Awards, but our Director Park is finally trying a commercial film for once. I can recommend her. You watched 〈The Stranger〉, right?"
"Do I really need to spend two whole hours watching it? It's probably not even that entertaining, and everyone else already guarantees that Kim Serin is a good actress without me needing to."
"That's harsh."
Park Chan-deok, Choi Gyu-sik, and I entered a separate planning room and began the real discussion.
"When I first saw Serin, I thought she'd simply be useful for box office appeal. But then I watched her audition, and I realized that wasn't it. Among actresses in their twenties, Kim Serin is the only one who has both star power and the ability to deliver truly deep acting. Director Park, you've hit the jackpot today."
"She's that good?"
Choi Gyu-sik played Serin's acting portfolio.
Apparently, he'd produced it separately while filming 〈The Stranger〉 so she could use it for future projects.
Since he thought she'd do fine without it anyway, he hadn't bothered sending it to me.
Connections really were useful.
A master director had personally prepared an acting portfolio for a rookie actress.
Park Chan-deok quietly watched the footage Choi Gyu-sik showed him.
Little by little, his mouth fell open as he focused.
"Th-That's impressive. You shot all of these scenes yourself?"
"Yeah. I handled everything from filming to editing."
"It feels like that girl knows exactly how you're going to edit the scene before she even acts it."
Choi Gyu-sik fell silent for a moment.
"What? Really?"
"Yeah. She's good. Just looking at her expression makes your head go blank... Ah, damn it. Why are you shaking the camera around so much? I can't even see the actress."
Park Chan-deok suddenly snapped.
"That scene is supposed to shake! Watch the whole movie."
"You shook a twenty-second full shot the entire time? You're just using tricks to hide the fact that you can't handle color properly."
The two directors immediately started arguing.
"Anyway, the actress is excellent. If I make a good impression on CEO Do Jun-hyeok today, does that mean I get to cast her?"
"Ah..."
I appreciated that he liked Serin's acting.
But I wasn't here to recommend Serin.
I was here for Youngchae.
The moment I returned to the office, I'd stayed up all night making an acting profile for Youngchae.
I projected it onto the screen.
"She doesn't have any acting experience yet, but I think Youngchae would suit the kind of films I normally enjoy from Director Park better than Serin. Please take a look."
I showed him about thirty minutes' worth of material.
Profile photos of Youngchae that I'd taken over the years.
Fashion photos from SNS.
Her appearances in documentaries and variety shows.
Music videos.
Fancams.
Everything I could gather.
He seemed a little disappointed when I said she'd never acted before.
But as the portfolio continued, his interest gradually increased.
It had to be Youngchae if I wanted to guarantee Park Chan-deok the Sriver win.
According to Dae-hun, Woosung Pharmaceutical's advertising agency had secured their slot on the condition that Youngchae was the model.
Meaning whatever image they needed, Youngchae had it.
Not Serin.
If Youngchae starred in Sriver's advertising film, then under the same circumstances, we should be able to compete for that ad slot too.
It might even be easier thanks to Park Chan-deok's name value as a director.
"If what you want is buzz, Youngchae could actually be more effective than Serin. She's been training in acting recently too."
She wasn't actually taking acting lessons.
Not yet.
She would from now on.
She'd probably be good at it.
Choi Gyu-sik, who had been watching, let out a long breath.
"Looking at Youngchae's portfolio, I can imagine she might do well too. But Serin's acting is so exceptional that I'm not sure Director Park will prefer her."
"I like her."
Despite Choi Gyu-sik's concern, Park Chan-deok immediately gave a positive response.
"Really?"
"I'll need to test her acting separately, of course. But judging by how she performs onstage, I think she could do well. And she's already famous while still being a fresh face in film. That's appealing. It might not be a bad idea for me to claim her before other directors wear out that novelty."
Perfect.
Then I probably wouldn't even need to bring up the Woosung Pharmaceutical situation.
Park Chan-deok fiddled with his phone before adding,
"Still, I think I need some time to think. There's another actress I already had in mind."
"Who?"
"You know her too, Director Choi. Lee Ye-won. She works in theater. She's good."
An actress he'd already been considering.
Lee Ye-won.
In the future video, Park Chan-deok had calmly apologized for an unpleasant incident involving an actor.
Could that actor have been Lee Ye-won?
After the meeting, Choi Gyu-sik and I headed together toward a dye factory in Yeonggwang.
Why?
Because Park Chan-deok still seemed likely to keep pushing for Serin, so I wanted to win Choi Gyu-sik over to my side.
For now, Park Chan-deok had said he'd contact me one more time before making his final decision.
He'd probably compare Youngchae and Lee Ye-won carefully.
Objectively, Youngchae had the advantage.
Lee Ye-won had at least some acting experience, but she was still a rookie in the same sense.
And when it came to footage of her standing in front of the public, Youngchae had overwhelmingly more material.
Lee Ye-won had originally been a fashion model.
A few years ago, she'd decided she wanted to act and had been working around the theater scene ever since.
She was still young.
And since she genuinely dreamed of acting, she was fairly good at it.
But compared to other actors, she wasn't someone you'd call extraordinary.
I couldn't even understand what Park Chan-deok had seen in her.
I also had no idea what kind of scandal she could possibly become involved in.
Then all I could do was continue emphasizing the advantages of casting Youngchae.
All I needed to do was casually show Choi Gyu-sik the irregularities at the hair-dye factory owned by Woosung Pharmaceutical.
Then I could explain that the dye would soon come under heavy criticism, that Woosung would lose the Mayway advertisement, and that since Youngchae had already caught the World Boxing Center's attention once, we could use her to secure that advertisement ourselves.
That was how Choi Gyu-sik and I suddenly ended up at a dye factory in Yeonggwang.
When we arrived and got out of the car, both of us saw a sign near the entrance.
Cheonil Dyeing.
"You said there was something here you wanted to show me?"
"Let's go inside first. I'll explain while we walk."
I would start thinking of the explanation now.
Choi Gyu-sik followed me and said,
"I've heard you shouldn't follow Do Jun-hyeok into factories."
"What? Ah..."
He meant the human factory in the Philippines.
"No, it's nothing like that. I just remembered something from what you said earlier. Director Park uses colors in all sorts of ways in his films, doesn't he? So I thought he might like it if we recommended some dyes."
"I see."
"What do I know about movies? I'll need your help if I want to score points with Director Park."
Only then did Choi Gyu-sik's eyes light up with understanding.
For an excuse I had improvised on the spot, it wasn't bad.
"That's true. Director Park uses red almost obsessively. He probably won't go quite that far this time, but if we find a useful pigment, he'd definitely like it. I'll take a look."
"Thank you."
As Choi Gyu-sik looked around the factory, he asked why I'd recommended Youngchae instead of Serin.
If there was a chance for someone to become Park Chan-deok's persona, wouldn't Serin be better since her acting was already far more stable?
I answered that Youngchae was an excellent performer too.
But the real objective was still the Mayway fight advertisement.
And this way, I could potentially send both Serin and Youngchae to the Academy Awards.
"I'm more worried about the filming schedule than Youngchae. There's only one month left until the contest deadline, isn't there?"
"Ah, well. That's true. But it's a film being shot on a smartphone anyway. I'm lending him all my anamorphic lenses too. And Director Park relies heavily on editing, so he'll probably finish the filming quickly."
In other words, he'd shoot efficiently without wasting time on unnecessary planning and setups, then fill in the gaps through editing.
If Park Chan-deok thought the deadline was impossible, he wouldn't have attempted it in the first place.
If I was worried about his schedule, then from my perspective, the best thing I could do was help him choose Youngchae quickly.
"Oh. Looks like this section produces hair dye."
"Seems like it."
A pungent, stale smell began stabbing at my nose.
It was the smell of hair dye.
If they mixed oxidizer into it, it would probably become that familiar salon smell.
"That's right. This place is famous for making both natural pigments and natural hair dyes. You know 'WS Soo,' right? I think I heard it's made here."
"Oh? Really? Then this factory tour was worth coming for."
Choi Gyu-sik smiled as he looked around.
After a short while, his brow suddenly furrowed.
"Is this really natural?"
"It is."
"Then what's that...?"
There was a huge pile of metal drums stacked in a warehouse area on one side of the factory.
Choi Gyu-sik walked closer and spoke.
"Looks like PPXD."
"PPXD? What's that?"
What?
Had we already found evidence that this wasn't actually using natural pigments?
I immediately took a photo.
"That's a hair-dye ingredient. And they're calling this natural while using that? That ingredient is probably one of the biggest problems in ordinary hair dye."
"Really?"
Just hearing the words chemical ingredient hadn't meant much to me.
But hearing the name of something that sounded like it could be used as the final attack in a Korean word-chain game suddenly made it feel extremely dangerous.
"You're not supposed to use it?"
"If you react badly to it, your face swells almost immediately. I once dyed my gray hairs and my face puffed up so badly I panicked. That's how I know. It's not like it'll kill you or anything."
Either way, Choi Gyu-sik's opinion was that there was no way they could honestly call the product natural if they were using that.
Apparently remembering the nightmare of his own side effects, Choi Gyu-sik shuddered.
As far as I knew, this dye was marketed heavily around the fact that it used natural ingredients.
They even charged a premium for it.
Who would risk side effects that could happen to them personally just to save a few thousand won?
Selling chemicals wasn't wrong.
Lying about them was.
People who had suffered side effects from that PP-whatever ingredient were exactly the kind of customers who would choose WS Soo.
What if someone bought it, swelled up even worse, and their airway closed?
〈Bad Product Busters〉 was going to tear them apart soon anyway.
But now that I was standing here and seeing it myself, it made me furious all over again.
"Hey! Who are you people?!"
We were taking pictures of the factory interior and the chemical drums stacked in the warehouse when a man suddenly shouted from behind us.
I immediately hid my phone in my pocket.
I still remembered the painful experience of getting hit in the arm with a pipe while taking photos inside a factory.
I hurriedly turned around.
A thickset man was glaring at us with a deeply irritated expression.
"Ah, we're Professor Do and Professor Choi from the Chemical Engineering Research Institute at Korea University. We're conducting a case study on the chemical reactions involved in everyday dyeing, so we came inside without permission. My apologies. Are you the factory manager?"
The man carefully examined both my face and Choi Gyu-sik's.
Then he spoke.
"Ain't you Do Jun-hyeok from Universe? I'm the owner here. You come barging into my place and sit there talking about Korea University like you've got no shame?"
Caught.
It was Lee Woosung, the owner of Woosung Pharmaceutical.
He was fairly large, wearing a fluorescent shirt stretched tightly across his body.
The germanium bracelet around his wrist was worn down on one side to the point where it looked incapable of making anyone healthy anymore.
"Ah, that's not..."
"Who do you think you're trying to fool? Get out! Get the hell out!"
You're the ones selling medicine here.
Since we'd already been caught, I figured I might as well question him a little before getting thrown out.
