Chapter 140
“Anyway, it’s really nice to run into another Korean here. Are you perhaps working in the film industry? Since it is festival season and all.”
Even though I already knew, I pretended not to and asked Ha Sangdo.
“Well, I did come here for something related to film, but technically, I don’t work in the film industry.”
He looked at me.
“What about you?”
“Ah, yes. I’m Min Kibaek, CEO of New Wave, the production company behind Kingdom of Crime, which was invited to the Cannes Film Festival Competition this year.”
The suspicion in Ha Sangdo’s eyes immediately changed into curiosity.
“Ah! That movie!”
“The Korean film everyone was making a fuss about because it got into the Competition, right?”
“Was everyone making that much of a fuss?”
I laughed awkwardly.
“Wow... I had no idea the head of that production company was someone this young.”
He looked genuinely impressed.
“Could I get your business card?”
“Of course.”
I hurriedly pulled out my wallet and handed him a card.
“This one is for New Wave, and this is for my other workplace, Big Picture.”
Ha Sangdo’s eyes gleamed with interest as he accepted both cards.
“Ah, Big Picture.”
“Didn’t they make Director Park Junbeom’s Red Moon, Blue Child a while back?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“This film, Kingdom of Crime, is also a co-production between New Wave and Big Picture.”
“I see.”
He quickly took out his own business card.
“Here’s mine too.”
I accepted it and quietly let out a sigh of relief.
Ha... thank goodness.
Did I clear the first hurdle?
“James Ha, CAI Inc...”
“James is my American name.”
He smiled.
“My Korean name is Ha Sangdo.”
“I currently work for an investment company headquartered in New York.”
“Ah... an investment company.”
Come to think of it, I vaguely remembered hearing before my regression that Ha Sangdo had once worked for an investment company in the United States.
I first met Ha Sangdo in 2019.
At the time, I was preparing a film with a rookie director at Byeolbyeol Film Company, where Kang Jooyoung was working as a planning producer.
Back then, Ha Sangdo was serving as investment director at KVC, a venture capital firm that actively invested in films.
Like most employees at investment firms, Ha Sangdo knew almost nothing about making movies.
At the time, Byeolbyeol Film Company had submitted the film I was developing as the main producer for investment review at KVC.
And the person assigned to evaluate our project was none other than Director Ha Sangdo.
Fortunately, Ha Sangdo thought highly of our film.
We had nearly secured the investment.
But then the unexpected COVID pandemic struck.
KVC suddenly shifted to an extremely conservative investment policy, and our funding fell through.
Once the investment stopped, the project naturally stopped with it.
And as the pandemic dragged on, the film eventually collapsed completely.
Fortunately, we hadn’t signed the director or project contracts yet because we had been waiting for the investment.
So we simply left Byeolbyeol Film Company quietly.
Then, after spending almost two years unemployed...
One day, I received an unexpected phone call.
It was from Director Ha Sangdo.
Ha Sangdo told me he had left the company during the pandemic and recently started his own film production company.
At the time, when even existing film companies were disappearing, I thought he was insane for starting a new one.
But Ha Sangdo told me that while working as an investment-team director, he had genuinely fallen in love with the process of making films.
And true to his belief as an investment analyst that a crisis is an opportunity, he had launched his own film company even amid the unprecedented COVID situation.
Then he made me an offer.
He told me that when he had been reviewing Byeolbyeol Film Company’s investment proposal, he had formed a favorable impression of me as the producer in charge.
So he asked whether I wanted to work with him at his new company.
But I couldn’t trust him.
“Why me?”
“You must’ve met plenty of producers more capable than I am while working as an investment director.”
“As you know, apart from independent films, I don’t even have a single commercial-film credit worth mentioning.”
By then, Cha Seungjoon and I had already been badly burned by a con artist named Choi Moonho.
So when Ha Sangdo said he wanted to recruit me, I couldn’t bring myself to trust him.
But his answer had surprised me.
“To be honest... since I didn’t come from the film industry, all those impressive producers looked down on me.”
“They treated me like some guy who didn’t even know the first thing about movies but was acting important because he held the purse strings.”
“But Team Leader Min never once made me feel that way.”
“If anything, you talked about movies with even more passion than I did.”
“I liked that attitude of yours. Hahaha.”
After that, in private, we became like older and younger brothers.
Professionally, we worked as the head of a production company and its producer.
Not long afterward, I reunited with the director who had left Byeolbyeol Film Company with me.
We jumped back into development and fought desperately to secure investment.
But it wasn’t easy for a newly established film company to get funding for a rookie director’s movie.
Even so, KVC, Ha Sangdo’s former company, gave us a positive response.
“If you cast the right actor, we’ll invest.”
So we poured everything we had into casting.
After nearly a year, we finally succeeded in casting actor Baek Ain.
It finally felt like the movie was going to happen.
Then allegations emerged that Baek Ain had used illegal drugs.
The entire project collapsed.
And that was when I left the film industry for good.
Remembering those old events left me with a strange feeling.
While I was lost in thought, Ha Sangdo continued talking.
“Actually, CAI also invests broadly in the entertainment and media sectors.”
“That’s why I came to this year’s Cannes Film Festival for business at the Film Market.”
“I see.”
Just then...
“James, what are you doing over there?”
A middle-aged Western man approached Ha Sangdo.
He was carrying two cups of coffee.
Ha Sangdo quickly turned toward him.
“Ah, Mr. Donnelly. Perfect timing.”
He gestured toward me.
“This gentleman is from Korea.”
“He’s the CEO of the production company behind Kingdom of Crime, which was invited to the Cannes Competition this year.”
“Kingdom of Crime?”
The man called Mr. Donnelly gave me a sharp once-over.
Then his expression became interested.
“I saw the trailer for that film too.”
“It looked very interesting.”
