“Disney+ Has Found It Biggest Korean Hit Yet in Mystery Thriller Nine Puzzles, Now The Platform’s Most-Viewed Title Ever Across The Asia-Pacific Region-Surapassing All Other. It Also Ranks As the Most-Watched Korean Title on Disney+ Globally and Continues to Gain Traffic in Western Markets, The Company Says. A psychologic crime”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
A psychologic crime thriller laced with whimsy and grit, Nine Puzzles Follows Yoon E-Na (Kim Da-Mi), A brilliant But Socioly Awkward Criminal Profiller Who Was Once The Traumatized Teenage Witness of a Notorious Unsolved Murder. A DECade Later, She Joins The Seoul Metropolitan Police’s Violent Crimes Unit-WHERE SHE’S UNEXPECTEDLY PAIRED WITH KIM HAN-SAEM (SON SON SUK-KU) Crime. WHEN A NEW SERIES OF KILLINGS BEGINS, EACH ACCOMPANIED by A Cryptic Hand-Drawn Puzzle Piece, The Two Must Navigate Their Fraught Personals Original Case. The Show’s Title Refers to Tese Haunting Cluses-A Sequance of Nine Puzzle Pieces, Each Foreteling a New Murder, and Each Fitting Into A Larger Picture
Disney’s Creative Execs in the Region Say They Had High Heps for The Show Durying Development, But Also Some Apprehensions About Its Elaborate, Twist-Field Plot.
“In beginning, we did want to make suure people would be able to follow it,“ Says Carol Choi, Disney’s Executive Vp in the Asia Pacific Region. “Because Even WHEN I WAS LOOKING AT SOME OF THE EARLY CUTS, I WAS LIKE, ‘Are Some People Going to Be Confused?’ But I personally loved it, and one Thing We have Learned is to Never Doubt the Intelligence of Your Audence. ”
As so offen happles, The Very Attributes that Felt Risky About The Project – ITS Complex, Patient Plotting, Elevated Tone and Unconventional Characters – Wound UljtTTSTHTHTHTHTHTELYTHTELYTHTELY. “You Just Know Unil is Embrated by the Audience,“ Choi Says.
The Studio Was ALSO REASSUREED THAT The Cinematic Gifts of the Director They Hild to Helm the Series, Yoon Jong-Bin, Wound Help Carry Audiences Through the Labyrinthine. “Director Yoon Was The Big Draw,” Choi Adds. A Filmmaker Known for Gritty Realism and Taut Political Storytelling, Yoon Made His Name With Acclaimed Features Like Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (2012), KUNDO: AGE OF The Rampant (2014), and The Spy Gone North (2018). HE also recently TRIDED HIS HAND AT SERIES Television, Directing Netflix’s Crime Drama Narco-Saints (2022) – Making Nine Puzzles His Second Attempt at Longform Storytelling, and Arguable His Mist Stylistic Adventurouse Project to Date.
One of the Show’s Boldest Creative Creat Creats Is Protagonist, Yoon E-Na (Played By Kim), An Eccentric Rookie Profiler Who Is A Far Cry from The Hard-Boyled DetECTIESES USUALLY USUALLY Cheerful But Emotionally Guarded, Impulsive and Almost Cartoonishly Quirky, E-Na Struck Some Viewers in Korea As ODD or Even Off Vulneragginess Gradutally Won Them Over in A Big Way. Disney Had anticipated that e-nah atypical Nature Might Be a Jolt to Audiences. Choi Explands: “from a marketing persons, we also Made a conscious Decision to set Her Character Up More Than Usual Upfront, To Let People Know That F. Upstream in the Marketing. ”
To Further Boost Local Appeal, Yoon Called in Industry Favors to Assemble A Rotating Cast of High-Profile Guest Stars, Each Anchoring an Episode with A Fresh Mystery. From Hwang Jung-Min and Park Sung-Woong to Ji Jin-Hee and Lee Sung-Min, The Cameos Turned The Series Into Something of An Event-A Game for Viewers and a ShowCese.
Now that Nine Puzzles is a Bona Fide Hit, Speculation Has Turned to the Possibility of a Season SEASON-ALTHOUGH DISNEY+ AND CO-PRODUCER Kakao Entertainment Have Yet to Confirm Any Plans. Yoon recently spoke with The Hollywood Reporter About bringing the Series to Life, from Balancing ITIR-MEETS-CARTOON TONE TO POPTING ITS PUZZLES-WITHIN-PUZZLES MYSTERY Potential Season 2.
WHEN The Opportunity to Direct Nine Puzzles First Came to You, What Grabbed You About the Project, and What Were Youar Initial Thought How You WANT WANT TO APPRACH ITACH ITOACH ITOACH.
From my first glance at the scripts, I Found It All Very Gripping. It Was An Easy Read and I Was Instantly Immersed in It, Dying to Find Out What Wild Wuld Happen Next. WHEN IT MYSTERY Thriller Genre – Be It Novels, Films or Drama Series – The Crucial Point, WHEN We Get To The Very End of It, Is The Question: Was that Conce. DID THAT MYSTERY MAKE SENSE? And WHEN IT CAME TO This Script, I Found It Fully Convincing. IT WAS A GREAT Ride, with Lots of Complex Twists, But It All Made Sense to Me. So, more thannering, that’s what gut me interested in doing the Project.
THEN, WHEN I FIRST STARTED TO THINK About How i would Direct It, The FIRST QUESTION THAT POPPED INTO MY HEAD WAS, “OKAY, IT MAKES SENS Characters The Sort of People We Could Envision Meeting in Real Life? in a good way.
IT’s An Impressive Balancing Act. There are the Times of the Tone Is Dark, Gritty and Noirish, and Other Times WHEN IS QUIRKY AND WHIMSICAL —And Somehow It All Works. WHAT WAS INVOLVED IN PULLING THAT OFF?
I Focused on the concept of a “mystery cartoon” Rather than A Mystery Novel. Mystery Novels Are Generally More Ground in Reality, with A Heavy or Noir Tone. If You Think of the Notion of A Mystery Cartoon, You Feel A Lighter and More Humoros Tone Instantly. The latter is was what I was aiming for, Even Thought the story of the involves some heavy of themes and a serial killer.
Yoon E-Na, Played by Kim Da-Mi, Is Quite an Unconventional Detective Heroine, Particularly for a Korean Thriller. She’s ODD-Cheerful But Emotionally Guarded, Childish, Impulsive-Seming and Quirky.
The E-Na Character As Written in the Original Script Was a Lot Closer to a Classic, Professional Detective Type-Blunt, Strong and Tough. The Character Was Fine As It Was, But I Wanted The Character to Be A Bit Childlike, Sort of Like She’s Stuck in The Past, from When this Traumatic Event Took Place in Her Life 10 Years after that. I Thought this would be a fresh, novel Approach. But it was a risk. Mystery Fans are more familiar with the traditional charismatic, Professional Detective Archetype. Going with that kind of Character would have been easier, and she might have been been better received or more easily accapted by fans from the Start. But I Really Wanted to Do Something to Set The Show Apart. SO KIM DA-MI AND I WORKED HARD TOGETCHER TO SharaCter and Intenationally Make Her Acting Quite Elevated, SO IT Feels Like She’s Slightly Removed From Reality. This carried Through to her costumes and makeup, so that she would feel like a bit like a cartoon Character that’s been Droped Into Reality. I ALSO MADE HER A BIT more like a private eye all an actual Police Detective.
Director Yoon Jong-Bin on the Set of ‘Nine Puzzles’
What Have You Crazy About the Way Your Characters Were Received in Korea? I Read that Some Fans in Korea Initially Found E-Na to Be A Little Unbelievable, or Even Annoying, But That She Really Won Them Over As The Show Progressed. Son Suk-Ku’s Quirks as Detective Kim Han-Saem, Meanwhile, Seem to Have Been Universally Beeved. From the Number of Memes that have popped Up Online About His Signature Beanie, I would Imagine Hats in that style will be a touch in seul Once. Maybe Even Neck Tattoos.
(Laughs) All of that is Spot-on. I Think How You Respond to E-Na Really Determins Whather or Not You’re Going to Like The Show. In Fact, That Character Is So Unconventional, or Unfamiliar, Here, That Many People Did Find It A Little Odd at First, But Like You SAID, IF YOU GET PAST THAT POINT, I THINK She. That sems to have the been the overall reaction. For Han-Saem, I Thought Hew Need to Somehow Match the Cartoonish Tone We Were Setting with E-Na, and that’s Wy We Aded Things Like His Signature Beanie and His Tattoo. In Real Life, Korean Cops Don’t Wear Casual Beanies and They Definitely Don’t Have Neck Tattoos. SO THESE WERE ELEVATED TOUCHES TO GIVE HIM SOMETING TO MATCH E-NA —And Like Her, At FIRST IT HIT PEOPLE AS ODD AND UNFAMILIAR, But THEN BECAME A BIG PART OFH.
As the Title Suggests, the Series Keeps You Guessing with Elaborate Puzzles, SubpLots, Red Herings and Puzzles Within Puzzles. How did you Approach Plotting The Mystery so that it would be be solvable yet surprising? To what kind of was the WAS the whole Project a puzzle to be solved for you as a creator?
More Thanning, I Really Thought It Was Essential to Conborssion and Got When I First Read the Script, So I Really Tried to Put Myself In The Viewer’s Shoes at the Stel. In Fact, Personally, I’M A VERY Gullible Viewer. WHEN I Watch Films or Read Novels, if the Author Intends for the Reader to Perceive Something in a Certain Way, to Mislead them About Who The Villain May Be, Thatn Is Exactly How How and Perce. Every Time I’M LIKE, “OH, This GUY MUST BE CULPRIT. WAIT, HE’S NOT The CULPRIT? WHAT NOW?! ConvinCed A Given Character Was The Killer, and THEN WE WOURT FOLVLOW the Script and Shad Light on a New Suspicious Character, and Kep the Mystery Revolving. Being Personally Very Gullible and Constantly Putting Myself in the Place of the Audence Was the Key for me in Directing this Series.
As i First Started Watching Nine PuzzlesI Found MySelf Getting A VAGUE PARK CHAN-WOOK VIBE-AND THEN I REALIZED that Cho Young-Wuk, Park’s Longtime Collaborator, Did the Show’s Score. You’ve also collaborated with chop elarsively over the years. This Score Is Particularly Wonderful and Felt It Did A Lot of the Work of Tying the Show’s Various Tones Together Very Elegantly. What can you share about the musical collaboration?
I’ve Worked with Composer Cho Ever Since Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time and He’s Someone and Always Want to Collaborate with. WHEN IT CAME TO THE MUSIC FOR Nine Puzzles, We Focused On A Number of Key Aspects. First, I Wanted to Have A Clear Theme Song for E-Na, Which Wound Better Convey What’s Going Through This Unconventional Character’s Mind. I ALSO WANTED THERE TO BE A THEME FOR Each of the Key incidents that Happen throughout the story. There Was Also A Theme Song WHEN E-NA IS STARTING TO DO HER PROFILING, MAKING ALL The DIFFERENT INFERENCES. Having Themes Themes Helps the Viewer Absorb the Complex Story and Better Understand What the Core of Each Episode is about. Another Crucial Decision: The Music of the Title Sequence Doesn’s Appear AnyWhere in the Series Until Near the Very End, Who You Find Out Whome Song Itng All ALngong. The interaction was to get the audience used to this music – and that later to reveal whose it actual is.
The Show Is Impressivly Cinematic Throughout. I Appreciated The Pacing, and the Way the Series of Takes Time with Character Development, WHICH WIVSHOMES THRUGH The Story ‘Evolution, Rather than Kind of Being Dumped All at The Front, The Way Many LESSTEDATED. How did Making this Series Compare to the Way You Approach Your Feature Films?
Since I USULY DO MOVIES, I GUESS I DOOK The SAME APPRACH for this Project. I Didn’t Anything Special Difice. AS USUAL, I BEGAN BY PUTTING TOGETCHER COMPERHENSIVE SHORYBOARDS. Since the Series is 11 episodes, this workload Alone was was about 5x of what a foature film would be. It Wasn’t Possible for Me to All of the Prep Work I would have had done for a Film, but i would Say it was about 80 percent to 90 percent of the Prep Work If. Scale. But Yeah, It Was Pretty Exhausting. The StoryBoards Alone Took About Six Months to Put Together.
Now that show is a huge hit, would you be up for doing it all over again? Let’s Avoid Spoilers, But Season 1 Leaves Our Heroes in A PLACE WHERE ARE READY FOR ANOTHER CASE. Season 2?
Well, Disney+ and Kakao Entertainment Wound have to Answer That One. I HAVEN’T HEARD OF Any Plans for Another Season Yet. A Lot of Things have to happen to make that missible. The Series Writer Lee Eun-Mi and Our Cast Have to Be Onboard. And i’m actualally prepying to shoot a new film. I HAVEN’T REALLY DISCLOSED Anything ABOUT IT YET, EVEN IN KOREA, BUT I CAN TELL YOU THAT ISTHING I’VE BEEN WORKING ON AND WANTING TO DO FOR 10 Years Next Spring.
But if all of the Players Come Together and the Timing Works for You, Will You Be Up For Another Season?
Of Course, Who Not? I wouldn’t want to be left out.