‘Beef’ Creator on Directing Music Video for BTS’s RM

RM and Lee Sung Jin

Han Myung-Gu/WireImage; Araya Doheny/Getty Images

beef Creator Lee Sung Jin says he’s enjoying the opportunities his Emmy-winning Netflix series affords him – including his latest project: directing a music video for BTS superstar RM.

Lee worked with RM on “Come Back to Me,” a beautifully shot six-minute music video that feels like a short film. The song, which begins on an acoustic note and features whistles and guitar riffs, was released on Friday and is a departure for the BTS member. The song appears on his upcoming second solo album. Right place, wrong personwill be released on May 24th.

“It’s so sneakily catchy. I heard it once and then hummed it to myself all day. I’m like, “Man, this is a catchy tune.” “It just goes in there,” Lee says of the song.

“I was really surprised because it had such a different aesthetic and tone and side to RM that I hadn’t seen before,” he adds. “RM is known for his rapping, obviously anything related to BTS, and I’m a big BTS fan. I saw him at the Rose Bowl and I was like, “Okay, I know he’s going in a different direction,” and I knew that from the start, but I had no idea it was going to be that direction. It was so refreshing and unexpected and I was so excited about the idea of ​​making a music video for a song like that.”

Lee brought in some creative heavyweights to make the video, including art director and production designer Ryu Seong-hie (Memories of murder, old boy) and cameraman Kim Woo-hyung (The little drummer girl, assassination). The video also features an all-star cast including Pachinko Actress Kim Minha, Emmy-nominated beef Actors Joseph Lee and Kang Gilwoo The gloryamong others.

“I think everyone really bought into the idea and it really felt like we were gathering the Korean Avengers,” Lee says. “I’m so grateful to them for taking the time. I know music videos are always a little hard and a little tedious, and the fact that they showed up and did such incredible performances is really grateful.”

In an interview with The Hollywood Reportsr, Lee talks about working with RM, how the actor quickly recovered after getting a black eye on set, returning to Korea since elementary school to film the music video, and his upcoming work on Marvel Studios film Lightning.

What was going through your mind when you put together this video treatment?

At first I felt a bit guilty, and I think in my head I thought of it more as a music video. I think I presented a lot of dance numbers or stories that were about dance. I think after a few failed attempts I quickly realized that they really want to try this. They actually wanted to tell a story and that’s why they got in touch because I know RM is a fan beef and I think he was really interested in trying something new, (and) we just left the dance aspect aside, almost even left the music aside and focused on what the themes of the song actually were and what kind of story we could Tell it that it feels true and relatable, but at the same time somehow mysterious and open to interpretation. It took a lot of conversations where we swapped stories back and forth and shared personal things, both from his side and mine. Then we came to a strange story about a man trapped in the past, present and future, seemingly unable to leave his own home.

There’s a lot of acting in this video – what was it like working with RM in that regard?

There’s always a little bit of nervousness when you’re working with these huge global superstars. Do you want to rehearse? Do they take notes? RM was up for anything. He was there for hours. First shot of the very first scene, he was leaning over and his head hit the camera and there was a huge cut in his eye and I immediately thought, “Oh, great, I’m going to get deported immediately because I just scratched that.” National Honey.” To his credit, he went to the hospital, got stitches, came back and was ready to go. He was so versatile and open to directions, and I think he pushed me as well. He came, looked at it Monitor and said, “Oh, I think we can improve that a little bit.” He also has an incredible team behind him.

It was really refreshing. I thought I’d get into something a little more like the traditional K-pop structure, but I think that RM and Team RM are really about starting a new chapter for K-pop, a new path for it to be at the forefront and it was just an honor to be a small part of it.

Did he come back the same day of the accident and continue filming?

Yes. He came back the same day. I think filming lasted over three days and we shot in Paju, which is about an hour and a half outside of Seoul, a little closer to the North Korean border. Since I had never filmed anything in Korea before, I was very nervous. Someone I had gotten to know over time beef, Park Chan-wook, who to me is one of the greatest directors to ever do this, and he was so kind and generous. I told him that I would do this music video and he introduced me to his long-time production designer, who also does some of director Bong Joon-ho’s work, the great Ryu Seong-hie. (Her credits include) Memories of murder, The maid, The host, simply all of my favorite films. And director Park also introduced me to one of his DPs who he often works with, Kim Woo-hyung, we call him Woosh. He has a The little drummer girl with Florence Pugh. He directed one of director Park’s earlier films; was the name of this great Korean film assassination.

These are just two people who are at the top of their game in Korea, and the fact that they wanted to make this little music video, I think, showed how much RM means to everyone (and) how excited everyone was about the idea. They really saved the day on set; The lighting and production design here is pretty incredible.

What was it like filming in Korea?

I went to elementary school there and haven’t been back since and was nervous, but after about a week of preparation it just felt like a lot – then a click happened where suddenly my Korean got really good and I suddenly felt like I was in the surroundings blended in and it felt like home. It felt like I had been away from home for a while and it just felt so comfortable. The crew was incredible. They just worked so hard on this thing and I’m not going to lie, the food in between – in America we got some good Craftys here, but the Korean Craftys just reach another level because I couldn’t wait to go on break and eat some of it (Korean food). I was like, “Damn, I have to bring this to America.” It felt really comfortable in every way. I’m really looking forward to filming something in Korea again. I can’t wait to come back.

You sang in an a cappella group and play a few instruments, so you clearly have a connection to music. Is music something you have ever pursued professionally or something you still want to do?

I thought when I got out of college that would be what I was doing: music. In college I was in an a cappella group and bands. When I was growing up in high school I was concertmaster of my orchestra and it was my passion and I gave it a try. I was in a band and quickly realized that there were other people who could do it much, much better than me. I thought, “Okay, maybe I’ll just stay a fan,” but music is so important to me. The way I write, I always write with the music in mind. I look at storytelling in the same way I look at chord progressions and… I look at the structure of a story in a similar way to the assignment of chords, so I’m always trying to figure out what chord we’re playing in a story.

It was really great to be part of a music video, which I’ve never done before, and the combination of those two passions and of course storytelling. I think with this video you can kind of feel the highs and lows within the context of the song itself and the highs and lows within the music. I don’t know if I’ll do another music video because it’ll be hard to top this one, but if someone like RM calls again I’m sure I could convince myself to go back to it and try to combine it again both sides.

How has life changed since the success of? beef?

It was a wild ride. One of the biggest changes, in my opinion, is meeting people like RM. I remember sitting at home on Instagram and suddenly I received a DM from San (Yawn), who is a member of the South Korean music collective Balming Tiger and is the creative director of this album and music video. I’m also a huge Balming Tiger fan. When RM collaborated with them on “Sexy Nukim,” that music video blew me away. I got the DM from him and I thought he wanted to do something with Balming Tiger and I was like, “Oh sweet, I love Balming Tiger.” Then he said, “Oh no, that’s for RM,” and then I was overwhelmed and stared at this DM for a while. Yeah, things like that, where people you respect and admire so much want to see the show and work together, it’s a dream come true. I definitely don’t take it for granted and I’m excited to see who else I can work with in the future.

You wrote about the upcoming Marvel Studios film Lightning. How was it?

I worked on an existing script by Eric Pearson and adapted it to my liking, and the director, Jake Schreier, is one of my best friends, and so we have a shorthand and it was really fun working with him on it. At some point, a few things stopped me from this project and we were able to pass the writing on to Joanna Calo, who also continued writing beef. She is co-showrunner and co-director The bear. She’s also one of my oldest and dearest friends, and it was a really natural transition. I know they are in the process of filming the film and I’m very excited to see what Jake and Joanna have done to get the film to the finish line because this cast is extraordinary and I hope the audience gets some of the Venn -Diagram will be felt in between beef And Lightning in terms of some of the themes we wanted to explore in the film.