Han Jun-hee urges bold choices ahead of The Blue Road launch

Play it safe and you risk more. That was the message from director Han Jun-hee at the Busan International Film Festival.

Han spoke during a masterclass, meaning a public lesson from an experienced maker, held as part of Netflix's Creative Asia programme. He appeared in conversation with Kim Kijae, a longtime creative executive at Netflix Korea, according to Variety.

Han is the director behind the film Coin Locker Girl and the series D.P. He is also known for Weak Hero Class 1 & 2. His next project is The Blue Road, a Korea-Japan thriller set for release on Netflix on Nov. 20.

The Blue Road screened at Busan in On Screen, the festival's section for series. It is adapted from the 2002 Korean-Japanese manga Blue Road, written by Edogawa Keishi and drawn by Kwon Ka-ya. It stars Son Suk-ku and Nagayama Eita and tracks brutal cross-border murders.

Han said he wanted the show to be driven by actors and acting rather than massive visual effects or scale. The production used both Korean and Japanese crews. Its ending was rewritten many times.

Bold choices were the theme. Han said makers need to make bold choices, warning that only making extremely safe choices can become the bigger risk. In Korea, he said, those bold choices are gambles called "go or stop".

He has another Netflix launch close by. Han created the mystery-horror series Dead-End Job, which premieres Oct. 30. It was directed by Kim Da-min, who wrote Netflix series A Killer Paradox, with Han overseeing creative development.

Creative Asia 2026 was presented by BIFF and Netflix. Five Netflix titles headed to the 31st Busan festival, according to Netflix.

For viewers, this means two very different Han projects in three weeks. A grounded crime thriller first. Then a horror story. Both land before the end of November.