Love Untangled director on indie to Netflix leap at Busan
The jump from half-empty cinemas to a global Netflix chart-topper took director Namkoong Sun a little over a year.
Namkoong, the director of Netflix's Korean romance film "Love Untangled," described that shift at the "New Voices in Film" industry panel staged by the Busan International Film Festival and Netflix as part of Creative Asia, Variety reported. She appeared alongside Ryu Eun-jung and Song Kwang-min, the married co-directors of the short "My Aunt." The session was moderated by BIFF programmer Jeong Jihye.
It was a meeting of two very different routes into filmmaking. Namkoong's first two features, "Ten Months" and "Time to Be Strong," were independent films released in theatres. "Ten Months" premiered in the first year of the pandemic, when festivals were shut and cinemas were at half capacity. The press screening for "Time to Be Strong" took place on the day martial law was declared in Korea.
"Love Untangled" arrived on a different scale. The Busan-set youth romance, set in 1998 and starring Gong Myoung, was included in Netflix's Korean film slate for 2025 unveiled at Busan. It premiered on Aug. 29 and streams exclusively on Netflix, Netflix said. The production recreated 1990s Busan, including the Gwangan Bridge under construction.
Namkoong said she joined at the adaptation stage, after the project and screenplay were already in place. A little over a year passed between opening the production office and release. Once cameras rolled, she said her first commercial feature felt little different from her independent films, apart from scale.
What helped, she said, was structure. Once in production, the film had a system where the team could focus only on the film. Netflix staff sat in on meetings and worked inside the team throughout production. Script changes were her own, she said, made in service of the film's theme of happiness.
Her advice to younger directors was blunt. Within a space where creative freedom is guaranteed, a director must take responsibility for the story seriously.
The numbers have been kind. Namkoong said "Love Untangled" reached No. 1 in many countries and stayed in the global top 10 for more than six weeks.
The panel also put a spotlight on "My Aunt," a 24-minute short about a dog groomer looking after an abandoned dog over one day when the niece she raised 10 years earlier arrives. The film won three prizes at the 2026 Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival, where Namkoong served on the jury. It is streaming on Netflix in Korea until December as part of the platform's showcase of prizewinners.
Ryu, who plays the lead, drew on her own childhood being raised by her fifth aunt, who later took in an abandoned dog. She asked her husband Song to co-direct, with Song handling directing on set and the pair sharing storyboarding in pre-production.
The conversation was part of the third edition of Creative Asia, presented by BIFF and Netflix. More than 400 emerging filmmakers attended the 2026 event in Busan, Netflix said.
