Crafting "The Price of Confession" felt less like making a series and more like shooting 12 standalone thrillers, each one packed with its own tension and emotional weight, its director, Lee Jung-hyo, said Wednesday.
"It was like producing 12 independent thrillers. I spent a lot of time figuring out how to sustain the tension throughout all 12 episodes," he said at a press conference for Netflix's upcoming mystery thriller.
"I focused on keeping viewers wondering, like who the actual killer is, or whether there is someone else besides these people," he said, adding the production team focused heavily on the art design to maximize suspense.
"As you will see, we paid a lot of attention to the visual elements early on, such as the confession room, to build intrigue and spark viewers' curiosity," he said.
Lee, whose previous works include the 2019 hit romance "Crash Landing on You" and the 2023 Netflix original series "Doona!" also expressed his excitement about tackling the thriller genre for the first time.
"While this is my first time working in this genre, I think it came out pretty well. I hope viewers enjoy all the twists," he said.
The crime thriller centers on Yun-su (Jeon Do-yeon), an art teacher accused of brutally murdering her husband, and Mo Eun (Kim Go-eun), a mysterious woman she meets in prison who offers her a way out by confessing to the crime herself. In return, however, Mo Eun demands that Yun-su kill someone for her.
The reunion of the two acclaimed and versatile actresses has heightened anticipation for the series, which marks their second collaboration since working together on the 2015 film "Memories of the Sword."
Calling her character "complex," Jeon said, "While she outwardly looks bright and free, expressing herself through fashion, she is also an orphan with a deep desire to fill an emptiness."
"There is an underlying darkness to her, and I focused on portraying the character's hidden sides," said Jeon, who won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Lee Chang-dong's "Secret Sunshine" in 2007.
She also recalled discussing with Kim how to convincingly portray the unlikely bond that develops between the two protagonists.
Kim, who starred in the occult mystery "Exhuma" and Netflix's "You and Everything Else," said "I wanted Mo Eun to be unreadable, someone whose thoughts remain mysterious."
"But at the same time I also wanted glimpses of her fragility to come through. Though she doesn't show much emotion, I tried to convey that even in her blank expressions, there is something there," she said.
The stellar cast also features Park Hae-soo of "Squid Game" and "Karma" as prosecutor Baek Dong-hun, a man with a hidden agenda, and Jin Sun-kyu as laywer Jang Jeong-gu.
"The Price of Confession" is set to premiere on Friday. (Yonhap)
