What it is about
Cellist Su-yeon vanishes from her home without a trace, leaving only a recorded message for her fiancé, orchestra conductor Seong-jin. Soon after, Mi-joo, a young cellist hired to replace her in the orchestra, enters his life, and an immediate attraction develops between them. The story concentrates on the tensions this relationship creates and on what unfolds in the house Seong-jin once shared with Su-yeon.
How it was made
Hidden Face is a Korean version of The Hidden Face, a Spanish-Colombian co-production directed by Andrés Baiz in 2011. The project began in 2018, when Next Entertainment World signed a deal with the American firm Ivanhoe Pictures for a Korean adaptation. Shooting, originally planned for 2019, did not start until May 2022 and wrapped between July and August. Director Kim Dae-woo, who had previously worked with Cho Yeo-jeong and Song Seung-heon, shaped the film around Mi-joo more than Su-yeon. The score mixes Schubert pieces with original music by Lee Jae-in, and the net production cost was estimated at about 7 billion won.
Reception and legacy
The film opened in South Korean cinemas on November 20, 2024, and passed one million viewers, becoming the first R-rated Korean film to do so since 2019. According to available figures, its box office was approaching break-even by late December that year. Its main interest lies in its approach as an adaptation and in the way it presents the confinement of Su-yeon's character.
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Trivia
Casting change
In May 2022 Jo Bo-ah, who had been announced as one of the leads, was replaced by Cho Yeo-jeong.
End of shelved films
With this release, distributor NEW cleared its backlog of finished productions that had waited a long time after filming to reach cinemas.
Original Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.