“I feel like Koreans work 24/7”: French filmmaker Denis Dercourt is not surprised by Korean films’ worldwide popularity

French filmmaker Denis Dercourt’s upcoming film Vanishing stars French actress Olga Kurylenko as one of its leading protagonists. However, the rest of the cast is almost entirely made up of Korean actors, and the story itself is predominantly set in South Korea.

While Dercourt has worked with the Korean entertainment industry, he has discovered why their films are all the rage these days.

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Denis Dercourt is impressed with the diligence of Koreans

While the film's book is based on, i.e., Peter May's novel The Killing Room maps the story's events in China, Dercourt decided to shift the background to Korea.

The director recently sat down for an interview (via Korea Herald) to talk about his experience of filming Vanishing in Korea and revealed that the worldwide success of Korean films is not a mystery seeing how the people of the country "work so hard."

“I would write an email from Europe and even though it is night in Korea I would get an answer. I feel like Koreans work 24/7.”

Vanishing will see Kurylenko’s Alice, a renowned forensic scientist, being approached by Jin-ho (Yoo Yeon-seok) to help in solving the case of a severely disfigured corpse.

With her translator Mi-sook (Ye Ji-won) aiding her in overcoming the language barrier, Alice helps Jin-ho connect the dots and unearth an organ trade organization at the heart of the convoluted case.

Denis Dercourt was also impressed with how quickly Korean actress Ye Ji-won improved her French during the production.

“I have never seen such an improvement in my whole directing life. In France, everybody thinks that she speaks perfect French. She is an incredible actress. Apart from language, we did a difficult scene. On our first shooting day, we shot the last scene. It is difficult for an actress.”

Vanishing has already been screened at the 26th Busan Film Festival and is set to make its theatrical debut on March 30, 2022.