BIFF 2025 Sul Kyung-gu leads hijacking dark comedy 'Good News'

BUSAN — Director Byun Sung-hyun’s Netflix film “Good News” is based on the 1970 Yodogo hijacking incident and reinterprets the historical event as a black comedy for the modern era.

“The situation itself was like a comedy. I believe a black comedy should not only be funny but also have a sharp edge,” Byun said during a press conference at the Busan International Film Festival on Friday. “Although the incident happened in 1970, I thought it would be a way to tell the story nowadays.”

The film was selected for the Gala Presentation section at the festival.

The Yodogo hijacking incident refers to the 1970 event where nine members of the Japanese Red Army Faction, a communist group, hijacked a plane as it traveled from Tokyo to Fukuoka and demanded that the pilots fly to North Korea. “Yodogo” was a nickname for the aircraft.

Veteran actor Sul Kyung-gu leads the film, playing a mysterious troubleshooter known as Nobody. Sul explained that his character is an enigmatic figure who resolves national issues with his flexible problem-solving skills.

“The film has many characters from intelligence agencies and ministries, but the character of Nobody felt like the director had created and simply placed him there,” Sul said. “After first reading the screenplay, my first question to the director was that he didn’t seem to blend in with the other characters. When I asked if he was supposed to blend in or not, the director said he shouldn’t.”

Actor Hong Kyung, who plays Air Force lieutenant Seo Go-myung, said that while his character is based on a real person, he felt free to act because much of the screenplay was a recreation from the director’s imagination.

“While the incident served as a motif, a lot of the script was fiction created from the director’s imagination, so I had the freedom to get to know this young man that the director wrote,” Hong said. “So rather than the historical facts, I think I put more effort into figuring out how to portray Go-myung.”

“Good News” marks director Byun’s fourth time working with actor Sul. He expressed his fondness for Sul as both an actor and an older brother, having previously worked with him on “The Merciless” (2017), “Kingmaker” (2022) and “Kill Boksoon” (2023).

In response, Sul admitted he was concerned that audiences might feel bored by his consecutive collaborations with the same director.

“I thought people might be tired of seeing me continuously appear in Byun’s films. I honestly worried about it a lot,” he said. “With 'The Merciless,' I was initially a bit resistant to his style. But after that, I started to enjoy it. With 'Good News,' I was curious about what kind of style he would show this time,” he added, expressing gratitude to the director for giving him the opportunity to change.

Japanese actor Takayuki Yamada plays the role of a vice minister of transport dispatched to South Korea in the film. He said he learned a lot while interacting with Korean actors in his first Korean film.

“I knew about the name of the incident, but I didn’t know the details. I think it’s important to know history, and I’m happy and grateful to have been able to participate in a project like this,” the actor said. “On set, I focused on the character created by the director rather than reality, having a lot of conversations with him.”

The director expressed his gratitude to Yamada, who gave advice on many scenes that required Japanese dialogue.

“To make sure it didn’t look unnatural even to Japanese audiences, I asked him if the lines I wrote were natural or if there were better lines for the situation. I asked and relied on actor Yamada a lot during this process,” Byun added.

“Good News” will be released on Netflix on Oct. 17.