Busan's Asian Project Market Presents 'The Family Table'

Director Lee Hanju brings "The Family Table," a drama about a father's fight against school bullying, to the Asian Project Market, the pitching platform running within the Busan International Film Festival's Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM).

The film centers on Gyu-seong, 42, and his wife Seon-gyeong, 43, an ordinary couple raising two children in Korea. Their 12-year-old daughter Ji-woo becomes the target of sexually inappropriate comments at school. The institution responds with procedure designed to contain the matter, and a school violence review committee closes without a firm finding. Gyu-seong turns to legal action.

As the battle drags on, financial pressure and the scrutiny of people around them erode the family's income and its bonds. The case then takes a turn: secrets surface about Chan-yeong, the 12-year-old boy the family knew only as the culprit. Gyu-seong begins to question whether he is fighting for his daughter or settling scores from a lifetime of swallowed resentment.

Why did Lee Hanju write this story?

Lee says the film grew out of the small and large injustices people tolerate every day to avoid a fight. The project began with two questions.

"What does it really mean to live as a 'good person'? And what happens when someone who has always yielded to others and avoided confrontation finally speaks up for something they cannot afford to lose?" Lee says.

The director wants viewers to keep asking what they themselves would have done, rather than leave with a single answer. "Someone who has been harmed in one relationship may cause harm in another. An action taken in the name of justice can, at some point, inflict another wound on someone we love," Lee says. The aim was to avoid dividing the characters into heroes and villains, and to spend enough time with each of them to understand their choices.

What is the producer's stake in it?

Producer Kang Jeongwon was struck by the film's central contradiction: a fight to protect a family can upend its daily life.

"The question that stayed with me was: Why does doing the right thing come at such a high cost?" Kang says. Kang also highlights the pairing of family drama with a mystery that keeps forcing audiences to rethink both the characters and their own verdicts.

What is the team seeking in Busan?

A first draft of the screenplay is complete and development continues. Though the story is rooted in Korean society, Lee believes a family's isolation under institutional pressure and public scrutiny could resonate internationally. The team is open to international co-production and even to relocating the story outside Korea.

At APM, the producers are seeking:

• Co-production partners experienced in character-driven films that tackle social issues
• Sales agents to discuss territories, festival positioning and distribution
• Investors to help build a financing structure suited to the film's scale

The goal is to lay the groundwork for a production start in the second half of 2027.

Lee is also preparing "Shoot-Off," a sports mystery set in competitive shooting, about two female athletes — each nursing her own wounds — whose rivalry becomes tangled with pain and compassion. Casting and crew are in place, pre-production is underway, filming is set to begin in December 2026, and delivery is due by mid-2027.