Kim Sehun Boards Ryu Hyunkyung's Dark Comedy 'Dog Fight' at Busan

Actor-director Ryu Hyunkyung's dark comedy "Dog Fight" — a film about a woman who abducts the dog she raised with her ex-boyfriend after a court awards him custody — is pitching at the Asian Project Market, the project-finance strand running within the Busan International Film Festival's Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM). Producer Kim Sehun, whose credits include Yoon Gaeun's Toronto-screening "The World of Love," is backing the film through his company Semosi, alongside Ryu's Ryune Film.

What is 'Dog Fight' about?

Minjeong and Seungil split after eight years together. The law hands their dog Ppoppo to him, leaving Minjeong a visit every other week that Seungil rarely allows. When he ends the visits for good, Minjeong grabs Ppoppo on impulse and hides at a friend's place, where her joy tips into obsession. Then Ppoppo vanishes. Seungil says the dog is dead. Minjeong is crushed — until she learns Ppoppo is still alive, and a three-way war for the dog breaks out. Ryu writes, directs and stars.

"'Dog Fight' is a fight over a dog, but in the end it is a film about people," Ryu says. Through the exes' battle, she examines the possessiveness that passes for love.

What does the film say about ownership and love?

The law treats a dog that has shared eight years of someone's life as property, Ryu notes, and the years spent raising it as possession. Each character claims a different form of ownership:

• Seungil wants to own Ppoppo through paperwork.
• Minjeong calls herself the dog's mom and wants to merge with him.
• Donghyun, a younger friend, makes Minjeong's decisions for her with the best of intentions.

"All three hold on to someone else in the name of doing what's best for them," Ryu says. "No one can be anyone's owner. Somewhere between staying together and letting go, I wanted this film to ask what love is."

Ryu frames the project as the third film in a loose run of features she has written and made herself. "Don't Go Back" captured the moment before love starts; "Old Boy," a working title she is now shooting, follows two people through years spent together; "Dog Fight" picks up after the breakup. In front of the small creature they shared, Ryu says, people get surprisingly earnest — which turns them comic and sometimes scary. She wanted to draw out both the laughs and the unease.

Who is producing?

Kim Sehun produces through Semosi with Ryu's Ryune Film. Kim produced Yoon Gaeun's "The World of Love," which played Toronto and won the Roberto Rossellini Awards jury prize and the People's Choice Award at Pingyao. His further credits include Yoon's "The House of Us," Hwang Seulgi's "The Red Nails," Im Ojung's "Hail to Hell" and Choi Hana's "More Than Family," and he served as line producer on Yoon's Berlinale title "The World of Us."

Kim says the logline instantly made him think of the many couples he knows who raise a pet together in place of having children. "I became convinced that this is a story we need right now," he says.

When will it be made?

"Old Boy" is roughly 80% shot. Ryu will complete it and its post-production before moving to "Dog Fight," whose first draft is finished and now being reworked one scene and one line at a time.

The schedule for "Dog Fight": pre-production from June through August 2027; a 30-day shoot in September and October; post-production running into February 2028. The team is eyeing a festival launch in the second quarter of 2028 and a release in the fourth quarter.

In Busan, Kim wants to meet international co-producers and financiers as well as programmers from festivals abroad, and to test whether the film's theme connects with audiences beyond Korea. Ryu already has several other stories written, including one about actors who aren't stars, a trip with YouTuber KwakTube and a love story about a couple in their fifties.