Director Ahn Pan-seok shared his first encounter with the extraordinary new JTBC weekend drama ‘The Art of Negotiation’ (directed by Ahn Pan-seok, written by Lee Seung-young).

‘The Art of Negotiation’ is a work that contains the activities of a legendary negotiator and an M&A expert of a large corporation and his team.

Director Ahn Pan-seok, who was in charge of directing, said, “Usually when choosing or starting a project, I sit down with the writer from scratch and come up with a story” and ‘The Art of Negotiation’ is the first project I chose after seeing the completed script. After reading the script, I thought, ‘This will be a story’, ‘This will be a conflict worth dealing with’. That‘s why I grabbed it. He said, “This is the first time in my history of doing a drama.”

Regarding “The Art of Negotiation,” he explained, “Unlike the dramas I’ve done in recent years, it’s a bit hard-boiled. Rather than dealing with a soft romance, it feels like a war of money, so it felt really refreshing to do something like this after such a long time.”

He then said, “All dramas should be real,” and “The starting point of all dramas is realism, so there should be no room for viewers to feel that the work is fake.”


He also expressed deep trust and satisfaction in the actors who will create the M&A world. Director Ahn Pan-seok said, “I’m completely satisfied with the synchronization between the characters and the actors in the work. Actor Kim Dae-myung (as Oh Soon-young) feels strong even though he has a gentle and soft appearance. Actors Sung Dong-il (as Song Jae-sik), Jang Hyun-sung (as Ha Tae-soo), and Oh Man-seok (as Lee Dong-joon) are, needless to say, great. It would be good to also pay attention to the unconventional and realistic acting of 20-something rookies Ahn Hyun-ho (as Kwak Min-jung) and Cha Kang-yoon (as Choi Jin-soo), he said.

Regarding Lee Je-hoon (as Yoon Joo-no), who showed a drastic style transformation in ‘The Art of Negotiation’, he said, “From the moment he arrived at the set until the very end, he lived as Yoon Joo-no all the time. “The highlight of our drama is definitely Lee Je-hoon. Please look forward to everything, including his acting and his appearance.”’’The Art of Negotiation’ will premiere at 10:30 p.m. on March 8.

Hong Se-young, reporter for Donga.com, projecthong@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.