Han So-hee and Jeon Jong-seo team up for film 'Project Y'

Every production is seen from countless angles. Even in the same place at the same time, directors and actors may experience the moment differently. <Choi Song-hui’s B-Cut> looks past the on-screen “A-cut” to the vivid record of what happened on set. By weaving together interviews with directors and actors, it reconstructs the “B-cut” moments that were often more intense than the finished frame. <Editor’s note>
In the middle of a glittering city, two women at the edge of their lives reach for dirty money and gold bars. The film “Project Y,” directed by Lee Hwan, began with that one-line logline. But the project’s driving force, the actors said, came less from a production system than from their own initiative.

Han So-hee and Jeon Jong-seo, both the same age, said they read the script together and decided, “Let’s do this.” They described a set built on mutual trust and intense focus, before any talk of visual spectacle.

The film’s origins, they said, were rooted in admiration for each other’s work — support that came before any business pitch.

“Jong-seo and I looked at the script together. We read it and started with, ‘Let’s do this,’” Han said. “Before being friends, I really like Jong-seo as a fellow actor. I liked her previous work, too, so I was curious how this project would turn out within her filmography — and what it would be like acting with me.”

“When I was reading this script with So-hee, it was an especially difficult time for movie theaters,” Jeon said. “But since there were people who said they would believe in us, I wanted to do well. The starting point was that one line: ‘Two women the same age, standing at the edge of life, touch dirty money.’ Somehow it gave me courage.”  
The actors said their main task was convincing viewers why Mi-seon and Do-gyeong — two friends with sharply different personalities — would stay together. They built the characters to balance stability and danger, and worked with the costume team to create a simple, minimalist look, sometimes incorporating items from their own wardrobes.

“I thought we had to persuade people why these two, who are completely different in personality and temperament, are friends,” Han said. “Mi-seon is more capable in daily life than Do-gyeong and pursues a stable kind of happiness. Since I also pursue an ordinary life, I tried to use that point of contact to make Mi-seon’s actions feel believable. There’s only one thing I want to say with this film: Even if you don’t have anyone on your side in this world, if you have one person who truly understands you, that’s a successful life.”

“I wanted Do-gyeong to look tough but also feel like she could shatter like glass,” Jeon said. “Mi-seon, played by So-hee, looks fragile but is surprisingly solid and action-oriented. We talked about holding hands and moving forward as if we’re looking at the same thing, like a decalcomania. We especially wanted these characters to stick visually, so we discussed it directly with the costume team and reflected personal items, too. We said, let’s keep it simple and minimalist.”

Their on-set rhythm, they said, came from balancing sensitivity and steadiness. One scene — digging through the night to steal a large sum of money — became the moment their commitment was most visible.

“We dug for five hours,” Han said. “Since that scene is the start of our film, we really immersed ourselves to keep it real. After shoveling for hours, you sweat. We took off our outer layers and even used a watering can to create sweat while filming. I remember being so locked into that scene that I didn’t even feel the cold — I was extremely focused.”

“The director actually tried to stop us,” Jeon said. “But we volunteered and acted it out like, ‘It would be good to throw off our clothes and dig here,’ sweating a lot. The director was the one telling us to wrap up and was worried about us. Ha.”
Positioning themselves as part of a generational shift in Korean film, the two actors also stressed balance and responsibility across the cast.

“It’s a two-lead film with two women the same age, and we wanted it to feel iconic rather than simply pretty,” Jeon said. “We hoped even a single poster would leave a strong impression, and I think audiences are interested in that. It seems like people responded well to the curiosity of, ‘A movie with two iconic women — what happens?’”

“I feel a sense of responsibility with every project,” Han said. “Watching the edited cut, I thought, ‘In this era, there isn’t really a single main character.’ Everyone moves in harmony in their own place. The story flows with Do-gyeong and Mi-seon at the center, but without the other roles, they wouldn’t exist either. It feels like we’ve entered a time when the boundary of the main character is breaking down.”

From volunteering to dig for five hours to offering personal items for costumes, the actors’ approach became, in their telling, the film’s most vivid “B-cut” record — two women meeting at the edge and moving forward through fierce rapport and shared responsibility.