Dream Director Was Ready for Your Criticism About IU Being Underused in His New Korean Movie

When director Lee Byeon-heon had a casting meeting for his film Dream, there was one unlikely name on the list of candidates for the character So-min. In fact, Lee Ji-eun — more widely known as global superstar IU — was at the very top of the potential roster to play the aspiring documentarian. The director recalled questioning the crew member who wrote down her name for consideration. "I asked him, 'Why? She's an A-list star and the age doesn't match up,'" Lee remembered. "And he said, 'Purely because I'm a fan.'" 

It turns out, Lee himself was also a fan. So despite the singer-songwriter being younger than the original version of So-min, Lee sent the script to her. "I said, 'If you decide to do this, I will change the age for you," he recounted. "And she said yes."

In the Korean sports comedy Dream, which premiered internationally at the 22nd New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) before releasing on Netflix July 25, IU plays a woman determined to produce a hit documentary in order to keep her dreams as a filmmaker alive. The subject of her film is the Korean team heading to the 2010 Homeless World Cup — and their reluctant coach, professional soccer player Hong-dae (Park Seo-joon). The story is based on the 2010 edition of the actual annual competition, organized by the Homeless World Cup Foundation to call for the end to homelessness. And though the movie begins with a note about characters being fictional, Lee said many of them are based on the homeless people who formed 2010's Korean team.

"Park Seo-joon and IU decided to participate on the basis that they thought it was a meaningful project," Lee told TV Guide at NYAFF. It's also why the director has wanted to make a movie about the subject for the last decade. Lee first learned about the Homeless World Cup in 2011 when he was watching TV. "I just felt so ignorant that I didn't know what was going on in their lives at all," he remembered thinking about the players. And one aspect of the tournament moved him in particular. "Usually, sports games have a purpose and that's very clear: It's about who wins and who loses," Lee explained. "But I think the games here focus not on that part, but on the strength and the community that these people are able to build when participating in the games."

The segment he saw was about the 2010 Homeless World Cup. "When the Korean team participated there, they were the most popular team though they performed the worst," Lee said. "But even though they performed the worst, they were the most cheered-on team and I feel like that really coincided with the actual purpose of the games." In the film, the Korean players were obviously outmatched by their overwhelming opponents. But the crowds erupted in support because of their persistence.

After learning about the event on TV, Lee wanted to experience it for himself. In 2015, he participated as a crew member in the Homeless World Cup that took place in Amsterdam. "I tried to base the movie off what I observed in those games," he said.

Though Lee had the desire to produce a film about the tournament as early as 2011, he faced some challenges on the road — most notably in terms of funding. "The subject of homeless people playing soccer doesn't really attract investment as well as other topics," Lee said. "Because of that I did have to think more strategically to make it more commercial." But he didn't want to create something profitable that would lack honesty and misrepresent the players who participated in the tournament. "It was kind of a struggle to balance that," Lee said.

A part of his strategy involved incorporating So-min and Hong-dae, characters Lee described as "more fun," into the story. "Eventually, I aimed for this movie to become somewhere in between a narrative and a documentary with some sort of commercial viability," Lee explained.

The film was first released in South Korea in April of this year, and the director remembered the criticism. "IU, she's featured less and less in the latter half," Lee said. "A lot of people complained, 'Is this the best you can do with her? Why aren't you using her more?'"

It wasn't the first time he heard these comments about Dream. "That was criticism I got from its script stages, from the investors," Lee explained. "But that was something that I had to hold firm my boundaries on because the intention of this [film] is to illuminate the stories of the people who were participating in the games — and not of the other people." And so the director proceeded with the script. "I was prepared for the criticism," he said.

The film featured brief vignettes of each homeless person on the Korean team. And Dream ended with a note saying that while "street people" was a commonplace term in Korea in 2010, the word "homeless" is used today "as the former tends to minimize the scope of the housing problem." Asked about why he wanted to raise awareness about the housing problem through the film, Lee said, "I made it with the intention of bringing about this kind of change that you're speaking about. But because the movie didn't do that well commercially in Korea, I think we weren't able to do that as much as we wanted."

The movie grossed over $8 million in the Korean box office, according to Korean Film Council. Lee also added that he hasn't seen attitudes toward homelessness change significantly in the past decade-plus, since the 2010 Homeless World Cup took place.

But the film holds a special place for many viewers, including those who competed in the Homeless World Cup. "The players who participated in the 2010 games — what the movie is based on — they actually got to see the movie and there were a few tears," Lee said.

Dream is available to stream on Netflix.