Chapter 7: Embodiment of Sin
Director Dae-Jung Lee only ever did films. Ever since he was a child, he loved watching movies. And when he had the opportunity, he loved making them. In his twenty-six-year career, he received multiple awards—even a few prestigious international ones.
Not once in his life did the good director ever think of directing a drama series. Not that the idea was beyond him, but the nature of dramas did not allow for the sort of gripping plot and grey artistry he sought. Or so was his belief until he received the script for Binsfeld’s Seven Princes of Hell.
’This is it!’ he thought.
The exhaustion from his previous project suddenly faded away. This new work was exactly what he needed. It had his style, and it had his colors. It seemed to scream at him that no other director should have it. This script should only be handled by someone who understood its value, it seemed to plead.
The director was pleased. A new challenge was in his sight. He was about to make his first TV series. He wore an expression of extreme delight.
It was the complete opposite of how he looked now. He was haggard and tired. Life had been sucked out of his complexion. For the past month, he had trouble sleeping, and his worries only kept worsening.
’When it rains, it pours,’ he thought.
Now, he was suffering from constipation.
’Just one character—just one character is going to kill me,’ he thought. ’Asmodeus, where are you.’
It had been three hours since the audition began, and not a single applicant so far had displayed him anything remotely close to what he wanted. The picture he had imagined when he first read the script could not be replicated by any actor.
’Their performances do Asmodeus no justice. Forget acting, they don’t even have the right face.’