The Boys Who Cried Wolf

The Korean Academy of Film Arts (KAFA) has produced many of Korea’s top directors—including Bong Joon-ho, Choi Dong-hoon, and Kim Tae-yong— but none of them has ever won a major award for their dissertation film. Meet KAFA’s latest prodigy, Kim Jin-hwang, who shared the Directors Guild Award at the 2015 Busan Film Festival for his feature debut, The Boys Who Cried Wolf. The story revolves around Wan-ju, a failed stage actor who makes ends meet by playing “real-life” parts as someone’s boyfriend or wingman. Desperate for money, Wan-ju takes on his most challenging “role” ever when he agrees to pretend to have witnessed a murder. But after realizing that the woman who hired him isn’t who she claims to be, Wanju takes it upon himself to exonerate the very man he is testifying against. In addition to directing, Kim also wrote, edited, and co-produced the film. Presented with the support of Korean Cultural Center New York.