Director of quirky Netflix comedy series ‘Chicken Nugget’ enjoys polarizing reviews
“Chicken Nugget,” a new original series from Netflix, combines the signature comedic flair of director Lee Byeong-heon, known for smash-hit comedy film “Extreme Job” (2019) and rom-com series “Be Melodramatic” (2019), with an outlandish story.
Based on the webtoon of the same name by Park Ji-dok, the new series revolves around Choi Seon-man (Ryu Seung-ryong), CEO of a small machinery company, and its intern Go Baek-joong (Ahn Jae-hong). When Choi’s daughter steps into a mysterious machine and turns into a chicken nugget, the father and Go, who has a crush on her, go on a wild quest to bring her back to human form.
The bizarre plot and directors’ quirky sense of humor have drawn dramatically varied reviews of the 10-part series since it hit the streaming site on March 15.
Director Lee shared that he is enjoying seeing the wide-ranging feedback from viewers, adding that he had expected such a split reaction right from the start.
“(Receiving a divided reaction) was the risk we needed to take with this work. I questioned how I could invite viewers into a universe in which a person turns into a chicken nugget. I couldn’t omit the color this work had. That response was what we took into consideration ever since the development stage, knowing the original work,” the director said during an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Jongno District, Seoul, Monday.
“Even among those who like the show, the reasons were so different. Although, people dislike it for similar reasons. There were so many interesting responses … Polarizing reviews are not always a good thing, but they are not necessarily bad either. I don’t know how you would take it but I find it enjoyable to read comments or reactions (about this series).”
The director expressed that he did feel overwhelmed at first to bring an absurd comical plot to live action. But he decided to view it as a challenge.
“I couldn’t get (the webtoon) out of my head. Although the original work hadn’t ended yet at the time, I decided to do the project. It was actually really difficult to dramatize it, physically and mentally,” he said.
“After reading (the webtoon), it gave me a lot to think about. I was looking for interesting plots and things worth trying. I’ve been feeling with the comedy genre that I wanted to do something a bit different and challenging. Comedy is perhaps the most challenging and disadvantageous genre to appeal to audiences from different cultures or languages. So I thought of this as not ‘low brow’ humor but as a comedy with a new tone.”
Lee said he tried to make the series more exaggerated and comical in order to align with the plot more, making it easier for viewers to get comfortable with the out-ofthis-world plot.
“With previous works, I approached them more realistically, whereas with this one, I made it more cartoon-style. For me, it was my first time directing this way. I calculated making it cartoonish and theatrical would actually help to offset the awkwardness this alienating plot has,” he said.
“If I’m going to stay true to the original work’s tone, it only felt right to direct it that way. It felt like I was watching an interesting play every day so it was personally enjoyable to work on this project.”