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Baek Ki-tae’s fate explained
Director Woo Min-ho is preparing a third season of the Disney+ Korean noir series “Made in Korea,” with plans to move the story into South Korea’s politically turbulent 1990s.
Speaking in Seoul’s Jongno district, Woo confirmed that Baek Ki-tae, the powerful intelligence official and drug smuggler played by Hyun Bin, survived the ambiguous conclusion of Season 2. The finale shows Baek’s younger brother, Baek Ki-hyun, pointing a gun at him before a shot is heard.
“Baek Ki-tae is definitely alive,” Woo said. “If I had killed him, I would not have handled the ending that way.”
Woo said Baek did not die with the final gunshot but instead “disappeared” with it. The character will return when the historical moment calls for him, he said. Woo, the cast and the writing team are developing Season 3 around the 1990s, including South Korea’s transition to civilian government.
A fictional story inside real history
Set in the 1970s, “Made in Korea” follows Baek, who leads a double life as an agent of South Korea’s Central Intelligence Agency and a narcotics trafficker. Prosecutor Jang Geon-young, played by Jung Woo-sung, pursues him.
Season 2 jumps nine years beyond the first season to 1979, as Baek rises toward the top of the intelligence agency. Its plot incorporates two defining events in modern Korean history: the Oct. 26 assassination of President Park Chung-hee and the Dec. 12 military coup. The season finale was released on the 23rd.
Woo described the shot at the end not as a bullet fired by Baek Ki-hyun but as “the gunshot of the era.” He said the season begins with the violence of Oct. 26 and ends with another burst of violence on Dec. 12, capturing the futility of a country returning to dictatorship.
Allowing Baek to prevail would have required substantially rewriting history, Woo said. Instead, he chose to have the fictional character, who represents the intelligence agency, disappear along with the period he inhabited.
Woo’s rules for historical drama
Woo, whose films “The Man Standing Next” and “Harbin” also draw on modern Korean history, said he follows a firm rule when blending fictional characters with real events.
“I believe the broad course of history must never be altered,” he said, adding that invention should be placed in the gaps between documented events rather than used to change their outcome.
The director also praised Hyun Bin’s portrayal of the nine years that pass between the first two seasons. During an approximately five-month break in filming, Woo said, the actor adjusted his voice and gave his performance greater depth to convey the weight of time on Baek.
Before returning to “Made in Korea” for Season 3, Woo plans to release a contemporary film he has been developing for years.
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