Netflix is doubling down on Korea’s appetite for political period thrillers. The streamer revealed Monday that it has begun production on The Generals (working title), a new film from acclaimed director Yoon Jong-bin chronicling the rise of South Korean dictator-turned-president Roh Tae-woo, the longtime second-in-command to military strongman Chun Doo-hwan.

The project marks Yoon’s first feature in eight years — following The Spy Gone North, which premiered at Cannes in 2018 — and his second project at Netflix after Narco-Saints, the hit limited series that launched on the streamer in 2022.

The film centers on Roh Tae-woo (Son Suk-ku), a figure who publicly presents himself as an “ordinary man” while maneuvering behind the scenes beside dictator Chun Doo-hwan (Ha Jung-woo), who wields absolute authority. Surrounded by allies, rivals, and functionaries with their own agendas, Roh navigates a dense network of relationships in his bid to claim the top seat for himself. 

Among Korea’s most respected mid-career filmmakers, Yoon is known for taut dissections of how people survive inside rigid hierarchies, from his breakthrough The Unforgiven (2005), about Korea’s compulsory military service, to later hits like the Busan mob movie Nameless Gangster (2012) and espionage drama The Spy Gone North (2018). The Generals finds him returning to the theme, “once again exploring the human thirst for power and the mechanisms of survival against a backdrop of political turbulence,” according to Netflix.  

The film’s cast puts two of Korea’s most in-demand leading men opposite each other for the first time. Son Suk-ku broke through with the Netflix military-drama series D.P. (2021) before headlining the streamer’s A Killer Paradox (2024) and the recent Disney+ mystery hit Nine Puzzles. Ha Jung-woo, meanwhile, is among Korea’s most decorated actors, known for his regular work with Yoon (Nameless Gangster, Kundo: Age of the Rampant and Narco-Saints) as well as leading auteurs like Na Hong-jin (Chaser, The Yellow Sea) and Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden). 

The supporting ensemble includes Ji Chang-wook (The Sound of Magic, The Worst of Evil, Revolver) playing Heo Hak-seong, a junior officer who becomes a thorn in Roh’s side; Hyun Bong-sik (Narco-Saints, A Killer Paradox, Aema) as Jung Ho-joong, a classmate and friend to both Roh and Chun; and Seo Hyun-woo (Decision to Leave, My Name Is Loh Kiwan) playing Park Cheol-woong, a prosecutor and Roh’s trusted chief of staff.

The Generals (WT) is a joint production between Moonlight Film (Karma, Narco-Saints, The Match, Nine Puzzles) and Sanai Pictures (Mission: Cross, Revolver, Hunt), and will stream exclusively on Netflix.

Politically charged dramas engaging with South Korea‘s authoritarian past are a staple of the local industry, but the genre has struck an especially strong commercial chord of late. 12.12: The Day, the Kim Sung-su-directed political drama that turned the December 1979 coup into a riveting ticking-clock thriller, became the top-grossing Korean film of 2023, helping to revive the country’s ailing post-pandemic theatrical business. Woo Min-ho’s Harbin, a sweeping period thriller about a 1909 plot to assassinate Japan’s first prime minister and resident-general of Korea, also dominated the Korean box office for a month at the end of 2024.