Stage adaptation of Jang Hang-jun's 'Open the Door' sells out all preview showings before opening night; director Oh Se-hyeok stages 85-minute psychological thriller

A promotional image for the stage adaptation of "Open the Door," based on the original film by director Jang Hang-jun [Contentshaab]
A promotional image for the stage adaptation of "Open the Door," based on the original film by director Jang Hang-jun [Contentshaab]

In the fall of 2023, a 71-minute film quietly came and went. "Open the Door," directed by Jang Hang-jun and set in a Korean-American dry-cleaning shop in New Jersey, opened exclusively at CGV theaters and drew fewer than 20,000 admissions before disappearing from screens. Three years later, a stage adaptation of the same story has sold out at a Daehangno theater before a single preview performance has taken place. In the intervening years, Jang crossed the 10-million-admissions threshold with The King's Warden, and audiences have taken to calling him "Geojang Hang-jun" — a play on his name meaning "the great director."

Production company Contentshaab said Monday that all preview showings of the play "Open the Door," set to open Dec. 5 at YES24 Artone Theater 3 in Daehangno, have sold out. When the first batch of tickets went on sale last month, the production immediately topped the theater booking rankings on the NOL ticketing platform.

"Open the Door" tells the story of a family forced to confront a truth they had kept buried for seven years when a stranger knocks on their door one night. The original film drew on a real incident that took place within the Korean-American community in the United States.

When the film opened in 2023, Jang said he had been advised to move the setting to Korea to cut costs, but chose to shoot on location because "the Korean-American community has its own particular character." The film, structured in reverse chronological order across five chapters, was invited to the "Korean Cinema Today — Panorama" section of the 27th Busan International Film Festival.

From the outset, the film bore a strong resemblance to theater. The story unfolds in a handful of spaces — a dry-cleaning shop, a late-night drinking table where two men share a bottle — and the cast amounts to a few members of one family. In place of chase sequences or visual spectacle, the characters sit across from each other and talk, peeling back the hidden truth one layer at a time. The five-chapter structure, each chapter turning like a new act, follows the grammar of the stage. The entire shoot wrapped in just seven days.

Oh Se-hyeok is handling the adaptation and direction. Where the film unspooled its reversed timeline across separate scenes, the stage version layers different times and spaces onto a single set simultaneously. The approach echoes Oh's work on "100 Hours at the Residence," which won the grand prize at last year's 46th Seoul Theater Festival and placed three separate spaces from the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster side by side on one stage. The 71-minute film has been expanded to 85 minutes with no intermission.

Eight actors share three roles. Kim Seong-gyu, Lee Si-hyeong and Hong Gi-jun play Munseok, once known as the family's fixer; An U-yeon, Oh Gyeong-ju and Lee Bong-jun play Chihun, who returns after seven years to find the culprit; and Gwak Seon-yeong and Gong Min-jeong play Yunju, who opened the door hoping to save everyone. For Gwak, it marks a return to the stage for the first time in six years, since the 2020 play "Lungs." Contentshaab, producer of the plays "Secret Passage" and "Silent Pursuit," is producing, with BA Entertainment — which co-produced both the original film and The King's Warden — serving as co-producer.

When Jang released the film three years ago, he explained the title this way: "We open and pass through tens of thousands of doors in our lives. That is why it is called 'Open the Door.'"


shee@heraldcorp.com