Kim Tae-yong has previously directed intense, serious films, driven by youth, energy, and a desire to change the world. Now in his 30s, his perspective has softened. His latest film, Number One, screened in competition at the 28th Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, reflects that shift with a much warmer tone.

This fantasy drama is based on the first story from the Japanese novel The Number of Times You Can Eat Your Mother’s Cooking is 328. The premise is exactly what the title insinuates. One day, Ha-min (Choi Woo-sik) begins to see numbers that decrease every time he eats a meal prepared by his mother, Eun-sil (Jang Hye-jin). Realising that the number reaching zero would mean her death, he decides to make a drastic decision and disappear from her life. But nothing happens as simply as he expects.

Kim and Jang came to Italy to present the film, and so we sat down together to talk about the casting decisions, maintaining the balance between comedy and drama, and the food they remember from their childhood.

View of the Arts: We’re starting from the end, but the closing credits were deeply emotional. What was your intention behind them?

Kim Tae-yong: We sincerely made this film with our mothers’ faces in mind. I wanted to say that the movie had ended, but that, in that moment, each of our stories was just beginning. So we chose to show the faces of the mothers of our staff, as well as our actors and actresses. It was also a way of saying that we truly put our hearts into this film, and that we’re proud of it – we wanted that sincerity to be reflected in those faces.

VOA: A question for Jang Hye-jin. You’ve played many mothers on screen – how do you make each role distinct?

Jang Hye-jin: Doing everything the same way isn’t interesting. So when I read a script, I try to focus on the subtext – what lies beneath the lines. Sometimes, even a single line or word is enough for me to immediately understand a character.

To express that, I might need to suppress certain emotions or exaggerate others. But if everything stays on the same emotional level, it becomes flat. So I try to adjust the rhythm and tempo in response to the other actor’s lines. It may sound technical, but it’s actually quite intuitive. 

I often think in terms of extremes – the maximum sadness I can portray, the maximum joy – and then find the balance in between. That process also helps a lot when working with other actors.

Kim Tae-yong: To add to that, this just came to my mind, one expression, which Jang Hye-jin really likes is “nonetheless”. I think that word captures her character perfectly: continuing forward, despite everything.

VOA: The characters have very specific quirks. Ha-min (Choi Woo-sik) has his own verbal habits, while Eun-sil (Jang Hye-jin) feels unusually playful and full of charm for a mother figure. How did you approach writing and performing these characters?

Jang Hye-jin: The director and I are both from Busan, and there, we don’t express sadness in a heavy or direct way – we tend to lighten it. That really shaped how I approached the character.

So even in moments of sadness, the response might be, “It’s sad, but let’s eat”. For example, near the end, when Ha-min talks about what people said at the funeral – that his mother was somehow responsible for the deaths – there’s a line where he tells her it wasn’t her fault, and says that in the next life, she should be born as his daughter. In a more conventional scene, that might lead to tears and an emotional breakdown. But the director wanted it to feel hopeful instead, and I agreed with that approach.

Kim Tae-yong: When Ha-min returns to Busan after a long time, a typical mother would greet him with a lot of visible emotion – hugging him, showing how much she missed him, etc. But instead, his mother pretends to have dementia. There’s humor and wit in that reaction. It’s not about being overwhelmed by sadness, but about continuing to live with a certain lightness – that was the main key for us.

VOA: Jang Hye-jin and Choi Woo-sik previously played mother and son in Parasite. Why did you decide to reunite them in similar roles?

Kim Tae-yong: I can finally answer this question – no one had asked it before. So, at the beginning of casting, there were concerns because Parasite is such a strong and iconic film. Some people thought it might be difficult for the audience not to make that association. But for me, Ha-min and Eun-sil are completely different characters. And actually seeing audience reactions now, Parasite has been helpful. It creates a point of familiarity.

At the same time, I do think there are subtle similarities. For example, in Parasite, I really liked how Chung-sook treated her husband – I really loved that – there’s a kind of strength there, what we might call “strong bones” in Korean. She’s not easily shaken. I think Eun-sil shared a bit of that quality.

Jang Hye-jin: That’s probably because I played both roles (laughs). I actually wasn’t too concerned about it. I thought it might be even helpful from a marketing perspective. So it’s interesting to hear there were worries about it.

Kim Tae-yong: For me, it was actually somewhere in between. I didn’t think much of it at first, but when people kept bringing it up, I started to see their point.

VOA: Food plays an important role in the film. I wonder if there is a dish from your childhood that you particularly miss?

Jang Hye-jin: For me, it would be namul [Note: the translator explains this is not a single ingredient, but a variety of seasoned vegetables. You lightly boil them, sometimes saute them, and then season them by hand. They’re served as banchan, side dishes eaten with rice]. And you know, namul are special, because whenever you have leftovers, you can mix them all together with rice, sesame oil, and gochujang to make bibimbap. That’s something I really miss.

Kim Tae-yong: For me – soybean leaves. While making the film, I realized that you can actually prepare them yourself. I had never thought of that before, but through the process, I saw that it’s something both my friends from Busan and I could recreate.

It’s funny – people in Seoul sometimes don’t really understand it. They see soybean leaves and ask, “Why are you eating leaves? Aren’t those just fallen leaves?” It’s something quite specific to the Gyeongsang-do province.

Jang Hye-jin: If you ever go to Busan, you will be able to find soybean leaves everywhere, and you should definitely try them. There’s also a place in Nampo-dong called Wandang that appears in the film – it’s been around for 60 or 70 years. It’s really, really good.

Kim Tae-yong: I hope that people who miss their hometown can watch this film and maybe even try cooking these dishes themselves. I’d like it to be a film people return to when they miss their mother or their hometown.

Written and interviewed by Magdalena Nieświec, who was part of the FEFF Campus initiative for emerging film industry talent.

Featured image © 2026 Dorigo/FEFF

_{View of the Arts is an online publication dedicated to film, music, and the arts, with a strong focus on the Asian entertainment industry. As we continue to grow, we aim to deepen our coverage of Asian music while remaining committed to exploring and celebrating creativity across the global arts landscape.}