Invited to the Generation Kplus competition section of the Berlin International Film Festival,
Buil Film Awards and Wildflower Film Awards Best New Director Award,
Women in Film of the Year Award, Busan Film Critics Association Award for Best Screenplay, etc.
Secret Hill: The Most Popular Drama of 2022-2023
Publishing a script book to commemorate the first anniversary of the film's release.

The screenplay collection of the hit film "Secret Hill," which reveals profound questions about writing, family, honesty and lies from the perspective of a fifth-grade girl who remains true to her desires, is being published to mark the first anniversary of its release.

For director Lee Ji-eun, screenplay is her favorite word “out of all film terms.”
This book contains the original screenplay for “Secret Hill,” which he wrote with a passionate heart, “tightly weaving together the warp that satisfies what the audience wants to see and the weft that pleasantly betrays the audience’s expectations.”
In the work, the main character Myeong-i's continuous writing process is also the result of Lee Ji-eun's deep exploration of writing as a screenwriter before becoming a film director.
Therefore, the script version of “Secret Hill” is not an unfinished film, but a highly complete literary work in its own right.


The script in this book contains lines and scenes that differ from the actual film.
It is fun to see how the two-dimensional world envisioned by screenwriter Lee Ji-eun and the three-dimensional world realized by director Lee Ji-eun differ.
The process of each character's development before the script and between the script and the film is described in "Story of Scenes and Characters," written by Lee Ji-eun herself.
From the main character Myeong-eun, who said she “wanted to make Myeong-eun experience all the shame she could possibly experience,” to Ae-ran, a teacher fresh out of school, who draws on her own experiences, to the mother Gyeong-hee and father Seong-ho, who bring to life the details of a “sad couple who are too young,” to Hye-jin, who appears as a character who “will bring Myeong-eun’s world to a crashing halt,” you can get a glimpse of the creator’s meticulous considerations.
In addition, the author's profound intentions, which are embedded in the beginning and end of this work, are also revealed.

Other perspectives on “Secret Hill” also illuminate this book.
First, Kim Hye-ri, an editorial member of Cine21, conducts an in-depth interview with Lee Ji-eun and analyzes the character of Myeong-eun, a teenage girl who is “a subject of intense desire,” and derives the meaning contained in the details of the film.
Novelist Kim Hye-jeong looks back on the time when she was around the same age as Myeong-eun.
Myeong-eun and Hye-jin talk in affectionate sentences about what writing meant to them at the time and what they learned and gained through writing.
Novelist Kim Jung-hyuk defines “Secret Hill” as “an answer to the question, ‘How are creators born?’”
Is honesty always the right thing to do? Is it better to pursue perfect art even if it means hurting someone? Ultimately, this film confirms the power of confronting these fundamental questions that anyone who aspires to write inevitably faces.

It's fun to enjoy the character's journey through the script itself, and if you happen to see the movie, I think it'll be quite fun to compare how the blueprints were realized, how the fingerprints and lines on paper were made three-dimensional when they met the actors, and what ideas were substituted on set and during post-production that weren't in the script.
---From "Lee Ji-eun, Author's Note"

“Secret Hill,” which depicts the world of a twelve-year-old, strangely does not encourage nostalgia for childhood.
Instead, it reminds me of the days when I lived each day with all my heart, determined to become the person I wanted to be.
It makes me miss the cool shame of the moment I realized my cowardice, the resilience of rising taller after being broken by contradictions.

---From "Kim Hye-ri, Climbing the Hill and Looking Back: Interview with Director Lee Ji-eun"

Reality is not kind to me.
There are many times when I just can't figure out why things keep making things difficult and harassing me.
At times like that, I hid in the story.
Just as writing has been a strong foundation for me, both when I was young and now, wasn't it the same for Myeong-eun and Hye-jin?

---From "Kim Hye-jeong, Why I Write, Why I Write, Why I Will Write: The Castle of Writing"

Secret Hill is a film about writing.
It is disrespectful to the director to make such a conclusion.
Secret Hill could be a coming-of-age story, a story about friends, a story about secrets and lies, a story about family, or a story about the importance of teachers.
A good movie originally has many faces at the same time.
Still, I'd like to insist that this is a film that reveals the secrets of writing.

---From "Kim Jung-hyuk, Is Honest Writing Always Good?"