In Tokyo, a case emerges where corpses are grotesquely contorted and exhibited like works of art. While investigating the scene, Detective Inose (Nagayama Eita) spots and pursues a mysterious man, who turns out to be Kim Seok (Son Sukku), a detective dispatched from South Korea on an international joint investigation. As serial murders bearing identical patterns, horrific corpses, and malicious messages unfold across South Korea and Japan, the two detectives delve into the darkness separately, yet ultimately together. The Blue Road is a transnational detective story based on the Korea-Japan collaborative manga of the same name. The weighty original source material, co-created by Kwon Gaya of Sun and Moon and Edogawa Keishi, story writer of Master Keaton, has been adapted in a fresh direction by director Han Jun-hee of D.P. and writer Cho Eugene of Pilot. Translating its intricate storytelling into genre conventions, The Blue Road boasts multilayered appeal like a flaky pastry. Just as intriguing as the process of uncovering the culprit is the dynamic between the two detectives, who are at once different yet mirror images of one another. Each time a layer of truth is peeled away in the pursuit led by these two lone wolves, the gripping tension pulls the audience in even deeper.
Han Jun-hee was invited to Cannes Critics’ Week for his debut feature, Coin Locker Girl (2015), which received critical acclaim. D.P., the first television series he directed, won Best Drama Series in Broadcasting at the 58th Baeksang Awards and Best Drama at the 1st Blue Dragon Series Awards. He has worked across a range of projects, serving as the creator of the Netflix original series Weak Hero Class 2 and the television drama series Tastefully Yours, as well as planning and adapting the Swedish film Cockpit (2012) into the Korean film Pilot (2024).
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
