Kim Min-ha: 'I was afraid of poverty too' — Netflix's 'Dead-End Job' turns the workplace into a nightmare

"Is there anything scarier than just trying to survive?"

The question follows characters into a convenience store, a movie theater, a construction site — ordinary workplaces that become inescapable nightmares. That single question spawned eight episodes of horror. The result is "Dead-End Job," a Netflix series premiering Friday.

Han Jun-hee, the series' executive producer, said at a press event held Wednesday at the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul in Yeongdeungpo-gu that the premise struck him immediately. "When I first read the script, I was deeply impressed by the writers' question — 'Is there anything scarier than just trying to survive?'" Han said. "I thought part-time work was a subject that would resonate with everyone watching."

"Dead-End Job" is set around a shadowy temp agency called Geomi Inryeok, which specializes in placing workers in high-paying gigs starting at 50 times the minimum hourly wage. The story follows Hyeok-jun (played by Lee Jae-wook), a debt-ridden young man sent one by one into high-reward, high-danger workplaces.

Netflix has branded the show a "survival livelihood horror." Director Kim Da-min, who wrote the screenplay for the Netflix series "A Killer Paradox," makes her feature-series directorial debut here, with Han Jun-hee — director of "D.P." — serving as executive producer. The script was co-written by Gyeong Min-seon and Lee Shin-ji. The series is rated restricted to ages 18 and over. Episodes 1 through 4 were previewed at the 31st Busan International Film Festival's "On Screen" section on Oct. 7.

The horror originates in the world of work and survival. "I thought it would be interesting to paint everyday work environments with a surreal, genre-bending color — to make them feel uncanny," Director Kim said of the concept.

Each episode opens with Hyeok-jun's ordinary day, but the moment he steps onto a job site, the atmosphere shifts. Kim deployed lighting, obstacles and intense color to twist familiar spaces into something alien — designed to feel like a new stage unlocking in a video game.

The series draws on internet urban-legend culture as its structural backbone. Kim described the show as "a gift-set of stories where Neapolitan creepypastas and all kinds of urban legends blend in naturally." The Neapolitan creepypasta is a horror format that builds dread by listing one bizarre workplace rule after another. "Dead-End Job," however, goes beyond any single convenience-store rule legend — all eight episodes are bound together within one shared universe.

A new "final boss" awaits each time the workplace changes across the eight episodes. It could be a person, or it could be a building. "Guessing what kind of entity will appear next will be one of the key pleasures of watching," Kim said.

The horror may be surreal, but the forces driving the characters are entirely real. Hyeok-jun is no hero. Kim drew the character as grounded and scrappy — bumbling at times, frustrating at others, yet relentless when it comes to staying alive. That personality bleeds into the action sequences.

"I wasn't thinking about sharp, cool-looking action," Kim said. "I was thinking about desperate survival action — legs giving out mid-escape, collapsing to the ground, or dropping to your knees and begging at the moment you look like you're about to fight."

Kim Min-ha, who plays Hyeok-jun's younger sister Ji-yun, received the same direction. Kim had imagined fighting in a way that looked impressive, but when it came down to it, "it felt so pathetic," Kim said. The actor wanted to look cool, but Director Kim was firm: "This is right for Ji-yun." The desire to look good was set aside.

Having spent much of her career playing emotionally restrained characters, Kim Min-ha said "Dead-End Job" gave her a long-awaited release. Ji-yun curses, screams and lets emotions pour out unfiltered. The character's line about fearing poverty more than ghosts carried a personal resonance. "I really related to it as I delivered the line," Kim said. "I was afraid of poverty too."

Lee Hee-jun plays the head of Geomi Inryeok, the temp agency boss who lures Hyeok-jun into one dangerous job after another. "I tried to give the part-timers who came to me a sense of trust and belief that they could earn easy money," Lee said. "I thought I had to perform in a way that made them willingly take the jobs without feeling anxious." Lee also teased the direction of the later episodes, saying the story takes a sharp turn starting with the construction-site episode in episode 6, when four scattered characters converge in one place and "a massive explosion happens."

Lee Jae-wook was unable to attend Wednesday's event due to mandatory military service, and Ko Min-si, who plays Eum Yeon-ju, an accident investigator at a workers' compensation agency, was away on another filming schedule. Lee Jae-wook sent a video message: "I'm deeply sorry I can't be there," he said. "I'll fulfill my duty to national defense from where I am and cheer on 'Dead-End Job' while I wait."

At the end of all the horror, the story circles back to its opening question. "It's something you can watch through tears and laughter," Kim Min-ha said, "but ultimately it's a work that makes you ask yourself: what does making a living really mean to me?"