Final Interview: Nam-ra From All of Us Are Dead and Su-cheol From Queen of Tears in One Deadly Job Interview

Featured photo: Cho Yi-hyun at the “Final Interview” outdoor stage greeting at the 31st Busan International Film Festival. Photo: FireBirdFilm, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

“Final Interview,” which opened in Korea on November 4, locks six faces that K-drama fans abroad already love into one room. Cho Yi-hyun, class president Nam-ra from “All of Us Are Dead”; Kwak Dong-yeon, youngest brother Su-cheol from “Queen of Tears”; and Kim Jae-won, Shin Seung-ho, Kang You-seok and Bae Kang-hee vote each other out for a single job offer.

Honestly, as a fan, I nearly screamed when I first saw the cast list. Actors who each stole my heart once in a different drama, all together in one scene: that doesn’t happen often.

Where to watch: In Korean theaters from November 4 at CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox (Korea, checked November 3, 2026). No release or streaming date outside Korea has been announced yet.

An interview with no interviewers, two hours and five votes

This interview has no interviewers. Six candidates beat odds of 5,000 to 1 to reach the final interview at a global IT company, prepare a team discussion together for a month and dream of all getting hired. But the task they get on interview day is this: “Within two hours, choose the one person among you who gets hired.” In a room with nothing but observation cameras on every side, they hold an open vote every 30 minutes, five times. Leave the room and you’re out (Maeil Shinmun).

Then a mysterious envelope appears, exposing each person’s secret. The six colleagues become rivals in that instant, and no one can tell whose words are true (MHN). Director Kim Jung-hoon (“Petty Romance,” “The Accidental Detective”) said, “If an ordinary locked-room mystery is a film about finding the culprit, ‘Final Interview’ is really a film about finding the truth hidden behind the facts” (Financial News), and that audiences will feel so immersed it’s as if they’re “the seventh applicant” (Maeil Shinmun).

It’s based on “Six Lying University Students” (2021), a mystery novel by Japanese author Akinari Asakura that has sold more than 650,000 copies. The film first met audiences in the Korean Cinema Today: Panorama section of the 31st Busan International Film Festival (MHN).

Also read: Kim Ji-won Is Now K-Drama's Top Tier

The six who knocked Chiikawa off the top of the booking chart

The day before it opened, “Final Interview” hit No. 1 in advance bookings across Korea, with a 17.9 percent booking share and 32,965 tickets sold as of midnight on November 3. The film it pushed down was the Japanese animated “Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of Mermaid Island,” which had held the No. 1 booking spot for 36 straight days since opening on September 30. The top spot changed hands for the first time in 37 days (Econovill, citing the Korean Film Council’s box office system).

The trailers pulled their weight too. Distributor NEW’s first trailer passed 1.59 million views and the second 1.43 million (YouTube, checked November 3). Preview audiences wrote, “Every time an envelope opened I was so tense I forgot to breathe” and “They were perfectly normal job seekers, and suddenly it’s a battle royale” (MHN). Kim Jae-won summed up the film’s selling point in two words: “fresh actors” (The Fact).

Where you’ve seen the six

Cho Yi-hyun (as Moon Hye-in): She’s Choi Nam-ra, the class president who held the classroom against the zombies in Netflix’s “All of Us Are Dead” (News1). This time she plays a calm observer who reads the room. After countless auditions of her own, she said, “Even when I failed, I tried to think, ‘It wasn’t my project, so I didn’t get it,'” choosing to give her best in the moment over the pressure of having to be chosen (ABC News Korea). For the lead of a film about fighting over one spot, there’s nothing kinder she could have said.

Kim Jae-won (as Han Jin-woo): Loved as Shin Soon-rok in “Yumi’s Cells 3,” he makes his big-screen debut with this film (Sports Kyunghyang). His character is a warm idealist. At a stage greeting, Cho said that whenever she reached for a water bottle, Kim would open the cap and hand it to her, and that she told him, “I’d love to have a younger brother like you” (Sports Chosun).

Shin Seung-ho (as Baek Seung-bin): He’s Crown Prince Go Won from “Alchemy of Souls,” who hid a sly smile behind an intimidating first impression (TenAsia). This time he’s a gritty, athletic leader who acts first (The Fact).

Kang You-seok (as Lee Hee-chan): He’s Eom Jae-il, the former idol turned resident in “Resident Playbook” (Ilgan Sports). Here he plays a laid-back mediator who keeps the six in balance (MHN).

Kwak Dong-yeon (as Jeon Yo-han): He’s the actor who made viewers laugh and cry as Hong Su-cheol in “Queen of Tears” (Top Star News). This time he plays a strategist who’s used to being alone and impossible to read. Director Kim said, “Kwak Dong-yeon breathed a unique life into Yo-han, who could easily have become a stock oddball” (The Fact).

Bae Kang-hee (as Cha Joo-won): The actor who played young Lee Sa-ra in “The Glory” makes her feature film debut as a flawless perfectionist (MHN, Financial News). “Seeing my face on a big screen felt strange and unreal,” she said (Financial News).

The one who couldn’t make the stage greetings

Kwak Dong-yeon wasn’t at the pre-release stage greetings. He enlisted for active duty on August 25 (Sports Hankook). Most Korean men must complete about 18 months of military service, and actors are no exception. So he’s greeting his own film’s release from inside his unit.

His castmates filled the empty spot. Cho said she joked in the group chat, “Have a good time in the army, sir,” “Where are you, sir?” and “When are you coming back, sir?” and throughout the stage greetings said, “I really felt the absence of the guys” and “I miss them” (Sports Chosun). On October 31, Kwak posted a handwritten letter on Instagram to the people he worked with, writing that he hopes to keep meeting them on future projects (Top Star News).

In the interview room only one of the six survives, but in theaters this week all six are leads. I’m already waiting for the day one of them walks out of the base gate, and for the face he’ll come back with.

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Nam-ra From “All of Us Are Dead” and Su-cheol From “Queen of Tears” Vote Each Other Out of One Job Interview