24th New York Asian Film Festival

July 11-27, 2025

North American Premiere

Forbidden Fairytale

동화지만 청불입니다

When an aspiring children's author who censors porn crashes into a publishing tycoon's Porsche, her debt payment is delicious irony: write 20 steamy web novels his company desperately needs. The catch? This bookish civil servant's entire romantic history is blank pages. Park Ji-hyun plays Dan-bi, whose "research" includes secretly studying the porn she's paid to censor and mining her bartender friend for bedroom expertise. Her methodically innocent approach to erotica unexpectedly strikes gold. Soon the woman protecting Seoul's youth from corruption becomes the city's hottest adult fiction writer—and realizes she might have finally found where she belongs. With Choi Si-won as the burned-out colleague who rediscovers desire (then love) through her work, this workplace comedy asks the terrifying question: what if your punishment becomes your purpose?

Director: Lee Jong-suk
Cast: Park Ji-hyun, Choi Si-won, Sung Dong-il
Languages: Korean with English subtitles
2024; 120 min.
Country: South Korea

SCHEDULE:

Sunday July 13, 6:15pm
Film at Lincoln Center

Intro and Q&A with director Lee Jong-suk

Lee Jong-suk
이종석

Lee Jong-suk is a Korean filmmaker who worked as an AD on numerous films, including Ode to My Father (2014). He made his directorial debut in 2018 with the film The Negotiation. His second feature Forbidden Fairytale is a comedy that follows a government official responsible for cracking down on adult content but dreams of becoming a children's book author and ends up transforming into an R-rated web novel writer. Through this film, Director Lee sought to humorously portray the conflict between reality and dreams faced by the younger generation, while delivering a warm and heartfelt message.