Son Tae-gyum

Son Tae-gyum (Korean: 손태겸; born 22 February 1986) is a South Korean director, screenwriter, editor and producer. He has been making films with queer subject matter since 2011. He directed, wrote and created The Lie We Lived In (거짓말이 사는 집, 2026).

His first film won a Cannes prize. Fly by Night (야간비행, 2011), a twenty-two minute short he directed, produced, wrote and edited himself, follows a young man living with his brother in the city and the transactional relationships he has with men at night. It took the Third Prize in the Cinéfondation section at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, the strand reserved for student filmmakers.

In 2013 he directed the web series Incomplete Life: Prequel, the companion piece to the drama Misaeng, and wrote and directed In the Summer. In 2017 he directed, wrote and edited the feature Baby Beside Me (아기와 나), released through CGV Arthouse. He worked on the adaptation and screenplay of My Son (2022).

In 2023 he directed, wrote, produced and edited OUT! (아웃!), a film about a man in isolation during an epidemic whose boyfriend disappears mid-call. The following year TVING gave him Love In The Big City (대도시의 사랑법, 2024), adapted from Park Sang-young’s novel, on which he is credited as director and on the adaptation. In 2025 he directed, wrote and edited The Possessed. His 2026 series, The Lie We Lived In, runs to eight episodes on Wavve. He directed and wrote it and is also credited as its creator: a noir thriller in which a contract killer’s cover comes apart when he falls for the detective investigating him.

Love In The Big City in detail

TVING released all eight episodes of Love In The Big City at once on 21 October 2024. Four directors shared the series, each taking a pair of episodes built around one of the love stories in Park Sang-young’s collection. Son Tae-gyum directed the opening pair, titled “Mirae”, Heo Jin-ho took episodes three and four, Hong Ji-young five and six, and Kim Se-in the last two. Nam Yoon-su plays the lead, Go-young, an aspiring writer followed from his twenties into his thirties, with Kwon Hyuk, Na Hyun-woo and Jin Ho-eun in supporting parts.

Park Sang-young adapted her own book for the screen. She kept its central message and widened the material for a serialized format, and a separate film version from a different director opened earlier the same month, so the two adaptations can be watched side by side.