Award-winning Director Uhm Tae-hwa praises BTS V's (Kim Taehyung) acting and hopes to work with him again

On June 6, Uhm Taehwa, who won Best Director for "Concrete Utopia," sat down for an interview at the Muju Film Festival, hosted by Editor-in-Chief Joo Sung-chul.

He opened up about working with Kim Taehyung, aka V of BTS, on the emotionally charged music video for IU’s "Love Wins All." The director not only praised Taehyung’s acting but also shared his interest to work with him again in the future.

Uhm Taehwa revealed that the shoot for Love Wins All was incredibly brief—just two days. Taehyung filmed the project just before his military enlistment, even cutting his hair immediately after the shoot and leaving the following day.

JSC: Did you know that… V—BTS’s V, Kim Taehyung—is going to be discharged on June 10th?

UTH: Yes, I know.

JSC: Have you perhaps given him a call or sent him a message to congratulate him?

UTH: I sent him a message.

JSC: There’s not much time left. The reason I bring it up is because the views on the music video are huge! I think it's reached hundreds of thousands. In the comment section, everyone is saying, "Mr. Director, please do a movie with our Taehyung after he completes his military service." There were so many comments like that. So I'm curious—since you saw him on set, what was he like as an actor? For example, his passion for acting…

UTH: For me, if Taehyung were willing to do it, I’d be so grateful. I’d love to work with him—even if I had to make up a role just to ask him. And on set, we had fun working together. We only filmed for two days, and I think he enlisted about two days after that. He filmed with us almost right before enlisting—cut his hair right after filming, and then left the next day, I think. That’s how much he wanted to do it. He was very passionate about it. That’s when I realized he had a real desire to act. And honestly, I’m not joking—it would be amazing if we could work together again in the future.

One standout moment from the set, according to Uhm, involved a key scene change that demonstrated Taehyung’s creative insight. Originally, the final scene was planned to include a crowd-surfing moment while the characters sang in wedding dresses. However, with time running short, the plan risked derailing the rest of the shoot.

JSC: Do you have any nice stories about him?

UTH: Uh… thinking

JSC: It was only two days, so there probably wasn’t much time.

UTH: Originally—well, in the final scene, they sing while wearing the wedding dress. There was a part where they were supposed to be up on stage, singing, and the two of them were going to dive into the audience and crowd surf. But since we only had two days, we really didn’t have enough time.

As a director, I really wanted to film that scene. I thought it would enhance the emotional impact. So I kept trying to make it work until the very end—but then Taehyung convinced me. He said, “Instead of this, how about we film another scene better?”

He talked me into it, and he was right—we really didn’t have enough time. If we had stuck with my idea, we might not have had time to film the other important scenes. Everyone, including the audience actors, was stressing over how to do that scene.

So Taehyung talked me out of it and then turned to the audience actors and said, “Everyone, I got rid of that scene!” I remember everyone got so happy and cheered out loud.

Though the collaboration was short-lived, it left a lasting impression on all parties involved. With Taehyung’s discharge just around the corner, fans are now more eager than ever to see him return to the screen in a movie or series.