Tale of the Nine Tailed – Drama Talk: Director’s Cut Blu-ray Production Process Explained

Ask: Hi! So nice to hear that the Blu-ray survey has reached its quota! Do you happen to know how likely the deleted scenes are to be negotiated by the team? Is it something that is usually released within a Blu-ray? Sorry, this might be a dumb question, but I know nothing about Korean TV production...

Hello! This is not a dumb question at all. The entire process was completely opaque to me the first time I encountered it. 

What happens is a self-appointed team of fans set up a website (called a ‘cafe’ but basically a forum), and then throughout the run of the drama, they advertise on social media asking people interested in the DVD to register. When the drama nears the end of its run, they reach out to the network/production team (I’m not sure precisely who tbh) to begin negotiating. 

In this particular case, cafe admins were told that the potential producers wanted at least 2,500 people to register interest before they proceeded with negotiating specifics. We’ve now met that quota, so negotiations will proceed (yay!), but honestly, the more people register, the better. The more registered interest, the more negotiating power the people running the cafe have to request specific extras/content. 

As to whether the deleted scenes will be included, the answer is: most likely, but it depends. Obviously, there is a ton of demand for them, so it’s definitely a top priority. I’ve purchased two drama DVD sets before: Healer (2014) and Just Between Lovers (2017), and while the content varies from set to set, they typically include things like:

  • Deleted scenes (though not necessarily all deleted scenes)
  • Director and/or actor commentary (this depends on the availability of the actors/director as well, since it requires them to show up and record it obviously)
  • Director’s cut (may include alternate takes, alternate BGM, additional scenes, re-ordering of scenes, etc.) Because dramas often involve live shoots, the directors don’t always have time to edit things exactly as they’d like. So this is basically a more polished version. Again, its inclusion depends on the director’s willingness to take the time to do this.
  • Scripts (for the JBL one, they even included Junho’s annotations that he’d made on his personal copy of EP01. I’m particularly keen to see the scripts for TotNT so I can fully appreciate the extent of LDW’s ad lib genius haha)
  • ‘Goods’ (ex. signed posters, stickers, etc.)
  • Photobook of additional behind the scenes shots (although tvN and King Kong were already extremely generous on this front)
  • Additional behind the scenes footage including bloopers & outtakes

In sum, it’s a combination of what the people heading the effort ask for, and what the people on the production end are able/willing to give. If you’re interested in seeing deleted scenes, the best thing you can do is register for the cafe. You’ll need to make a Daum or Kakao login, and then there is a thread where you’ll need to leave a (private) comment with your name, email address, and the number you want to purchase. It’s all completely non-binding, so I honestly can’t see a downside. =)

You can access the cafe here.

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