Actor Kim Ji-yeon plays the role of Sung Su-ji in the Tving original series "Pyramid Game." Courtesy of Tving

For Park So-yeon, the up-and-coming director of the recent hit Tving series "Pyramid Game," the drama is more than just a psychological thriller story set in a high school.

Park So-yeon, director of the series "Pyramid Game" / Courtesy of Tving

"I wanted to raise awareness about the seriousness of school bullying through this work. I intended to show how people's indifference and insensibility can lead to such frightening school violence," the director shared during an interview with The Korea Times at a cafe in Jongno District, Seoul, Monday.

The thriller series, based on the popular webtoon of the same name, revolves around a newly transferred student, Sung Su-ji (Kim Ji-yeon), who has moved around frequently due to her single dad's military career.

What Sung thought would be just another transfer turns into her nightmare when she learns of the class's hierarchy based on a brutal ranking system called the pyramid game. Every month, the students vote on the most popular student and classify them into five grades from A to F depending on the number of votes, determining the target for bbullying for the month.

The series, which ended on Thursday, was invited to France's Series Mania Festival earlier this month. It became the platform's weekly top original series to bring in the most new subscribers last week and ranked second in Indonesia and Singapore on global streaming site Viu in the second week of March.

Park, who previously led the 2023 rom-com series "The Heavenly Idol," emphasized that the storyline serves as a wake-up call not just to students but also adults about their role in perpetuating school bullying through negligence.

Scenes from the series "Pyramid Game" / Courtesy of Tving

"The unawareness and indifference led to this game being created. I believe that adults who neglected the children playing such games are the ones who really made this game," she said.

"The story unfolds with the students but the weight this work puts on is on adults, asking them to come watch it. I hope everyone can break away from indifference and insensitivity to take a good look around them."

Actor Kim Ji-yeon / Courtesy of Tving

Despite the director's intention, as the series gained popularity, it raised concerns about the possibility of students imitating the game, prompting some schools to send cautionary notices to parents and students to warn them of the potential risks.

"I aimed to depict psychological changes of the students under the theme of school bullying and deliver a message with their stories. So I was quite surprised when I heard about this issue," Park said.

"I intended to raise awareness about school bullying by showing how the students themselves destroy the game, but hearing such [side effects] made me uneasy. I made it a priority to not promote violence, which was the most important principle."

Kim, also known as Bona from WJSN, plays an independent new girl who takes charge of destroying the game after experiencing the class bullying herself.

The singer-turned-actor shared that she was drawn to the different layers of the character. "[When I got the script,] I read through four episodes because it was so intriguing. I thought the plot was so unique and liked how the protagonist isn't just nice," she said.

"No one is purely good, purely just or purely bad in the real world. So in that aspect, I tried not to make the character one-dimensional. Rather than defining the character [into something specific], I focused on how Su-ji made the best choice she could in that situation."

Kim said filming bullying scenes was more mentally challenging than she expected.

"School bullying scenes were there from the start so I prepared myself that it could be difficult. But it hit much harder than I expected, which raised more awareness of school violence on me. It was hard but actually helped in portraying the character later on," she said.