SF8 (시네마틱드라마 SF8)

SF8 (에스 에프 에잇) is a 2020 South Korean science fiction anthology television series of eight stand-alone episodes, each directed by a different member of the Directors Guild of Korea (DGK), produced as a crossover project between the broadcaster MBC, the streaming platform Wavve, the DGK, and the film production company Soo Film.¹ MBC marketed it as a "cinematic drama" (시네마틱드라마), a label for a series made by film directors at feature-film production standards.² The project has been described as a Korean-style original SF anthology, covering subjects such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), robots, games, fantasy, horror, superpowers, and disasters.³

Origin and production

The project began as a casual proposal by Choi Seung-ho, then president of MBC, who suggested a collaboration after meeting Min Kyu-dong (민규동), a film director representing the DGK, at a guild event. Once MBC joined hands with Wavve, the partners agreed that, if they were to collaborate at all, they would take on science fiction, a genre that had remained largely unexplored in Korean film and television rather than a more familiar one.⁷

Over roughly a year the team reviewed Korean-published SF novels, webtoons, and other source material. They prioritized works that could be realized within a 50-minute running time and a visually achievable scale, and deliberately chose stories spanning different styles within SF, including mystery, action, comedy, and drama, before settling on eight. Screenplays were drafted from the selected originals and then offered to directors, who each adapted the material in their own style over several months.⁷

Contracts and platforms. Because the project spanned a broadcaster, an OTT service, and the film industry, agreeing on contract terms was difficult; the three-way agreement among MBC, Wavve, and the DGK was signed only after Soo Film, which had deferred joining the previous year over scheduling conflicts with other productions, came on board early in 2020. Once terms were settled, production proceeded smoothly: eight producers were matched to the eight directors, and within a few months the series went from Wavve release to MBC broadcast.⁷

Min Kyu-dong, who oversaw the project and directed its first episode, said the directors had long wanted to write SF on their own terms and work with the actors they chose, and that the series was conceived amid uncertainty about whether films would continue to be consumed only in traditional ways.⁶

Comparison with Black Mirror

Reviewers and the directors themselves repeatedly drew comparisons with the British anthology series Black Mirror. Min Kyu-dong distinguished the two structures: while Black Mirror takes place inside a single universe created by one screenwriter, SF8 assigns a different director to each episode around different subjects, so viewers can choose episodes according to their preferences.⁴ He also said the team wanted stories that give viewers something to think deeply about rather than visual spectacle, since SF productions carry a stereotype of large-scale effects.⁴ Korean-language commentary characterized the series as softer science fiction than Black Mirror, with slower pacing, more positive endings, and themes tied to Korean social issues such as elder care, euthanasia, class, and technology addiction.⁹

Context in Korean science fiction

SF8 debuted in July 2020 amid what Korean film-industry commentary called an SF fever: the same period saw Space Sweepers (2020) by Jo Sung-hee, described as Korea's first authentic science fiction space movie, and Seobok by Lee Yong-ju, about human clones, both initially expected to reach theaters in 2020. Such projects had been rare in Korean cinema, which is why their announcement was received as an event.¹⁰ Director Oh Ki-hwan offered a local gloss on the genre's abbreviation, saying that although SF stands for science fiction, he preferred to render it as "super fantasy," whose appeal is unlimited imagination.⁶

The series also served as a production experiment. Its producers described the collaboration itself, not only the content, as a genuine crossover: MBC wanted fresh content and new partnerships, Wavve as main investor wanted OTT originals and an effective way to present them, and the directors' guild valued a production system that guaranteed creative autonomy.² A scholarly survey of drama in the OTT era cites SF8 as a distinctive example of the blurring boundary between film and television, a new kind of planning in which eight film directors made a "cinematic drama."⁵

References

1. 8 episodes, 8 directors, one brave and bold new concept, The Korea JoongAng Daily
2. ["드라마야? 영화야?"...'SF8', MBC가 말하는 '시네마틱 드라마' [인터뷰], OSEN](https://www.osen.co.kr/article/G1111413477)
3. SF8 소개, MBC
4. Korean film directors venture for sci-fi anthology with 'SF8', Korea Herald via Daum
5. OTT 시대 드라마 변화 양상, 한국극예술연구 제78집 (KCI)
6. 영화감독이 만든 SF 드라마…"결국 중요한 건 화두", 연합뉴스
7. <SF8> 박준호 총괄 프로듀서, 플랫폼을 신경 쓰지 않고 플랫폼을 실험하다, KOFIc Kobiz
8. SF8, MBC Global Media
9. 韓國科幻劇：SF8 – 軟式科幻好新鮮, Vocus
10. How Did Science Fiction Become the New Big Thing in Korean Cinema?, Korean Film Council

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Korean and East Asian web series

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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