The story behind Korean rock band The Rose’s dynamic new documentary

Director Eugene Yi and producer Diane Quon spoke with JoySauce prior to the film’s wide theatrical release on Feb. 14 to chat about the making of the documentary, their creative decisions, and the enduring legacy of the band.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Daniel Anderson: I’d first love to know the origin of the documentary and how you both got involved with it.
Diane Quon: I was having a conversation with Janet Yang, and she was telling me about different documentary ideas. One of them was the story of The Rose. She serves on boards with Transparent Arts, who manages the band, and they were telling her about this new group they had just signed. They explained how the band had their origins in the K-pop system but eventually dropped out. When Janet told me about the band, I thought it was such an interesting idea; it’s something I’ve always wondered about. When people are in that system, what happens when they get cut or decide to leave?

I was really interested in that potential story. Once I met with each of the members, I realized their story was so much more than just dropping out of the K-pop system to pursue music their own way. They were so willing to talk about their personal journeys and the challenges the band had faced over the years. I could see this would be a film about a journey and about a band that overcame massive obstacles to pursue their vision. The next step was finding a director. I had worked with Eugene on other projects and was a huge fan of his work on Free Chol Soo Lee. I felt it was vital to have a director who could speak with the band in both English and Korean. Thankfully, Eugene said yes.

Eugene Yi: I was thrilled when Diane reached out. Not just for the chance to work with her again, but because I’ve always been interested in Korean rock music. Growing up in L.A., K-pop was always around, but whenever I heard a Korean rock song, it made me perk up. I’d wonder why there wasn't more of that kind of music and what the stories were behind it.

DA: How long did the documentary take overall, and what the filming schedule was like?
DQ: We first met with [The Rose] in the summer of 2023 and started with preliminary Zooms to understand what their story could be and what their schedule looked like. We decided to start filming in late summer, just before they launched their U.S. tour. Since we weren't a big-budget production, we wanted to capture them while they were in the States rather than trying to follow them all over the world. A nice surprise during production was that they were asked to perform at Coachella. We followed them through that experience and did some final interviews in May [2025]. Overall, it was about ten months of filming, two months of prep, and many more months of editing before our Tribeca Film Festival premiere in 2025.

DA: I’m curious if you had a sense of the structure and the story you wanted to tell from the start, or did that shift during the observation and editing process?
EY: We had a general sense of the journey from our initial interviews and research, but some things remain notional until you really get into the edit. A lot of credit goes to our editor, David Simpson, who is a master of his craft. One of the early scenes he cut focused on the mental health conversation and the struggles one of the members went through. Seeing that come together gave us a feeling of joy and relief; it was the first sign that the film had a real emotional core we could build around.

Structurally, we worked on the opening until the very end. Sometimes you know the "lead" immediately, and other times you’re struggling with it until the deadline. We tried many versions, questioning how much we needed to introduce the band or explain their backstory to keep people watching. We decided that bookending the film with Coachella made the most sense. Explaining almost nothing at the start was the most powerful way in; it allows the audience to just enjoy the music and watch these guys rock out. You know their names, and really, that’s all you need. It underscores our message: the music is what matters. We wanted people to connect to the music first and use that as a doorway into their stories, leaning into the universality of the experience.

DA: I was curious about the choice to introduce the members by their English names. I’m guessing that was for Western audience appeal, but was that an easy decision initially? I know many fans first got to know them by their Korean names.
DQ: We knew from the start that once we made a decision, we had to be consistent. Even if they are calling each other by their Korean names on screen, we used the English names in the presentation to help audiences who don’t know the band keep track of who is who.

EY: It wasn't an easy decision. There’s always the question of which audience you are appealing to: the hardcore fandom, the broader K-pop audience, or a general audience? We hoped to appeal to the broadest audience possible, so we figured English names were the best way to do that. The "agonizing" part was deciding how many of their other names to add. At a certain point, it becomes a graphic design choice. It’s just a lot of text to have a name, a Korean name, and their role all on screen at once. It can pull you out of the story.

DQ: Also, when I first met them, they usually introduced themselves to me using their English names. Since I’m American, I got used to those names because that’s how they presented themselves to me. It was a hard choice, and hopefully, everyone understands.

EY: There are also intricacies to it—for members rooted in Korea, their Korean names are their day-to-day names. But for Woosung, "Sammy" is his day-to-day name, and "Woosung" is his performance name. We had to make decisions to streamline things so the audience wouldn't get confused.

DA: You mentioned the visual perspective, which leads me to the animated sequences. What led to the decision to use animation, and how did you select the emotional beats for that medium?
DQ: The idea was always in the back of our heads. When we started interviewing the band, they would describe memories that we simply didn't have visuals for. I remember Leo sharing a story about busking where he was so nervous he just closed his eyes and played. When he described it, I could feel the scene, but we had no way to show it. Eugene and I had used animation for memories in a previous film, AKA Mr. Chow, and it felt appropriate here. Additionally, the band loves animation; they use it in their music videos, and Woosung had mentioned early on that he’d love to see it in the film.

EY: Once we decided on animation, our main principle was balance. Each member would have one animated scene. We wanted to make sure that the members who were more comfortable speaking Korean had just as much screen time and attention as the others. We worked with an animator named Nayon Cho, who is dazzlingly talented. A neat part of the process was that the guys shared the mood board for their album DUAL with us. It had references to returning to childhood and getting back to basics. That resonated with us and the band very quickly, and it became a beautiful collaboration.