China-born, ethnic Korean Zhang Lu was a professor of Chinese literature at Yanbian University when he made his first short film at 38-years-old after betting a director friend that "anyone can make a film." The near-silent, experimental Eleven (2000) competed at the Venice International Film Festival. The success secured him funding from South Korea for his first feature, Tang Poetry (2003), about the claustrophobic life of a middle-aged pickpocket during the SARS crisis. His third feature, Desert Dream (2007), set on the China-Mongolia border, competed at the Berlin International Film Festival, finally securing his reputation as an international film auteur. Since moving to South Korea in 2012, where he is currently professor of film studies at Yonsei University, his films have become lighter and more playful in tone. He describes his new film, A Quiet Dream (2016), as "more audience-friendly and fun than my previous works.".

Han Ye-ri started her career acting in shorts before gaining recognition in 2012 for her supporting role in high-stakes sports drama As One. Her performance as Bae Doona's North Korean roommate secured her Best New Actress at the 2013 Baeksang Arts Awards. The following year, she played the blue-dressed, ever-present dead wife in Dear Dolphin and had her first leading role as the bullied schoolgirl befriended by a handsome North Korean assassin in Commitment. In 2013 she also started filming Haemoo, as the stowaway on a trawler whose rescue-at-sea is the catalyst for great tragedy. It cemented her reputation as one of South Korea's most promising new talents, able to tackle any role. She has contined to elude easy classification with roles in unconventional romances Love Guide for Dumpees and Worst Woman. In A Quiet Life she plays another outsider, Chinese-Korean muse to three misfit hustlers at her rundown bar.