Lee Hae-jun studied advertising at Seoul Institute of the Arts, but he soon made a name for himself in the Korean film industry for writing screenplays in various genres, such as Kim Jee-woon's vampire short film Coming Out, Jo Keun-shik's 1980s-set high school comedy Conduct Zero (2002), Kim Jin-min's small-town romance Au Revoir, UFO (2004), and Yim Pil-sung's psychological thriller Antarctic Journal (2005).

[1] In 2006, he and Lee Hae-young co-wrote and co-directed the coming-of-age film Like a Virgin, in which Ryu Deok-hwan played an overweight trans woman teenager who idolizes Madonna and joins the high school ssireum team, hoping to use the prize money, if they win the national tournament, for sex change surgery.

[7] Three years later, Lee made his first solo directorial effort Castaway on the Moon (2009), in which he continued whimsically exploring themes of alienation in modern life.

I had to understand the fact that my interests don't always match the audience's, and there was also the pressure of making a return on the investments in my film.

[17] Set in the 1970s, the film is about a bit part theater actor (played by Sol) whom the Korean Central Intelligence Agency hires as the body double for Kim Il Sung in the rehearsals for a historic North-South summit between Kim and Park Chung Hee.