there are hurricane days Lee Jung-jae. A little over a year ago, he was a well-known actor, especially in his native South Korea and among the top masters of Asian cinema. and then it came ‘squid game‘, the most explosive success in its history Netflixis still the most watched TV show in its first twenty-eight days, according to data from the platform. No one saw it coming. So is Lee. Haven’t you figured out how to explain that to him yet? “If it’s been so successful around the world, it must be because people identify with it,” explains El Periódico de Catalunya of the Prensa Ibérica group. “Most of us live in a society where every two quarters we struggle to be a winner, to be better than others. People saw the show and knew how to tell what was going on in it.”
Lee recently won first place for his role as Seong Gi-hun, the 456th actor in this brutal and addictive (at least for the audience) test series with a history of violent capitalism. Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Seriessomething that had hitherto not been achieved by any actor in a non-English speaking series.
But the whirlpool we’re talking about doesn’t end there: If we have Lee ahead of us, it’s not to celebrate the crustacean phenomenon, his directorial debut, ‘Hunt’, a spy thriller that will hit our commercial cinemas in 2023 after spending these days in the Òrbita section of Sitges.
man of intuition
Set in the South Korea of the 1980s military regime, ‘The Hunt’ chronicles the attempt of two national security guards (Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung himself) to unmask the mysterious Donglim, a North Korean spy. ranks of the KCIA. Lee came to the project as an actor, but after suggesting some changes to the script, he also had the opportunity to direct it.
‘The Hunt’ rhymes with ‘Heat’ not just in the title: A shooting scene could go back to a Michael Mann classic. Lee admits that “it’s the same kind of violence and weapons” but that it wasn’t a conscious effect. In fact, if you try to get him to confess a clear reference, a style-level inspiration, you can only get one from him: his own intuition. “Everything is based on what I have to say. How can I express every idea? I couldn’t put into words that my style is based on it”.
More than thirty movies
Lee started out as a model before acting in television (he was in the successful TV series ‘Sandglass’) and made his film debut in the late nineties with ‘A Relationship’ followed by films such as the following. 2010 version of ‘The Maid’mega successful heist movie ‘Big Hit’, Award-winning ‘New world’ in Sitges or crazy ‘tension’ ‘Save us from evil’Written by ‘The Chaser’ screenwriter Hong Won-chan. There are more than thirty in total, which makes it hard to pick just one to recommend to new fans around the world: “They’re all like my fingers; I wouldn’t dream of picking any of the others apart,” she laughs. . Among the many directors he has worked with, he says he is particularly indebted to Bae Chang-ho, who gave him the opportunity to make his big screen debut with ‘The Young Man’.
we should see you soon ‘Acolyte’, ‘future series’Star wars‘ It takes place during the High Republic, a century before the Skywalker era. Is there anything you can tell us about this project without having legal problems? “You can’t talk about it. I can’t give details right now,” he agreed surprisingly.