WON Shin-yun’s latest feature The Suspect had its first ‘live showcase’ through a portal site film premiere on November 26th. Actors GONG Yoo, known for hit the TV drama Coffee Prince and film Silenced (2011), PARK Hee-soon and CHO Seong-ha, along with the filmmaker, attended the event. Director WON entered the film scene with his impressive crime comedy A Bloody Aria (2006) and raised public attention once again with his 2007 feature 7 Days starring KIM Yun-jin. Later he kept a low profile for a while as he worked on a live action version of popular animation series Robot Taekwon V, which was ultimately shelved.

 

Made on a budget of approx. USD 9 million, the large-scale The Suspect positions itself as a ‘high-speed action’ film dealing with the story of elite special agent JEE Dong-chul (played by GONG Yoo) who pursues a killer that framed him and murdered his family. On the main character Dong-chul, WON explains, “he is the kind of character who bulldozes ahead in one direction” also adding that “although the amount of his lines may be limited to a maximum of two pages, he possesses a sensitivity that is expressed through his body language and emotional nuances.”

 

In order to perform the highly-skilled action scenes with JEE Dong-chul, actor GONG Yoo received training in North Korean martial arts, rock-climbing and car chasing as well as jumping of a bridge into the Han River. “The director related his point-of-view on this film during our first meeting and this made me decide to work on the film. Although it falls into the action genre, it has a tightly-woven drama which makes it not just a film with action-packed spectacle, but also humanism” stated GONG Yoo with confidence on the film. The long awaited return of filmmaker WON and his collaboration with the leading man of romantic comedies GONG Yoo raises great expectations for The Suspect, which will be released in Korea on December 24th.