After starring in the hit Netflix Korean series “Squid Game,” Korean actor Lee Jung-jae is in France for the movie “Hunt,” his directorial debut, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
“Hunt” was selected by the Cannes Film Festival for the Out of Competition-Midnight Screenings.
Set in the 1980s, the movie stars Lee Jung-jae (in the role of Park Pyong-ho) and Jung Woo-sung (Kim Jung-do), who are members of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) “tasked with finding a mole within the agency, and learn of a grand plot to assassinate the South Korean president in this spy action drama.”
Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung had a photocall with the press at Cannes on May 19. “Hunt” was screened at the Grand Theatre Lumiere on the same day.
According to Lee Jung-jae, he went to the Cannes Film Festival 12 years ago through the film “The Housemaid.”
“It was so cool. I would love to visit as a person in the movie industry. I went there once at the time. I had a thought like ‘Could I come here once again?’ I’ll go as a director. Personally, I’m so grateful for it,” he said in a video by Artist Company.
Lee Jung-jae described “Hunt” as “an espionage action film, and it tells the story of people who feel conflicted regarding their beliefs and principles,” according to the press kit.
He said “Hunt” is different from other spy films.
“Of course spectacular action sequences play an important part in the film, but I also wanted to make sure that the audience’s attention was held by a story that had plot twists within plot twists, and to be invested in how the two characters decide on their fates. I wanted to make a film that is filled with large and small plot twists that reinforce each other, creating great tension,” he said.
With many films focusing on the relationship between North and South Korea, Lee Jung-jae said “Hunt” is “more about people who are working to right their ill-conceived ideologies, rather than to tell a story about North and South Korea.“