Three top actors team up for Korean film ‘Master’

SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) — “Master,” a Korean crime action film set to open next month, is one of the most-anticipated movies of the winter season for its star-studded cast.

It has Lee Byung-hun, Kang Dong-won and Kim Woo-bin, top actors who represent three different age groups in the Korean film industry.

The movie revolves around a multibillion-dollar heist plotted by Chairman Jin, a notorious swindler, and the head of the police’s intelligence crime unit who chase him. Jin’s right-hand man, who is an expert computer programmer, also has a big role.

Lee plays Chairman Jin, a charismatic businessman and master con artist who is good at changing his appearance and sweet talking people to get what he wants.

This marks his first villain role since director Kim Jee-woon’s “The Good, The Bad, The Weird,” released in 2008.

Actor Lee Byung-hun speaks during a news conference for “Master” at CGV-Apgujeong theater in southern Seoul on Nov. 14, 2016.

“I have played roles close to bad over the past several years. But this is my first time to play such a character who is evil to the bone since ‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird,’” Lee said during a news conference for the new film at CGV-Apgujeong theater in southern Seoul on Monday.

He excluded the T-1000 robot assassin he played in the Hollywood action film “Terminator Genisys” last year because it is not a human character.

Even for the veteran actor with more than 25 years of experience in his career, it was a challenge to play the Chairman Jin character.

“When actors play a character who is evil to the bone, it is difficult for them to have empathy with such a character. So they desperately strive to let themselves be persuaded by the character,” he said.

After many hours of study and discussions with the director, he reached the conclusion that Jin is a person who thinks differently from ordinary people and isn’t even aware that he is doing bad things. “I was able to act only after that,” he said.

Questioned if he was under pressure to do better than his previous work “Inside Men,” which was a big hit in the local market, Lee answered: “that’s inescapable, but actors better shake off that kind of pressure. It would be great if every film can do better than preceding one but that doesn’t happen in reality.”

He stressed that his character in the new film is as attractive as the vengeful political henchman Ahn Sang-gu in “Inside Men.”

“Jin has a different personality. Audiences would think he is a bad but interesting guy.”

“Master” also stars Kang as Kim Jae-myeong, a righteous police officer who tries to track down Jin as the head of the intelligence crime team at the National Police Agency and Kim Woo-bin as Park Jang-gun, Jin’s closest associate who is in charge of the company’s computer room.

Actor Kang Dong-won listens to questions from reporters during a news conference for “Master” at CGV-Apgujeong theater in southern Seoul on Nov. 14, 2016.

Kang made a 180-degree turnaround from his handsome swindler character in his previous film “A Violent Prosecutor” released last year.

For his first-ever police detective role, Kang had to do lots of action sequences. The sweltering summer weather however, often exhausted the entire cast and staff at the overseas filming location, the Philippines, according to him.

“I got sick for a day after every three days of filming there because of the weather,” he said.

He was also injured as a splinter of glass got lodged in his neck while filming a car-chase scene in the Southeast Asian country.

“I bled a lot at that time as pieces of broken glass covered my face… I cannot forget the director’s close-to-despair look at the time.”

“Master” was helmed by Cho Ui-seok, best known for “Cold Eyes,” which drew over 5 million viewers in 2013, and has actress Uhm Ji-won and actor Oh Dal-su in supporting roles.

The film is set to open in local theaters in December.

Actor Kim Woo-bin ascends the stage during a news conference for “Master” at CGV-Apgujeong theater in southern Seoul on Nov. 14, 2016.