Top actors Hyun Bin and Song Joong-ki will be engaging in a fierce year-end ‘box office competition’ with the mega blockbusters ‘Harbin’ and ‘Bogota’ opening just one week apart on the 24th and 31st. As you can see from the titles that feature specific regional names, both films are masterpieces completed through large-scale overseas location shooting. Hyun Bin and Song Joong-ki will be appearing on a TV variety show for the first time in years and will also compete with each other on all-out promotions to ensure the success of their movies.

○The nobility of Ahn Jung-geun that Hyun Bin will portray

‘Harbin’, in which Hyun Bin collaborated with director Woo Min-ho of ‘Inside Men’‘The Man Standing Next’, depicts the life-threatening journey of Ahn Jung-geun to Harbin in 1909 for independence activists and other activists, traveling between Mongolia, Latvia, and Korea. For the overseas location shooting, which is equivalent to two and a half times around the Earth, 30 billion won, the largest production cost for a Korean film released this year, was invested.

Hyun Bin, who plays the role of Ahn Jung-geun, a lieutenant general of the Korean volunteer army and the most respected independence fighter by the Korean people, and who has captured not only Ahn Jung-geun the fighter but also ‘the human Ahn Jung-geun’, said, “I acted with all my heart and soul” and “It is a great blessing to have the opportunity to play such a righteous person.”

To promote the film, Hyun Bin has decided to actively participate in entertainment shows, which he had previously avoided, by appearing on TV shows such as tvN‘s ‘You Quiz on the Block’ and Shin Dong-yup’s ‘Salty Brothers’ as well as YouTube. In the case of ‘You Quiz on the Block’, it is his first TV talk show in 13 years since ‘Taxi’ in 2011, and he announced that he will share honest stories about his married life with his wife Son Ye-jin.

○Song Joong-ki, a story of desire.

‘Bogota’, starring Song Joong-ki, depicts the fierce survival story of a man who heads to Bogota, Colombia, on the other side of the globe with new hope right after the IMF crisis. In order to keep the film realistic, set filming was minimized and most of the filming was done in Bogota, Colombia, a first for a Korean film. The production cost alone amounts to 15 billion won.

Song Joong-ki, who plays the protagonist Gook-hee who dreams of the highest places from the lowest, completed a wide-ranging life drama in which he directly acts out scenes from an innocent teenager to a person in his 30s. Song Joong-ki said, “This is my first time acting out such a long narrative for a single character,” and expressed his confidence that he will “show the character‘s desires that boil like lava.”

Like Hyun Bin, Song Joong-ki plans to appear on various entertainment shows for the first time in nine years since leaving ‘Running Man’ in January 2016 to promote this movie. He will appear on JTBC’s ‘Please Take Care of My Refrigerator’, KBS2‘s ‘The Seasons - Lee Young-ji’s Rainbow’, as well as YouTube entertainment shows ‘Salon Drip 2’‘Hello, This is Choi Hwa-jung’, etc.



Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com