Actor Park Jung-min felt a sense of burden while playing the independence activist and essayist Song Mong-gyu in the 2016 film ‘Dongju’, which introduced him to the audience, and even thought, “Will I ever be able to play such a great real-life figure again?”. However, in ‘Harbin’, which was released on the 24th, he took on the role of a real-life figure and independence activist again after eight years, and delivered another unforgettable performance.

Park Jung-min, who played Woo Deok-soon, a comrade who provides greatest support to Ahn Jung-geun as he heads to Harbin for an uprising in 1909, said, “I didn‘t realize that independence fighters were also someone’s children, husbands, and family until I read the script for ‘Harbin’. “I wanted to convey through this piece that they were people before they were heroes,” he said with emphasis.

○ “The actors were really like ‘comrades,’ I felt a sense of camaraderie.”

Woo Deok-soon is a real person, but since there are few remaining historical materials, I approached her differently from other characters based on real people for which I can refer to various sources.

“I looked up trial records and other materials, but there wasn’t any meaningful material that could be applied to the movie, so I focused on the script and my interpretation. I felt that this character was not a special person, but rather someone who was always there when I turned my head. “I wanted to portray this person who was always there so we didn’t even know he was there, and who must have felt even lonelier because of that.”

Although the film was physically challenging, including filming battle scenes in temperatures as cold as -40 degrees Celsius, he laughed, saying, “Strangely enough, I don’t remember any of that difficulty now.”

“It was really cold and difficult, but now I only have good memories. Just like the comrades in the independence army in the film, all the actors and staff filmed with camaraderie as if we were comrades. I wondered if it was possible to feel like everyone was moving forward as one.”

○“I greatly rely on Hyun Bin”

Woo Deok-soon was the comrade who gave Ahn Jung-geun the most strength, but on set, he said that he relied heavily on his senior Hyun Bin, who played the role of Ahn Jung-geun.““(Hyun) Bin followed me around and asked me questions about this and that and relied on me at every moment, but I felt sorry for him later. I wondered if I had ever been a little bit of a help to my brother, who must have felt a great sense of responsibility and burden playing a great person known to all Korean citizens.”

He also recalled that his memories of filming with Jo Woo-jin, who played the independence fighter Kim Sang-hyun, with whom he had the most chemistry in the drama, were particularly special.”“Once, when we were talking about a scene we were acting together, he said, ‘This scene isn‘t going well. Let’s read it together in advance and make it better.’. It was the first time I heard a senior say to a junior, ‘It‘s not going well, so I want to make it with you.’. I wondered if I could have the courage to say that to a junior. I really respected that passion and attitude.”


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com