Actor Lee Byung-hun shared his thoughts on playing the 9th dan Cho Hun-hyun, a legend of Korean Baduk.

‘Match’, which will be released on the 26th, is based on a true story and tells the story of Cho Hun-hyun (Lee Byung-hun), the greatest Go legend in Korea, who, after losing to his student, challenges the top once again with his innate competitive spirit.

Lee Byung-hun, who plays the lead role, said at a press and distribution preview held at CGV Yongsan I-Park Mall in Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 19th, “After reading the script and watching various documentary footage related to the true story of the movie, I couldn‘t believe that something this dramatic was based on a true story.”

He continued, “I decided to do it because I thought it was interesting that the two legends had these stories and went through these processes, but when I was actually filming, the most important thing was that I had to spend almost all of my time in front of the Baduk board with almost no expression of emotion. “It wasn’t easy,” he said, adding, “There must have been explosive emotions and despairing emotions in that expressionless and static state, so I was careful to express those emotions in a still state.”

Lee Byung-hun also told an episode where he met and talked with Cho Hun-hyun 9-dan in person, saying, “Actually, when I was filming the drama ‘All In,’ I heard that Mr. Cha Min-soo (poker player), who was the real-life model for the main character, and Mr. Cho Hun-hyun were close friends. This time, Mr. Cho Hun-hyun also talked about Mr. Cha Min-soo and said that they were close friends since childhood.”

He added, “In fact, ‘All In,’ which deals with gamblers, is also a story about competition and the gambler, so in some ways, ‘All In’ and ‘Competition’ seem to have something in common.”


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.