An unprecedented female character has been born in Korean film history. Actress Lee Hye-young (62), who possesses both charisma and class, has captured the heart of a 60-something female killer with her gray hair fluttering in the wind, who overpowers young men, in the film ‘Breakthrough’, which opens on May 1.

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by author Koo Byung-mo, ‘Breakthrough’ is a film that depicts the confrontation between Jo-gak (Lee Hye-young), a legendary killer who has been active for 40 years, and Tu-woo (Kim Sung-chul), a mysterious killer who has chased her all her life. Director Min Kyu-dong, who has elegantly captured the deep emotions of characters through ‘All About My Wife’, ‘Herstory’, is taking the megaphone, and this work is expected to exquisitely combine intense action and emotional waves.

Even before its release, the film was invited to major overseas film festivals, including the Berlin International Film Festival, one of the world‘s top three film festivals, and received favorable reviews early on, raising the expectations of potential audiences to the max.

In particular, the Executive Committee of the 43rd Brussels Fantastic Film Festival compared the character of a statue played by Lee Hye-young in the film to John Wick, the main character of the ‘John Wick’ series, which is considered the best killer action film in Hollywood, and praised it, saying, “Lee Hye-young’s passionate performance as a deadly old man who threatens John Wick and Director Min Kyu-dong‘s directing skills have completed a dazzling thriller.”

At the production conference held at Lotte Cinema Konkuk University Entrance in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul on the 27th, Lee Hye-young jokingly said, “There are so many good actors my age. I think the director cast me because I don’t get botox,” but Director Min emphasized that Lee Hye-young is a “one-of-a-kind actress” who can play the role of an “unprecedented 60-year-old female killer.”

“Actress Lee Hye-young is a mysterious actress who cannot be recognized at first glance, even though she is a Korean who came from our land and shares the same blood as me. I needed an actress with an aura like Lee Hye-young to play a rare and unique character like a statue. The moment I met actress Lee Hye-young, I knew it was fate in 3 seconds. It had the feel of a sculpture, as if it had already embodied the character in the movie.”

Lee Hye-young, who was in her 60s, said, “It was an honor to be able to take on a “new challenge” through a work like “Breakthrough.” “At first, I was scared of action. But when I got to the set, Director Min guided me so that I could do it all. I thought, ‘He has everything planned out.’”

“There are so many killer action movies out there, but our movie is a little different from other movies. It’s not the action in a typical action movie. I had to do the action with my body and my expressions, not with the body of an “action actor.” That’s why it was really hard and I got injured a lot, but after seeing the finished movie, I realized, ‘This is sculpture.’”


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.