Lee Hye-young(62)and Kim Seong-cheol(33)displayed an unprecedented action showdown that transcended age in the film ‘Breakthrough’, which was invited to prestigious film festivals and received rave reviews even before its release.

In ‘Breakthrough’, based on the best-selling novel of the same name, the two play the mysterious young killer Touwu who searches for the pieces of the legendary female killer in her 60s.The two, who delicately portrayed the mysterious love-hate relationship that shows compassion and affection as well as fiercely fighting each other with swords pointed at each other, smiled as they gave each other credit for the film’s rave reviews.

O “Teacher Lee Hye-young, in reality, she looks like a girl”

Kim Sung-chul, who chose this film without much hesitation, said that the premise of a 60-year-old female killer meeting a 30-year-old male killer was appealing in itself.In particular, when he heard that Lee Hye-young would be playing the role of Jo-gak, he said, “I thought she was perfect, like meeting the epitome of mathematics,” and “I didn’t feel much pressure about acting with a senior actress who is much older than me.”

“I didn’t feel any generation gap with Professor Lee Hye-young.Of course, there is a generation gap between the human Kim Seong-cheol and the professor, but I think that such a gap doesn’t exist when we meet in the work.On the contrary, I really enjoyed hearing stories about the past film sets from the professor.It felt like I was in the movie ‘Midnight in Paris’ where I met and talked with artists from the past generation.”

The biggest reason I was able to get along with Lee Hye-young without any difficulties was “the affectionate care of my senior who treated me without formality.”
It was also cited as “attitude”.

“I thought he would be a very ‘sword-like’ person in real life because he often showed such a charismatic appearance in his works.But in reality, he is really like a girl.Whenever we met, he always called me ‘our beautiful Seongcheol.’ I always wanted to be a cool adult, and teacher Lee Hye-young is that cool adult.Teacher Lee became my role model.”

O “Attracted to characters with deficiencies”

However, he looked back and said that the filming process, which required a rough fight with a senior actor who was not accustomed to action scenes, was not easy.

“I was cautious.I like to use my body a lot, and my reaction speed is faster than others.I said I would do it with less strength, but the teacher often said, ‘Seongcheol, relax a little.’ I tried to balance my strength with the teacher.”

Having played a cult leader and a twisted pastor on a personal vendetta in ‘Hellbound’ and ‘No Way Out: The Roulette’ respectively, and now a mysterious killer in ‘Breakthrough’, he has shown a series of unique and intense characters, and has also revealed his affection for ‘characters with deficiencies’.

“After filming ‘Hell’, I thought that I wanted to do more intense characters like this while I still had this kind of energy.I thought I could do better if I met a character with this kind of tempo again.It’s more fun to act out characters with a lot of deficiency.I’m a person with a lot of energy, so I like characters that release energy.However, after ‘Breakthrough’, I also want to meet lovable and cute roles.”


Reporter Seungmi smlee@donga.com

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