‘Movie director’ Jang Hang-jun doesn‘t stop.

Jang Hang-jun, who has been active in the broadcasting industry with his unique entertainment sense and is loved as an ‘entertainer’, is also showing his presence as his main job, a ‘film director’, by showing three movies in theaters in two years. Recently, news of a new work boasting an extremely strong lineup including Yoo Hae-jin, Yoo Ji-tae, and Park Ji-hoon has been released, drawing attention.

According to the production company BA Entertainment, director Jang Hang-jun will be directing ‘The Man Who Lives with the King’, which will begin full-scale filming in the first half of next year. ‘The Man Living with the King’, which depicts the story of a village chief and the villagers who take care of a young king who was dethroned and exiled, is also drawing attention as Director Jang’s first historical drama.

Park Ji-hoon, who is receiving attention as a ‘rising star’ in the film industry, plays the young dethroned king, while Yoo Hae-jin and Yoo Ji-tae play the village chief of a mountain village and the most powerful person of the time, respectively. In addition to this, top scene-stealers such as Jeon Mi-do, Lee Joon-hyuk, and Park Ji-hwan will be appearing.

After presenting his first commercial feature-length film in six years last year with the sports film ‘Rebound’, Director Jang, who quickly announced news of his new work, has also shown meaningful steps toward expanding the foundation of Korean films by presenting meaningful works that break away from the grammar of commercial films one after another over the past two years.
The currently showing ‘The Killers’ is also a work that reveals such steps of his. This is an experimental work that combines four short films in which four film directors, including Director Jang, Lee Myung-se, Noh Deok, and Kim Jong-kwan, each reinterpret Ernest Hemingway‘s short story ‘The Murderers’ from their own perspectives. Director Jang directed the third episode, the suspense action film ‘Everyone is Waiting for Him’.

Director Jang said that he participated in this project out of respect and affection for Director Lee Myung-se, who is the general creator and directed the fourth episode ‘Silent Movie’, and said, “I thought this kind of project was a great opportunity that I would never have again”.

Last October, he presented the low-budget independent film ‘Open the Door’, which cost only about 700 million won, a tenth of the production cost of the previously presented ‘Rebound’ (7 billion won), and received favorable reviews.

Director Jang directed the third episode, the suspense action film ‘Everyone is Waiting for Him’. He also emphasized, “We need to make efforts to revive the pure spirit of challenge and loyalty of independent films, and we need to focus on the diversity and essence of stories,” while presenting the work that focuses on the ‘essence’ of the story instead of CG or location.


Reporter Seungmi Lee smlee@donga.com