"My Mind Just Collapsed"... Zo In-sung and Park Jeong-min Open Up About the Underground Action Scene in "Humint" [Behind the Scenes]

[The Financial News] "In that moment, my mind completely collapsed."
Zo In-sung and Park Jeong-min, who perform demanding action scenes in the film "Humint," shared how extreme the conditions were when they shot the underground action sequence in the latter half of the movie.
Ahead of the film’s release, Park Jeong-min said in an interview held in Samcheong-dong, Jongno District, Seoul, that the underground action scene where he faces off two-on-one against the Russian mafia boss was the toughest part for him.
The scene leads directly into the final gunfight that closes the film, and he had to work in sync with foreign actors playing mafia members.
Park Jeong-min added, "It wasn’t so much that the action itself was difficult, but the shooting conditions were extremely harsh," explaining, "The character is trapped in an underground space, and in reality it felt so stifling it was hard to breathe."
Recalling that it was the same location where he once shot a bar scene with Jo Woo-jin for the film "Harbin," he said, "It wasn’t easy back then either, but this time I was in a much more sensitive state, so in many ways it was even harder."
At one point during the shoot, he even had a psychological breakdown and felt deeply disappointed in himself.
Park Jeong-min confessed, "For about an hour or two, I realized I wasn’t properly understanding what the director was saying and kept doing completely wrong things," and went on, "It was the most disappointed I’ve been in myself in recent years. The director’s eyes were basically asking, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ and it felt like every crew member was staring at me, so I was incredibly embarrassed."
The scene itself was relatively simple acting, involving subduing the mafia boss and escaping. "It wasn’t even a complicated action sequence, but my body just wouldn’t respond," he said. "When the shoot wrapped, I couldn’t bring myself to say goodbye to anyone and just went straight back to my lodging alone," he recalled, describing how devastated he felt at the time.
When asked how he managed to overcome it, he replied, "If someone recognizes that I’ve hit rock bottom, I can get back up again." He continued, "The director sensed that I wasn’t my usual self and quickly helped pull me back up. Sometimes actors get through those rough patches alone, and other times they rely on help from colleagues or the director," he said.

Zo In-sung, who shot the same sequence alongside him, also said it was a very difficult shoot.
He recalled, "The space was cramped and sealed off, and on top of that we had gunfire action, so the air was extremely stale," adding, "There were so many crew members packed inside, and the layout made it impossible to get away from it."
Zo In-sung likened the shoot to "a steep climb where you couldn’t even see the summit." "When you can see the end, you can stay calm, but with that scene, there was no end in sight," he said. "Still, I endured it by telling myself that spring eventually comes," he added with a laugh.
jashin@fnnews.com Shin Jin-ah Reporter