'Assassin(s)' Yoo Hae-jin: "After seeing Uhm Ji-won's line, I wondered if I was actually the first choice for casting" [Interview]

[Financial News] "My husband is sooo handsome."
Hee-ja (Uhm Ji-won) says this while straightening the clothes of her husband, Cheol-gu (Yoo Hae-jin), in the Chuseok film 'Assassin(s),' which opened on the 23rd. Asked whether the line came from the original script, Yoo Hae-jin replied, "It must have come from the heart." He added, "It was originally in the script. When I saw it, I even wondered, 'Was I really the first choice for casting?'" His comment drew laughter.
Set in 1974, as industrialization progressed under the Yushin regime, 'Assassin(s)' portrays Cheol-gu and Hee-ja as an ordinary couple representing their era. Hee-ja is proud of her husband, a police officer, and takes devoted care of the families of Cheol-gu's colleagues as well. The everyday life of Cheol-gu, who had steadfastly protected his family, collapses after an incident at a Liberation Day ceremony. Deployed to the scene as part of a security detail, he witnesses gunfire and sees a colleague dragged away as authorities seek to assign responsibility. "Gunshots rang out even after Moon Tae-gwang was subdued." Troubled by what he witnessed, Cheol-gu begins tracing the truth behind the incident.
Directed by Hur Jin-ho, 'Assassin(s)' is inspired by the 1974 shooting of Yuk Young-soo. Yoo Hae-jin plays Cheol-gu, a detective at the scene, while Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho portray Jae-hwan, a newspaper social affairs editor pursuing the truth, and Young-il, a rookie reporter, respectively.
The first emotion Yoo Hae-jin felt after reading the screenplay was caution. The film was based on a real incident, and he had to portray an event that still leaves questions unanswered.
He recalled, "My strongest first impression was, 'This calls for great caution,'" adding, "I thought we needed to be even more careful."
Yoo Hae-jin was four years old in 1974 and said, "I have no memory whatsoever of the shooting of Yuk Young-soo." He added that he does remember being at a playground in his hometown of Cheongju when former President Park Chung-hee died in 1979.

The deeper Cheol-gu digs into the incident, the more he finds himself confronting the things he once believed. Yoo Hae-jin identified the character's emotional climax as the moment he looks at the Taegeukgi, South Korea's national flag, and then turns away. He said, "A person who had been a patriotic citizen feels despair," adding, "He experiences violence, but what matters is that he never loses sight of what the truth is."
Following '1987: When the Day Comes' and 'A Taxi Driver,' he once again played a character who pursues the truth. He said, "Part of me does want to do that," adding, "Expressing stories about the truth through films and bringing them to people—that may be one of the things I can do as an actor."

This was Yoo Hae-jin's first collaboration with director Hur Jin-ho. Yoo described Hur as someone who values the fundamentals but does not simply pass over familiar scenes.
It happened while filming a scene in which Cheol-gu walks down a hallway and enters a room. The camera was capturing Yoo Hae-jin from behind when Hur asked, "What would you be feeling at a moment like that?" Yoo recalled, "At first, I thought, 'Why is he asking me that when it's just my back?' It was something I had never considered." He continued, "When I saw that he was even curious about how I felt at the moment I walked down the hallway and entered the room, I thought, 'So this is how he works.'"
Speaking about Park Hae-il, his co-star, Yoo Hae-jin highlighted the actor's unchanging gaze. The two were working together for the second time after 'Moss.' Yoo said, "I thought his energy might have changed at least a little with time, but I wondered how he still had exactly the same gaze and energy," adding, "There aren't many actors who can express themselves with such steadfastness in their own way." He laughed as he recalled that Park Hae-il had also watched his performance closely on set.

With 'The King's Warden' in the first half of this year, Yoo Hae-jin scored his fifth film to surpass 10 million admissions, following 'The King and the Clown' (2005), 'Veteran' (2015), 'A Taxi Driver' (2017), and 'Exhuma' (2024).
Asked whether he felt pressure releasing a new film after the success of a movie that drew 10 million viewers, Yoo Hae-jin said, "There is pressure," but laughed as he added, "This time, having so many actors working with me, including Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho, helps ease it a little."
Yoo Hae-jin hoped the film would serve as an opportunity to reconsider a past incident. "If 'The King's Warden' was a film that allowed audiences to think about the untold story of Danjong based on historical records, I think this film may give them time to think once more about an incident that remains a question mark. I believe that, too, is one of the meaningful things cinema can do."

[email protected] Shin Jin-a Reporter