Yoo Hae-jin played Detective Park Cheol-gu, who pursues the truth behind the 1974 August 15 incident, in the film ‘Assassins.’
Although the film is based on an actual historical event, Yoo Hae-jin said he placed more weight on creating the circumstances and emotions facing the character than on reproducing the facts.
What he repeatedly mentioned was the question that an ordinary person holds onto until the end amid a monumental event.
3-Line Summary
1. Yoo Hae-jin played Detective Park Cheol-gu
2. The backdrop is the 1974 August 15 incident
3. Distinguishing history from film is important
Cheol-gu Is a Detective Swept Up in a Monumental Event
According to KBS News, Park Cheol-gu, played by Yoo Hae-jin, is a Jungbu Station detective who pursues the truth after seeing a colleague being driven into the position of being responsible for the incident. The film was introduced as a story in which Cheol-gu, newspaper reporter Jae-hwan, and Young-il each approach the reality of the incident.
In an interview, Yoo Hae-jin did not describe Cheol-gu as a hero guided only by a great cause. He said the character is an ordinary person who makes a living serving the country and tries not to let go of the truth even while experiencing oppression and violence. It is a setup that allows viewers to encounter a monumental historical event by following one person’s choices and hardships.
The incident in the film is based on the shooting of the First Lady at the Liberation Day celebration ceremony on 1974 August 15. However, the work was introduced as a thriller that explores the circumstances behind the event through imagination, rather than transferring the historical facts themselves like a documentary. Yoo Hae-jin also stated that the film could tell a story different from history, and that rather than studying history in depth, he determines the scope needed for the screenplay.
He Tried to Convey the Script’s Question Marks to the Audience
Yoo Hae-jin told iMBC Entertainment that, because he believed unfamiliar or difficult-to-understand expressions should be conveyed simply to the audience, he proposed that the production team revise details such as the expressions for bullets, cartridges, and bullet marks. His intention was that, because the subject matter was sensitive, even each individual expression required caution.
The standard he considered important was the perspective he had when he first read the script. He explained that every production involves a process in which the director and production team continually align themselves with that perspective. The anecdote that director Hur Jin-ho asked about the character’s feelings and purpose even in a shot of the character walking down a hallway shows that this project built the character’s inner life in detail rather than prioritizing information about the incident.
Yoo Hae-jin also said that it is right to view the screenplay from the audience’s perspective. This means that the characters in the work should not appear like devices within a film, but should feel like people who could plausibly be nearby. Therefore, when watching ‘Assassins,’ following why Cheol-gu begins to question things and what he endures is closer to the nature of the work than accepting it as a film that definitively determines the incident’s conclusion.
At the time of reports in September, the film was introduced as a scheduled release for September 23. Box-office performance or audience reactions after its release were not included in the content confirmed this time.
References
Tags #YooHae-jin #Assassins #YooHae-jinAssassins #YooHae-jinFilm #ParkCheol-gu #DirectorHurJin-ho #ParkHae-il #LeeMin-ho #KoreanFilm #ChuseokFilm #HistoricalFilm #FilmInterview