South Korean actor Lee Jung-jae hit a career high when he starred in globally successful Netflix show ‘Squid Game’, which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for. His star is still rising, as the veteran actor is set to make his directorial debut with ‘Hunt’.
Lee’s film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022, but in a recent report he has said that the movie has been reedited to add more context for the benefit of foreign viewers.
‘Hunt’ is a spy action movie set in the 1980s, and follows two intelligence agents — played by Lee and Kim Jung-do — who investigate each other in their attempts to find a mole in their organisation.
“When writing the script of ‘Hunt,’ I set younger generations in South Korea who learn about the era from history textbooks as the target audience. I thought foreign viewers would be the same,” Lee was quoted as saying by Yonhap News Agency.
“But at Cannes, about 30 per cent of foreign media reviews complained that it was hard for them to keep up with the story as they didn’t know about Korean politics in the 1980s. That was beyond my expectations.”
He added: “On my way back home from France, I changed some parts of lines. And then, I reedited the movie clip and asked actors to re-record the dialogues. Thanks to reactions at Cannes, I was able to make the revisions to help more viewers get a better understanding.”
Lee’s movie recently made headlines when its VIP premiere in Seoul attracted a number of high-profile stars including BTS singer Jin, actor Lee Min-ho and ‘Squid Game’ actors Wi Ha-joon, Heo Sung-tae, Jung Ho-yeon and Anupam Tripathi, among others.
