Actor Yoo Hae-jin as King Injo ′I can′t believe I′m playing a king′

▲This photo, provided by NEW, shows movie 'The Owl.' (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, October 18 (Yonhap) -- Actor Yoo Hae-jin will be playing as a king in the Joseon Dynasty in the movie "The Owl."

On October 18, at the press conference for the film "The Owl," held at the CGV Yongsan I-park mall in Seoul, Yoo Hae-jin said, "I can't believe I'm playing a king. I enjoyed it and it was a new experience," and expressed how he felt playing a king for the first time.

"I started acting with the thought that I wanted to build another image of a king, which is different from the usual kings. I wished I could put in more color of myself. I wanted to follow the psychological parts, and appearance wise, I tried to express the (emotions) with the shiver of my face, and more."

The movie "The Owl," which will be released on November 23, is a mystery thriller depicting a story about a fortune teller who is able to see only at night, witnessing the death of the crown prince.

Actor Yoo Hae-jin will be playing King Injo, who goes insane after losing his son, and actor Ryu Jun-yeol will be playing Kyeong Soo, the blind fortune teller. Choi Moo-sung will be playing Lee Hyung-ik, the king's doctor, Cho Sung-ha will be playing Choi Dae-gam, the prime minister, and Park Myung-hoon will be playing Mansik, the worker in the pharmacy who helps Kyeong-soo.

Director An Tae-jin said, "I suggested Yoo Hae-jin for the role because I thought it would be different if he played the role of a king. Ryu Jun-yeol was the actor I always wanted to work with for a thriller movie because I always thought that he goes well with these movies," and explained why he selected the actors.

It is the third movie where Ryu Jun-yeol and Yoo Hae-jin star together after the movies "A Taxi Driver" (2017) and "The Battle: Roar to Victory" (2019).

"I think we're meant to be," Yoo Hae-jin said, adding, "I enjoyed working with him because it felt like his acting was getting better."

Rye Jun-yeol responded by saying, "It is such a miracle that I'm working on my third film with someone whom I've always been a fan of as an audience, even before my debut," and added, "I wish we could work together for our next piece as well."

The movie used the subject of "day blindness." Director Ahn said, "I was offered a piece called Joo Maeng Jeung (day blindness in Korean) four years ago, and it was so interesting that I wrote a scenario and directed it."

"We had to interview someone who actually has day blindness because there were no other movies that dealt with day blindness. We tried our best to express how they see the world."

Ryu Jun-yeol said regarding playing a character who has day blindness, "It was a challenge," and added, "I spent time with blind people to observe their special features, and how to express it as an actor, and asked for advice as well."

He, who tried to look ahead with a blurry focus for acting, laughed while saying, "My eyes still don't focus well without concentration."

The movie "The Owl" is the director's first long commercial movie, The director of the movie was the assistant director of the movie "The Royal Jester," and he said, "I concluded that the audience should fully immerse in the setting of the movie (in the movie), for them to feel more thrill and enjoyment," and added, "We paid attention to the historical evidence and tried our best to show realistic art and costumes."

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Dowon Kim.)

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Actor Yoo Hae-jin as King Injo 'I can't believe I'm playing a king'