Actor Lee Je-Hoon will play the role of Park Yeol, an anarchist and famous Korean independence fighter against Japanese imperial rule in the 1920’s. The movie will be directed by Lee Joon-Ik.
In an interview with Yonhap News Agency director Lee revealed his main reason to cast Je-Hoon is because of his similarity with Park Yeol.
“He has a passionate and explosive character, which resembles Park Yeol in many ways,” director Lee said.
Director Lee is an acclaimed movie director and producer who often produces and directs historical movies. His recent project was a biographical drama called “Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet.” The movie tells the history of poet Yun Dong-Joo, who was imprisoned for his involvement in the Korean independence movement while he was studying in Kyoto, Japan in 1943.
Je-Hoon gained his fame in the 2011 when he played the younger version of Uhm Tae-Woong in the movie “Architecture 101” according to Wide Coverage. Last year he played detective Park Hae-Young in the award winning thriller drama “Signal.”
Playing the legendary independence fighter Park Yeol will be a challenging role for Je-Hoon. Park is one of the prominent Korean independence figures that started the new Korean anarchist movement against Japanese imperial rule in the early 1920’s.
Park initiated his anarchist movement when he studied in Japan. He established an anarchist group called "Futeisha," which literally mean Outlaw, under a mock Japanese nickname for Korean people, "Futei Senjin." His movement was focused on sabotage on Japanese government infrastructure.
During his struggle in the independence movement, Park met his lifelong lover, a Japanese woman who was born from a illegitimate samurai wife Fumiko Kaneko. She was considered an outcast in Japan and they got along very well.
Park and Kaneko were arrested in 1923 and charged with high treason for arranging a plot to murder Crown Prince Hirohito. Park was sentenced to life in prison. In 1945, after the end of World War II, Park was released and return to Korea until his death in 1974.
In order to refresh the memory of Lee Je-Hon, watch the footage from the award winning tvN drama “Signal” below:
