Hitmaker Yoon Je-kyoon’s musical film ‘Hero’ to hit local theaters in December

Director Yoon Je-kyoon gives direction to musical actor Jung Sung-hwa, who plays protagonist Ahn Jung-geun in “Hero.” (CJ ENM)

The highly-anticipated musical film "Hero" directed by hit filmmaker Yoon Je-kyoon is slated to open in December, according to the film distributor CJ ENM.

Yoon has previously directed two megahit movies, “Tidal Wave” (2009) and “Ode to My Father” (2014), which attracted more than 10 million moviegoers.

Since the Hollywood science fiction film “Avatar: The Way of Water” directed by James Cameron is also expected hit theaters in December, the two films will likely compete for audiences.

Yoon’s film is a remake of the popular Korean musical theater piece of the same title about Ahn Jung-geun, a Korean independence activist famous for his assassination of Ito Hirobumi, the first resident governor of Korea under Japanese colonial rule.

Actor Jung Sung-hwa, who is known for his outstanding performance as the protagonist Ahn in the original musical, will also play the same role in the upcoming movie.

Along with Jung, Korean star actors including Kim Go-eun, Na Moon-hee, Lee Hyun-woo and Bae Jung-nam star in the musical film.

“Hero” dramatizes the final year of Ahn’s life, during which he assassinates Hirobumi. The assassination occurred in Harbin Station in northern China on Oct. 26, 1909, and Ahn was executed in a Japanese prison in China on March 26 the following year.

According to CJ ENM, the film was shot in both Korea and Latvia over three months from September to December back in 2019.

The initial plan was to release the film in 2020 in commemoration of the 110th anniversary of Ahn’s death. However, the film distributor was forced to make changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic which hit the local theaters hard.

"Hero" is also Yoon’s first film in eight years since “Ode to My Father.”

Meanwhile, Yoon has also begun working on the script for a global project called “K-Pop: Lost in America,” according to CJ ENM.

The project to make a movie about a K-pop boy band was initiated by Lynda Obst, a producer on the sci-fi flick “Interstellar,” and CJ Group executive Lee Mie-kyung, widely known as Miky Lee. Both Obst and Lee are big fans of K-pop music.

The movie centers around a K-pop boy band that is about to be introduced to the North American market. They are headed to Madison Square Garden in New York to perform when they accidentally become stuck in a village in Texas. To make matters worse, the band has no money or a phone.

Filming for “K-Pop: Lost in America” will begin in the first half of next year.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)