Yeon Sang-ho "The late Kang Soo-yeon is the driving force behind 'Jung_E'"

Director Yeon Sang-ho revealed that Kang Soo-yeon was the driving force behind ‘Jeong-i’.

On the 12th, a production briefing session for the Netflix movie 'Jungi' was held at the entrance of Lotte Cinema Konkuk University in Jayang-dong, Seoul. Director Yeon Sang-ho and actors Kim Hyun-joo and Ryu Kyung-soo attended.

Kim Hyun-joo played the role of Jeong-i, a subject for brain cloning to develop the best combat AI. Jeongi is a former elite leader of the Allied Forces and a legendary mercenary who participated in numerous operations and led them to victory. He participated in the final bombing operation that could have ended the civil war that had lasted for decades, but the operation failed and he fell into a vegetative state. He becomes the subject of brain cloning to develop a combat AI that contains all of Jeongi's strategies, combat skills, strong loyalty and will. Ryu Kyung-soo played Sang-hoon, the head of a research center who must succeed in developing combat AI.

This work is also the posthumous work of the late Kang Soo-yeon. Kang Soo-yeon takes on the role of Yoon Seo-hyeon, a team leader at a research lab that develops brain cloning and AI technology. Seohyun is also the daughter of the human Jeongi.

Director Yeon Sang-ho talked about the process of casting Kang Soo-yeon. He said, "I like writing things like stories. When I wrote 'Jeong-i', I didn't write it with the intention of turning it into a movie. I was skeptical about the script. Science fiction movies are rare in Korea and have a considerable budget. In Korea, “It should be a general entertainment story, but I thought ‘Jeong-i’ was the personal story of a character named Yoon Seo-hyun. I was not obsessed with making it into a movie because I thought about whether the film industry could make this,” he said. He continued, "I wondered who could play Yoon Seo-hyun if I were to make a movie, but suddenly Kang Soo-yeon came to mind. From then on, my desire to make 'Jeong-i' into a movie became stronger. I think it was while filming 'Hell'. I decided to make 'Jeong-i' into a movie. “I didn’t plan on doing it, but on set, I asked Kim Hyun-joo what she thought about Kang Soo-yeon.” He then emphasized, “Senior Kang Soo-yeon is the driving force that brought this movie to this point.”

'Jeong-i' is a science fiction film that tells the story of people trying to develop the best combat AI by cloning the brain of the legendary mercenary 'Jeong-i' in order to end the war that broke out in the shelter where they migrated away from the Earth devastated by climate change. It will be released on the 20th.

Kim Ji-won, Ten Asia reporter bella@tenasia.co.kr